Electrimetric

Cool reminder stickers

2011-01-18T17:10:00.001-08:00

Check out these cool stickers http://www.hu2.com/store/eco-reminders.html

They have less preachy ones too. Very cool. Some of the stickers are designed for the square european format light switches, and some are more generic.

Zoom into your Roof: Checking the Thermal Performance of Home Roofs

2010-07-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Zoom into your Roof: Checking the Thermal Performance of Home Roofs: "

Information Aesthetics (a great blog by the way) has an interesting post on insulation. There's a high activation energy for people to determine whether or not they have appropriate insulation. Either you need to climb around in your attic and have a practiced eye and know about R values of insulation, construction and so on, or you have to pay an expensive consultant. But here's a way a group quickly and cheaply (spread across everybody's energy savings) found a way to get past that activation energy.

"Out of most existing buildings, a significant amount of heat escapes unnecessarily, out of which at least 30% is typically emitted through the roof construction. Many governments throughout the world attempt to tackle this problem by supporting the insulation of roofs through rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives. But how can individual citizens determine whether such a costly renovation is worthwhile for their own house? The online project 'Zoom into Your Roof' [antwerpen.be] tries to help solve this question through a relatively simple visualization. During the winter of 2009, a small airplane with an infrared scanner made a wide sweeping thermal scan of a large part of Belgium, which resulted in the largest thermographic map currently available online. Inhabitants living within this area are able to select their home address and answer a few questions (such as the angle of the roof). in order to determine for themselves how their own roofs actually perform."

Belkin gets in to energy saving accessories in a big way

2010-07-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've been holding off posting about belkin's products that are in their eco line because it seemed that the money you spent on the expensive products would be more than you could possibly save. However, they have now launched a competitor to the kill-a-watt and added a number of items to the line that I think are more reasonably priced. They also seem to be getting in to the space in a big way so maybe prices will get driven down.

Here's a link to their products at amazon Belkin Conserve products

Probably most interesting is the outlet with built in timer for only $9.99
You can set it to 1/2 hour, 3 hours or 6 hours. This way your phone can get charged without continuing to charge all night. Or as they put it (paraphrasing) you don't burn down your house with your curling iron.

Here's their kill-a-watt competitor:

It's more stylish, comes preloaded with average us electricity cost and does the total cost over time as well.

Their remote controlled power strip has been out for a while and seems a bit over priced to me. Which uses more resources this $30 strip or a $2 strip from ikea. Of course the belkin has a nice light switch looking control to help you to not have to walk over to the power strip to turn it off.

Finally they have an auto switched strip, that senses load on one of the outlets and turns the others off. They suggest having the tv in the sensor spot and turning off game consoles stereos etc when the tv is off. There's nothing new here but belkin has more style and marketing reach so maybe more people will start using these when they see them in costco or bestbuy

Anyway, I have no association with belkin and haven't actually used them myself so fair warning, just thought I'd mention them here.

Remember as we hit the summer in the northern hemisphere, the biggest energy saver your can easily do is use your air conditioning less. Get a wet towel and drape it on your forehead for your own personal swamp cooler :)

led motion sensors that fade in and out

2009-04-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

As I have previously expressed, I have wished for motion sensor lights that fade in and fade out (so they aren't as jarring). I think this way people would be more willing to embrace motion sensors, and thus not leave lights on in a room that the might come back to shortly.

Make magazine has a question from "Shawin" on their website on how to make one of these yourself. He asks:
"We are renovating an old house we just bought and I wanted to have the rooms fitted with motion-sensors so that lights automatically turn on when someone walks in, and off when the room is empty. The problem is that I want the lights to fade-in/out instead of suddenly turning on/off.
Can someone please tell me how to do that? Are there existing switches that I could use?"
There are some suggested approaches on how to do this but no existing products mentioned.

For those of the less diy electronics set I found some ledon the web:

Philips Stumblelight:
"Upon detecting motion at night, StumbleLight instantly provides light at full intensity for 12 seconds and, if no motion is detected after 12 seconds, will slowly fade from full intensity to off."
Philips press release

Ecopaball:
"Light fades out gently when no motion is detected
No wiring required (requires 4C sized batteries)
Minimal battery consumption provides up to 6 months use
Only works at night due to a built in a photo sensor"

Most of the motion sensor lights I found have a limited motion sensor range. Some add infrared detection to the motion to reduce false activations. Many turn off after thirty seconds (not really long enough in my book as there are too many things for people to stand behind in a house for 30 seconds)

Some have a photo cell so they don't waste energy turning on when it's light out.

This one glows dimly then turns on full bright when it senses motion

So does the 2nd one and it also has a photo cell

Stairs product from smart home depected at top

Many of the ones I have bought suffer from being too dim and a lot of the reviews agree.

