IDF-defined MetS was more predictive of CVEs than AHA/NHLBI-defined MetS. Of the MetS components, abdominal obesity was the single most significant predictor of CVEs in chronic HD patients.

In this paper, an energy-measurement-IC-based digital power meter is developed with demand control function for residential electrical energy management through wireless Zigbee and Internet. Several developed micro-controller-based modules are incorporated into this residential energy management system for demand control, such as infrared-controller module, infrared-learning module, and infrared-controlled switch module. This system can send the measured electricity utilization data through Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Internet to the remote server. The user can also control at any time the loads (appliances) at home through any computer or smart phone that is connected to the Internet.

There are in total about 1.9 million air conditioners (ACs) in Taiwan, and during the summer time the energy consumption of these ACs is about 30% of total country energy consumption. Therefore, effective energy management of these ACs is an essential task to energy saving and carbon reduction. The purpose of this paper is thus to design and to develop an energy billing and demand control system for buildings with aggregated ACs, such as schools, company offices, factories, apartments, etc. The system presented in this paper consists of a power meter, an RFID billing reader, and a demand control module with infrared remote control and relay control. Computer GUI for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and energy management is also developed. Based on the experimental results, the demand variations of ACs indeed follow the commands sent from the presented system, and the fluctuation of the room temperature is not large during the demand control period.

Wind power has been recognized as one of the important green energy resources in Taiwan. However, installing large-capacity wind generators needs to meet many environmental regulations, limiting the penetration of wind power to households/communities. In this paper, the design of a novel double-deck vertical-axis wind generator for households is presented, hoping “many a little makes a mickle” and making better use of green energy to reduce carbon emission. The proposed wind generator is an axial-flux permanent-magnet (PM) synchronous generator, which design is different from other existing wind generators in several aspects: (1) double decks for double wind turbines vs. single turbine, (2) silicon-steel-lamination-cored vs. air-cored for armature coils, and (3) axial-flux PM generator vs. conventional PM generator. The performance of the proposed design is simulated with the aid of a finite element software package. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation. The prototype of the proposed wind generator is also compared with a commercial mini wind generator on the market. The proposed wind generator produces satisfactory results.

Most home electric appliances have standby energy waste when they are at idle mode. This standby energy is about 3% to 11% of total household electricity consumption. For several millions of households in Taiwan, this standby energy would cause billion dollars of waste per year. Therefore, in this paper we propose a standby-energy-saving socket using a microcontroller unit (MCU) to reduce the standby-energy waste. The user can start up this standby-energy-saving socket to supply power to appliances through the appliances infrared remote control or the button on the socket. When the appliances enter into the standby mode, the current sensor in the socket automatically detects it and the MCU turns off the power through a relay to reduce the standby power to zero. Based on the test, the MCU in the proposed standby-energy-saving socket only consumes about 3 mW when the socket is at sleep mode, 6 mW at working mode. The cost of this proposed socket is $9. The standby-energy saving tested on a PC is reduced by 99.93%.