One note for those making their own with motion sensor switches, using LEDs will give you a much nicer experience than fluorescents because they don't have the pause and flicker on turn on. LEDs are being used for brake lights because they turn on so fast (of course I'm asking for gradual turn on which doesn't require fast, but if there is a pause before it starts to do anything people think the motion sensor isn't working and get annoyed)

On amazon I found a motion sensor LED light that advertised:
"the sudden activation startles unwanted visitors but also provides safe entrance and room lighting for your family and guests."
Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

chinese researchers improve white LEDs

2009-04-09T10:49:00.001-07:00

The article claims they are making them cheaper but doesn't really discuss it much other than mentioning using plastic like materials. They do state they have made them put out 50% more light (so I guess you can claim you'd need fewer LEDs per bulb and thus cheaper, though it seems a lot of the cost is in the power control circuitry)

Also of quantitative energy measurement interest, they state below that 20% of electricity is used for lighting, They also quote the DOE saying LEDs could save 30% of energy consumption.

Uhhh...

Maybe I'm not getting it, but it seems to me if you assume that LEDs use 0 energy, and replace all lights, if you believe the first number that would only reduce our energy consumption by 20%.

clipped from www.dailytech.com

Chinese researchers have LED manufacturing breakthrough that could lead to new white LEDs for indoor use

It's believed about 20 percent of all electricity used across the world is currently used to light homes, businesses and other buildings. For households and buildings still using incandescent bulbs, it's possible 95 percent of the energy flowing through them is being wasted.

Furthermore, the US Department of Energy previously said LEDs could help reduce the country's national energy consumption by 30 percent by 2025. If true, that will help households in the U.S. save $125 billion total in power bills per year.

Chinese researchers are working on a new LED that consists of cheap, inexpensive plastic-like organic materials that could help boost efficiency. The new "tandem" structure allows it to produce up to 50 percent more light as LEDs used today, including white light that is necessary in homes and businesses.

CFL power factor hidden energy cost

2009-04-08T18:16:00.001-07:00

Slashdot has a post commenting that due to the power factor of the CFL bulbs utilties are having to use a lot more resources than you think to power the bulb. LEDs have a near perfect power factor according to this article http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/299821/LED+is+the+answer+.htm which jives with my very limited memory of EE. Still though you are still using less resources with CFL (and consumers are paying a lot less in the short term until utiltiies figure this out and/or the costs to replace those used resources and clean up after them come to bear)

clipped from hardware.slashdot.org

"We've seen compact fluorescent lamps start to take over shelf space at the local hardware store. Replacing a 60 watt incandescent with a 13 watt CFL seems like a great savings, though many consumers are disappointed with the slow warm-up times, lower-than-advertised lifetimes, and hassles of disposing the mercury-containing bulbs. Now EDN reports they may use more energy than claimed due to their poor power factor. Mike Grather, of Lumenaire Testing Laboratory, 'checked the power factor for the CFLs and found they ranged from .45 to .50. Their "real" load was about twice that implied by their wattage.' The good news: you're only billed for the 13 watts of real power used. The bad news: the utilities have to generate the equivalent of 28 watts (that is, 28 VA of apparent power for you EEs out there) to light that bulb. Until they fix these issues, I'll hold on to my incandescents and carbon arc lamps, thanks."

LED bulb screw in replacement for incandescent

2009-04-03T19:44:00.001-07:00

Techbargains has cheap LED screw in bulbs that use 2 watts of power, a significant power savings over incadescent and CFL, though I'm not sure how bright they are. But if you have light socket that you need just a little bit of light from, these would be a good bet. Keep in mind the color temp will be less yellow (aka more blue)

clipped from www.techbargains.com

2 Pack 18 LED 2-Watt Spotlight Light Bulb $9.99 Free Ship,
Apr. 1 7 AM

Meritline has the 2 Pack 18 LED 2-Watt Spotlight Light Bulb for a low $9.99. Free Shipping. Tax in CA, MA.

eco heater on sale at amazon today

2009-04-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't personally used one nor have I read detailed reviews. The Amazon reviews say it uses 400 watts, compared to 750-1500 standard space heaters. Of course, the electricity consumed is basically all turned to heat in all space heaters, but the question is how efficiently they raise the temperature you feel in the room. That's why you see ones with dishes behind them to focus the heat. Supposedly this heater does a better job at this. Apparently it's also unobtrusive and can be painted over, which is good for "aestheticmetric"

It's on Amazon's friday sale (today only -- I'm not sure how much of a discount relative to normal days)

use your existing IR remote to turn power on/off via power strip

2009-03-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

this seems to cut power, so you'd need a furhter button press to turn on the electronic switch and most items.

clipped from i.gizmodo.com

Home automation is expensive and complicated, but universal remotes are easy. The IR-Remote Control Power Strip lets you use universal remotes on any electronics, blinking lamps and speakers on and off with lazy precision.

No price on this since it's straight from an OEM in China, but it's supposedly controlled by any IR remote, provided you can program the universal remote at all. Plus it can "avoid energy waste of standby status." Which is good, because "if equipments keep standby status, it may be attacked by thunder, the inside high temperature may cause self-ignite or fire."

CFL buying guide from MSLiving

2009-02-26T15:10:00.001-08:00

Unclutterer highlights the CFL buying guide from martha stewart living (insert obligatory passe prison lighting joke here)

clipped from unclutterer.com

Table and floor lamps: Compact fluorescent in warm white.

Reading and Task Lamps: 23-watt CFL in warm light or daylight.

Recessed Fixtures: CFL in warm white or a halogen.

Some general tips on color size and shape:

Appearance
Energy-saving bulbs have adopted the shapes, sizes, and appearance of traditional bulbs, making it easier to phase them in.

Warm White
When in doubt, opt for a warm-white CFL, 3,000 degrees Kelvin or lower. It has the color quality most associated with traditional bulbs.

Cool White
This color temperature is best avoided. It washes out skin tones and makes reds, oranges, and browns look muddy.

Daylight Bulb
In general, you should use a daylight bulb only in a reading or task light. The cool, bright tone makes text jump off the page.

To learn even more, read the full guide from Martha Stewart Living.

new contributor!

2009-02-13T11:04:00.001-08:00

Soren from energyconsumption.org has joined the energy measuring resource quantifying savings suggesting future pontificating environmental investigating blogging team here at electrimetric. If you haven't already check out energyconsumption.org and check back here for posts from him.

fancy looking $30 LED bulb

2009-02-07T17:22:00.001-08:00

clipped from i.gizmodo.com

Featuring an aluminum, curvilinear design, a series of diecast cooling fins dissipate heat from the internal circuitry. Meanwhile, LEDs put out 400 lumens for 50,000 hours while sipping on just 7W.

If you're interested, the bulb is available for $30. Otherwise, you should just try to convince your modder friend to incorporate it into his next case design. Maybe some gross ode to Thomas Edison. [Chinavision via 7gadgets]

2 flushing options coming to a toilet near you

2009-02-04T18:12:00.001-08:00

The option for half or full flush is all over europe and canada but nowhere in the states. Here's an option to add it to your existing toiled.

clipped from i.gizmodo.com

Although having two built-in flushing options on toilets is nothing new, the Brondell Perfect Flush kit lets you mount the two-button flushing options onto your own toilet, without help from a professional plumber.

twitter your energy consumption

2009-02-04T12:24:00.001-08:00

I want one for every outlet in the house!

clipped from www.inhabitat.com

What can you do with Tweet-a-watt? Many things, not the least of which include monitoring your domestic power usage without having to hack your main power grid (handy, especially if you’re a renter). The Tweet-a-watt automatically uploads the data to your Twitter account for sharing, competing or bragging. There’s nothing like a little public accountability to keep us all honest!

Designed by MIT graduate and open-source maven Lima of ladyada, Tweet-a-watt is an open-source hack with a green heart. You can make your own Tweet-a-watt by opening up an off-the-shelf Kill-a-Watt power monitor and making a couple simple modifications - wire an Xbee wirelss module, super capacitor and transmission indicators to the power sensor output, then syc it to an Xbee reciever connected to your PC via USB. Clear as mud? Never fear, Ladyada.net has all the details mapped out nicely — with diagrams !

DATA!

2009-01-20T12:55:00.001-08:00

Like Johnny Five (robot from short circuit for those of you born too late for 80s movie references) this guy needs MORE INPUT!
Here's a blogger who graphs his home power usage every 10 seconds.

clipped from www.picobay.com

This post details a real-time web based household power usage chart. The end result is a live chart in a web page that updates every 10 seconds with the instantaneous power usage for my entire house. The electrical current is measured on the main lines entering my home with AC clamps. The signal is then conditioned with a simple circuit and monitored by an ioBridge module. The ioBridge module takes care of feeding the data to the internet without the need for me to host a power hungry home web server. By using ioBridge widgets with a few JavaScript API calls on my web page, I am able to chart the data with Google Charts as it is measured and make kilowatt-hour calculations in real-time.

clipped from www.picobay.com

Garmin for the win!!!! (routing based on fuel economy)

2009-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

In driving my commute to work I have the option of a much longer highway route or a bunch of stop lights. By my rough calculations though based on the much better gas mileage in my car, I would save gas by driving the long way around. I've been wanting google to do this calculation for me in google maps (I've been bugging my friends that work there...) but to no avail.

However Garmin has announced that they have created "ecoroute" a route planning algorithm for nuvi 200 and 700 series GPS units

Garmin's website ecoroute page says:
"users will have a “less fuel” option as a routing preference. When selected, nüvi will determine the best route for saving gas."

"Fuel Report tracks fuel usage over time, and Mileage Report monitors mileage and fuel usage on a per-trip basis. You can also customize your nüvi by entering vehicle type, your car’s fuel economy and the current price of gas."

Word of the day: Wastricity

2009-01-06T16:17:00.001-08:00

I learned a new word today! and I found another person wanting to reduce energy used on street lighting

clipped from blog.makezine.com

Wastricity is the use of electricity in a way that provides no personal or public benefit.

There is no public benefit to the money spent lighting streets and the exterior of buildings during the daytime. Who should you talk to when you see municipal money being spent on electricity or other utilities for zero constructive use? How will they respond when you point out that they are burning their budget? Are they planning on going in front of the voters asking for some emergency reprieve in the budget meltdown of the year?

In our personal lives, we use wastricity whenever we leave our phone chargers plugged in to the wall when the phone is not attached. We also use wastricity by leaving gaming systems running while we are out of the house. Leaving lights on in the room when nobody is in the room is classic wastricity.

Remote controlled surge protector $23 after rebate

2009-01-06T14:06:00.001-08:00

Here's a nice looking remote controlled surge protector with remote for $23 after rebate from buy.com (I have no affiliation/kickback with them but found them to be a reliable internet purchasing place)

I would suggest taping the remote to the door frame so it's like a switch you can hit when you leave the room.

Of course, you need to make sure you are going to save $23 worth of energy (but be a good citizen and calculate sustainable energy costs based on solar not our subsidized coal!)

clipped from www.buy.com

Features

Six (6) Remote Switched Outlets
Two (2) Always On Outlets
Detachable Wireless Remote Switch with Wall-Mount
Sliding Safety Covers
Cable Management

Save energy, save money...conveniently. Conserve's one-touch remote switch easily powers off up to six (6) devices plugged into its "Remote Switched Outlets", while two (2) "Always On" outlets let you keep devices such as your answering machine or router constantly powered.

Don't standby. Conserve. Conserve energy-saving surge protector with remote switch makes it simple to eliminate wasteful standby power, helping you reduce energy consumption, save on energy bills, and lower your overall impact on the environment.

Motion sensing

2008-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using motion sensing to improve lighting. At my previous office we installed motion sensor switches most everywhere, and the lights definitely were off a lot more. Bathroom lights tended to get left on all night and weekend, and the lights in out of the way places that people were too lazy to turn off also benefited from the motion sensor switches. However some of them would repeatedly get set back to manual. The motion sensor wasn't always good enough (so that when you were behind the server rack it didn't see you and turned off the lights and the delay was set too short). I recall that we paid about $30 for the drop in switch replacements like these
though amazon seems to have some cheaper options like this
Current cons include: jerkiness of on and off, having to wait for lights to flicker on (esp. fluorescents), extra costs of the sensor switch, sensor switch getting blocked by furniture, sensor switches getting turned on by pets or breezes outdoors. Also the first one I link to, a certain percentage will die after some amount of time and require replacement.

Note that the replacement switches are the most unobtrusive, but they don't always lend to ideal placement for the sensor. Also you need an electrician to do the replacement (though certain electrical engineers I know have done the replacements yourself, though I don't recommend it as death or hair standing on it's end can occur -- remember once you let the smoke out of your electrical system it's very hard to get it back)

My motion sensor dream:
Switch would have off, auto, 10% auto, and on.
Auto would leave the light off until motion is detected, it would quickly ramp the light from 0 to 100%.
10% auto would leave the light at 10% (so you can vaguely see and not trip) and quickly ramp to 100% when motion is detected.
When leaving a room it would gradually lower the light from 100% to either 10 or 0% depending on the setting.

I think these features would eliminate a lot of the issues that people have with motion sensors lights.

Also, a lot of houses have motion sensors already for alarms, can we build off that somehow? For that matter the alarms also know when you enter and leave a house, that could tie in to a turn off all the lights when you leave sort of scenario.

For those with incandescent sockets: screw in motion sensor

or those with plug in lamps: pluggable motion sensor

Please note that I didn't do extensive searching on amazon for the best, I just found the ones I originally bought and amazon recommended the other 3.

Note, there are cheaper generic versions of these sensors findable on google products results, though they are from unknown suppliers and unknown stores, but please report back with your findings and let us know good ones that are cheap!

Battery powered light turn-er off-er

2008-10-27T09:11:00.001-07:00

So um yeahhhhh. While I agree with the goal of this thing, making a battery power motor that physically flips switches for you doesn't seem to be the best way to go about doing things. How much more resources does this take than a standard motion sensor switch combo? However for those that are unwilling/unable to replace their existing switches I guess that you could over come the battery power requirement and construction requirement to save net energy. I'm sure this will be available soon in skymall.

clipped from gizmodo.com

Well, actually it's quite a neat gizmo—it's battery powered, and simply mounts directly over a light switch, which it then throws for you if it doesn't detect movement in front of its sensor. Plus it turns the lights on when you enter.

Boeing 767 - 60 gallons to london

2008-10-24T11:20:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know the comparison isn't totally valid (because you wouldn't be able to drive your car to london), but I still think it's fun. Though this is probably assuming a 100% full flight, and you have to compare the trip to not going at all but... my gut says pretty fuel efficient and those people blaming the aviation industry for global warming should be looking elsewhere!

clipped from blog.delta.com

It takes approximately 60 gallons of fuel per passenger to get from New York to London on board a 767-400ER. The same volume of gasoline would propel an economy car about half of that distance!

The noise level of a Boeing 767 taking off from a 1.5 mile long runway is about the same as the average street corner’s traffic noise.

Here are some interesting facts about Boeing 767s:

Fiat introduces usb drive and software for improving your lead foot

2008-10-21T11:36:00.001-07:00

This is *so* in the spirit of this blog. Collecting data to help you improve how you do things so reduce our resource consumption.

clipped from news.cnet.com

The program will measure a driver's fuel consumption, speed, braking style, and even how efficiently he or she shifts gears with their manual transmission. It seems very similar in functionality to the PLX Kiwi from PLX Devices that plugs in to a car's diagnostics port.

Blue&Me is an onboard computer system currently offered in some Fiats and Alfa Romeos, and possibly soon, in Ford cars, as well. It enables drivers to listen to their MP3 player, make calls on their cell phone, and have text messages read aloud to them. The system includes a USB port, which Fiat has announced could be the key to a 15 percent reduction in a car's CO2 emissions.

But exactly how bad are drivers when it comes to abruptly starting and stopping? And are they really shifting their manual transmission car correctly for optimizing fuel?

Cheap programmable thermostat

2008-07-15T12:29:00.001-07:00

Techbargains links to a sale on a already cheap programmable thermostat. If you don't have one already this is one of the fastest ROI (return on investment) eco friendly products out there. Drop the temp at night in winter and during the day when you are at work. Raise it during the summer.

clipped from www.techbargains.com

HUNTER 44260 Programmable Digital Thermostat $28.54, Jul. 15 10 AM
$3 less on top of sale price amazon has the HUNTER 44260 Set and Save Programmable Digital Thermostat for a low $28.54. Free shipping. Tax in KS, KY, ND, WA, NY.
Compare Prices | Email Deal | Similar Deals | amazon Coupons | Comment

Streetlights with motion sensors!!

2008-07-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ecogeek reports sharp is coming out with streetlights with motion sensors, but wait before you join me in my hallejulahs, the motion sensors, wait for it..........don't seem to be used to turn the lights off! They seem to be used to sense earthquakes to turn the lights on when there is no power (I guess a normal power outage isn't enough to qualify for turning on)

Please somebody be less lazy than me and read the original article and tell me I'm wrong and these turn off when nobody is moving around them...

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1854/

UPDATE looking at the page translated by google for the product it doesn't seem like they turn off the lights when no motion. Booo.

Still though, it's nice that they are touting the low energy consumption

speed vs. mpg (aka 55 in the left lane?)

2008-07-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have been more and more people saying they are driving slower to reduce their gas usage. Further evidence that market economics work, (insert rant here on why we don't include all the market costs like future environmental cleanup and to build mass transit to reduce demand so that money goes to infrastructure rather than exxon)

However, as always, I say make the changes that make the most sense.
When I heard a friend describe a relative as complaining about the 55mph minimum speed limit being too high because he wanted to drive his prius slower, I had to address mpg vs. speed here.

Each car has it's own mileage to speed continuum. However, for most cars it looks something like the graph below from fueleconomy where it starts to go down after a certain point.
A large factor in this is wind resistance, so cars that are like big air dams (pickup trucks cough cough) are going to have a lower speed at which mileage begins to decrease rapidly. More aerodynamic cars like the prius are going to have a higher point. A forum poster graphed his mileage in the prius here http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f10/mpg-vs-speed-hybrid-driving-strategy-14276/ and claims that the speed of diminishing fuel savings is around 70mph.

So yes, you get better fuel mileage driving more slowly, but it really depends on the speed. So slowing down from 75 to 70 will save in just about any car. Slowing down from 65-60 in some cars, and 55 to 45 will not save nearly as much) Wind resistance goes up as the square of the speed so the higher the speed you'll use significantly more. This is why race cars are so intent on drafting (though I don't recommend drafting on semis, you don't get very good gas mileage when they have to slam on their brakes and you end up smashed, though I guess if you survive and are attached to their truck and your back wheels still work and you are going where they are...)

Plus as always here at "tha metric" we have to consider the other external costs. What about the drivers with road rage behind you that have to make an extra trip to the hospital for their blood pressure? c.f. Denis Leary's song lyrics: "I drive really slow in the ultra fast lane
While people behind me are going insane"

and would you do more for the environment by getting there 10 minutes earlier and spending those ten minutes planting a tree?

Answer due in homework bin by friday.

PS to clarify any agenda you may think I have or do not have, I generally drive the speed limit, as I think speed differential is dangerous but I also want to get there today and not use too much gas.

clipped from www.fueleconomy.gov

While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.

You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.30 per gallon for gas.

Eco-feedback for better gas mileage

2008-07-09T14:12:00.001-07:00

An interesting new device (at least interesting to those of us who are interested in measuring power consumption of lamps in hotel rooms we visit) comes across the rss reader of electrimetric headquarters.

It uses the principles of biofeedback (which in my mind are: that which we can measure we can learn to control) to try to get us to save gas. It tells us our current mpg, logs it and records it in novel ways to give us driving challenges.

I have found my own little obsessive game with my trip odometer which tells me average mileage, which I have stopped resetting so that I have less control over the mileage so I don't spend my whole drive worrying (little changes with large divisor make littler changes).
An even simpler game comes with the "eco mode" light. a little green indicator that tells me my car is using only 3 of it's cylinders. I recall that toyota has decided to put "eco mode" lights in all their cars (saying when you are using small amounts of gas) as they have found people drive better when they are reminded they are doing well. question of the day: compliment people when they are eating a little and they will lose weight?

Anyway, this new product provides even more encouragement for you to lose weight on the foot pedal (metaphorically speaking).
However it will lose weight in your wallet as well.
At $299 (cnet offers an alternative product that does less for $169) I would have to save 10% of my gas mileage in order to pay back the $299 in a year (assuming 10000 miles driven and 32mpg, your mileage may vary )

clipped from news.cnet.com

By plugging into a vehicle's diagnostic port, it can display miles per gallon as well as trip information and even the cause of engine problems.

But really it's designed to make your driving habits more energy-efficient.

The PLX Kiwi shows off feedback on how you're doing in that regard and gives you a "kiwi score." It's also programmed with 20 increasingly difficult challenges to optimize your score.

CFL t-shirt design

2008-06-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

Vote for this shirt design to be made over at threadless

http://www.threadless.com/submission/166668/CFL_FTW?streetteam=jstruan

Poor incandescent!

LED street lamps

2008-06-03T16:23:00.001-07:00

According to tree hugger Dusseldorf Germany has decided to replace 10000 of their gas street lamps with LEDs. They bring up the excellent point LEDs are more directional which will save on light pollution as well as energy. I still don't understand lack of motion sensors though!
Especially with LEDs that are quick to turn on and off (unlike high pressure sodium vapor) and LEDs are dimmable (when no motion only use 1 in 10 LEDs)

clipped from www.treehugger.com

Of course, LED are still kind of expensive, so there's a capital cost. But once they are in place, their operating costs are lower and they can last for a very long time. Another benefit is that you can direct light much more easily, so you can avoid sending light in all directions (people with a street light across the street from their bedroom window will understand...). The first bump in the road for LED street lights was that some people thought their white light was too cold compared to the red-ish glow of the old lamps, but that can easily be fixed by using colored LEDs. ::Replacing gas lamps with LEDs

FedEx hybrids

2008-05-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Spotted in San Francisco in May

I recall reading somewhere they have purchased 200 or so (a small percentage of their fleet anyway).

But certainly it seems like local delivery trucks are an area where hybrids would be more resource conserving than highway driving

Quantitative eco statement of the day - Flying versus driving

2008-05-30T06:06:00.001-07:00

<b>$15,000 for a Airbus A320 to fly from New York to Long Beach.</b> The article cites $3.50/gallon for aviation fuel => 4285 gallons of gas. Google maps says it would be 2827 miles driving => 1.5 gallons of avgas per car mile. A car can hold 4 people where as an a320 can hold 150 people in a typical us carrier configuration. So to equate to the same efficiency as driving in a theoretical 30mpg car, you'd have to have 80 people on board that A320. Given that load factors are in the 70-80% these days, you could easily exceed that.

Of course that's assuming people would be driving if they weren't flying and ignores the fact that google says it's 42 hours driving time so there would most likely be some rest stops, hotel stays, food etc.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

Any kind of cost savings is vitally important at a time when the cost in fuel of flying from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Long Beach has jumped to $15,000 a flight from $9,600 last year, according to Baldwin. That change makes adding Los Angeles International service unaffordable, Baldwin said.

Quantitative eco statement of the day

2008-05-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

I am going to start posting a series of quantitative statements about resource consumption that I've run across. I haven't fact checked them at all, so take them as they are intended to be: an interesting look at the different numbers being used on the web to discuss resource consumption.

clipped from www.ecogeek.org

You think you hate sitting on the runway couped up in a plane that seems to be going nowhere. Well, the airlines (and the planet) hates it too. In 2007 $1.6 billion of jet fuel was burned by planes waiting in line to take off at airports. That's 740 million gallons of fuel.

And from the perspective of climate change 7.1 million metric tons of CO2.

View of Eath Lights at night

2008-05-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned lights at night. Long time readers know I've whined about streetlights and their waste of electricity (and their lack of motion sensors). This incredibly beautiful poster (composite image of earth taken at light exposed for the lights and merged with landforms, clouds removed) definitely influences my opinion on street lights, as do the plight of the astronomers dealing with light pollution or merely sitting on my back porch unable to see the stars most nights.

However on the flip side, I have enjoyed flying over our beautiful country staring out the window, and the shapes of our cities outlined by lights is as entertaining as the view of all the landforms (and both are more than the in flight movie that has been very edited for objectionable content)!

I often try to take pictures of the lights of the city as we are landing but the exposures are so slow that the lights blur (though that can be a cool effect -- see images at left )
Anyway, I have seen cities that look like neuronal cells, cities that are very grid based, cities that clearly illustrate the underlying geographic forms and cities that outline new development by the color temperature of the newer streetlights. But I haven't been able to capture these images to share. However NASA seems to have figured out a stable platform from which to take these pictures (they are a bit higher orbit than united airlines flies!)
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/CitiesAtNight/

My pics:

Note: images are copyright bryn forbes 2007

Map of just roads

2008-05-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a very interesting image http://benfry.com/allstreets/map5.html made from drawing all the maps in the US on the map. It has a similar effect potraying how much of the natural habitats we have made an impact on, as the nighttime view showing all the lights. Of course in this case the rural areas with a road around 40 acre plots is a lot less of an effect than the dense areas.

Another giant yellow hybrid

2008-05-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9926763-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Speaking of giant sized hybrids that are yellow, GE is making hybrid dump trucks. Now that's what I need for the trips to the grocery store!

Hybrid school buses!

2008-04-30T11:09:00.001-07:00

I found out a friend works for a company that make hybrid school buses!
Check em out here

they claim 70% improvement!!!

I hesitate to mention this in case people buying hummers think they can be green (or in this case yellow) and have a hybrid SUV (schoolbus utility vehice)

Lower mercury CFL bulbs

2008-04-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

Don't count CFLs out you scrappy LED upstart you!
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9916140-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

New CFLs have less than 1.5 milligrams of mercury (normal have 5mg). (There's a snide remark about tuna having more in here somewhere -- though I'm refraining since I don't have data for fish bulbs)

Though you have to worry when technology starts to integrate other gadgets (alarm clock/golf bag anyone?) so maybe CFL manufacturers are starting to worry since one is making a CFL that makes your room less smelly (sure to be sold at sharper image if it wasn't bankrupt)

http://gizmodo.com/379136/viatek-cfl-makes-your-rooms-brighter-less-smelly

13W LED bulb

2008-04-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/13w-led-bulb-replaces-100w-incandescent.php
Treehugger reports on a 13W LED bulb as replacement for incancdescents.

It's interesting that it so much more efficient than an incandescent (which wastes most energy as heat) but has a fan inside of it to reduce heat.

They also tout other features of LED long life bulb, less mercury than cfl, etc.
But cost cost cost cost cost?

How many watts hours of solar electricity could you buy for the cost of this bulb?

Motion sensor lighting

2008-04-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

This was a cameraphone pic I shot in the hallway of a very very large apartment building in mid town manhattan. Every other light fixture was motion sensitive. Most of the lights near the elevators were constantly on but the ones near the ends would definitely be off most of the time.

Plug in hybrids better for the environment despite being coal powered?

2008-04-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

I've often snidely remarked that plugin hybrids are coal powered, but it seems I will have to change that. Here is a link to an article by EcoGeek with some data claiming that they end up being better for the enviroment overall despite the eletrical transmissions losses.
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1569/69/

Per capita CO2 emissions

2008-04-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this map of per capita CO2 emissions.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/new-high-res-ma.html

UPDATE: I showed my texas geography ignorance and slandered houston, my apologies!

how much energy is your city consuming?

2008-04-16T10:55:00.001-07:00

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/04/nuage_vert_energy_power_plant_visualization.html

Infosthetics notes a idea to project how much energy a city is using on the plume of a coal power plant for all to see.

Electrimetric was created with the idea that if we know how much energy we use, and see feedback based on changes, we will reduce our resource consumption. The question is would this help because it reminds people how much energy they are using? or hurt because they see turning off their light is just a cigarette amongst the coal power plants pollution.

It seems like you could do this via a web page reporting how much energy your city is using, and I'm sure there are things like this out there. Avid readers, send those links in!

Dark Vader

2008-04-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

A friend was telling me about her father who would proclaim himself "Dark Vader" with an innovative power saving technique. If she or her family left the lights on, he would unscrew and take the lightbulb. Certainly solves the problem of leaving the lights on from then on out! I guess you'd learn pretty quick or else you would leave the switch on all the time but not use any energy (hope you ate your carrots!)

Apologies to the folks at Buy Star Wars Costumes for the bastardization of their image.
Also the artists at
Star Warped

Concept home power monitoring system

2008-02-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

I've wanted something like this for a long time. It's just a concept, but would be very cool. I would want to make sure that the monitors don't end up using more power than you'd be able to save by having the information, but for a quantitative data geek like me, cooooool. The Greener Grass via
Gizmodo

Playstation 3 measurements revisited

2008-01-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

erac3rX (who is working on a killer gaming setup -- site coming soon at http://www.modsbox.com)
writes with measurements of the older revision of the playstation 3 to compare to the new revision in the 40GB PS3 posted here

Note the interesting difference between cold start and hot start on booting. Are there really 15 watts or more of fans running? Wow!

PS3 (60GB, one of the latest manufactured)
Off: 1
Booting (cold): 140-145, max 156
Booting (hot): 158-160
Menu (XMB) (cold): 156 at login screen, 163 after logged in and ticker tape running.
Menu (XMB) (hot): 167-169 waiting to login, 175 after logged in w ticker tape running.
Resistance Fall of Man: Cut Scenes: 163-164
Playing first level of RFOM: 180-185, peak 190
RFOM paused: 158-159
Loading Bluray/Menu: 169
play Bluray (House of Flying Daggers ch 14): 169-172
30x Fast Forward: 167-169
Paused bluray: 166-167
Running Folding @ Home: 191 w/ active visualization, 175 screensaved
Web page loading sony store page: 167-169

Time Lapse energy video

2008-01-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

Check out this time lapse video It's not very quantitative, but it's quite cool. Even if you don't appreciate the message (it's similar to inconvenient truth in it's message) there is very cool imagery in there. The photographer made the video using still photos taken at intervals to make time lapse sequences in black and white.

EnergyConsumption.org

2008-01-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

Great minds think alike :)

Check out this great site that also is posting power measurement data
http://www.energyconsumption.org
The data is here http://ec-users.pbwiki.com/Data

CFL light bulb with motion sensor built in

2008-01-10T09:51:00.001-08:00

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/09/cfl-motion-detector-motionbulb/
Engadget reports on a compact fluorescent lightbulb with a motion sensor built in to detect motion up to 25 feet away

Going Green: Cyber-Rain XCI Waters Your Lawn When The Internet Commands It

2007-11-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

Going Green: Cyber-Rain XCI Waters Your Lawn When The Internet Commands It

This is something I've been wanting, a sprinkler controller that turns off when it's going to rain based on forecast. Of course, you can provide do a lot more benefit to help fresh water resoruces by putting your $349 to wetlands recovery, though with the droughts in california and the southeast you might save some of your power bill if you don't turn off your sprinklers manually.

New revisions of Playstation 3 and XBOX 360

2007-11-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Both the xbox 360 and the PS3 have received minor updates recently which have reduced their power usage. Both the XBox's PowerPC CPU and the Playstation 3's cell CPU have gotten revisions to their manfacturing process (they were 90nm and are now 65nm).

Jump to the end for the power savings. The tale:

XBox360
Microsoft has been introducing them in to their maufacturing lines slowly along without any fanfare (why the heck not one has to ask) and not labelling them. People have resorted to internet forums to be able to identify the lot #s and manufacturing lines of the new ones. http://forums.xbox.com/15804553/ShowPost.aspx The basic gist is if you get Lot #736 and up from Team FDOU (on the label with upc on outside of box) you'll likely have a 65nm version. All the variations seems to be getting the new chip though the halo3 version seems to be easiest.

PS3
The new 40GB cost reduced version of the PS3 has new 65nm version of the cell processor. There was a fairly well confirmed rumor that this new sku was all 65nm which was later denied by sony even though it was confirmed that it uses less power, and then later undenied. So between the removal of the ps2 hardware chip and the new cpu a lot of power was saved. So not only is this new SKU $100 cheaper you could also save $$$ in electricity (though you get a bluray movie instead of a game, a smaller hard drive, less PS2 compatibility and no media card readers)

Both the xbox and the ps3 still have 90nm versions of their graphics chips. The GPUs won't transition to smaller processes until next year (and xbox will probably go to 55nm since it's an ati chip if I recall correctly) the PS3 GPU is called the RSX but I don't know when it will get a new process technology revision.

PS3 (40GB bought 11/2/07)
Off: 0
Booting: 135-136 (max 144)
Menu (XMB): 139-140
Resistance Fall of Man: Cut scenes: 137-138
Playing first level of RFOM: 144-150 (mostly 147-149, peaked at 155)
RFOM paused: 134
Loading Bluray/Menu: 134-135
play Bluray (SWAT ch 16) 134
30x Fast forward 134
Paused bluray 133
Running Folding @ home* 157
Web page loading sony store page 135-138

Xbox360 (lot 737 team FDOU, 2 inductors)
Off - 2 watts
Xbox live active download 95
booting 102-109
media center paused 100
Playing media center 100-105
UPDATED
loading halo 3 104-106 (max 111)
halo 3 menu 121
halo 3 campaign 126-132 (tsavo highway legendary rally point alpha)
paused 129-131
multiplayer matchmaking 115-116
multiplayer 116-124 (most commonly in range of 116-118)

xbox360 hddvd player
off 0-1 flips back and forth
idle 1
opening 3
booting 4-6
spinning up max 10
idle with disc in 6
playing hd dvd 6

UPDATE 2007-11-13

Old XBox 360 (90nm original motherboard)
Off 1-2
peak measured 162
playing project gotham intro 145

All measurements made with a kill-a-watt

So the 90nm version of PS3 used about 200 watts I'm told, now down to 135ish. So 65 watts saved for a gamer playing 10 hours per week, would be 2762 Watt hours per week and , which isn't much at current electrical rates, but if you factor in air conditioning for have the year (let's say doubling elec. usage) and elec rates for clean energy / building carbon sinks might save 5 bucks a week worth of elec. in the summer if you are a really hard core gamer.

* it uses more power but it helps science and might lead to new advances in protein science which could lead to better ways to make ethanol, or anti cancer drugs, alzheimers research, or technology to reduce power usage (proteins can be catalysts which for you engineers, are like having a special purpose processor that can do a calculation in 1 watt that it would take the CPU all 100 watts to do), if you already leave your PS3 or your computer on, or want to donate 150 watts to science please consider running it! more info at http://folding.stanford.edu

Use Electricity Wisely (TreeHugger)

2007-11-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

Treehugger has found an excellent billboard

Use Electricity Wisely (TreeHugger): ""

PG&E purchases 177 megawatts of solar energy from plant to be built in San Luis Obispo - CNET

2007-11-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

CNET is reporting that PG&E has entered in to a contract to purchase 177 megawatts of solar thermal power from Ausra who is building a 1 square mile plant in San Luis Obispo CA.

They already buy 533 megawatts from a plant in the mojave. This is the first I've heard of a major power company purchasing a solar contract though clearly it's happening already. PG&E plans to expand this 1 gigawatt in the next 5 years.

If anybody has any data on what PG&E will be paying per kilowatt hour for this I'd love to hear it, because they we can get a more true cost of electricity (taking in to account the extra costs for low co2 emission energy and/or renewable resources)

In North Carolina, the NCGreenpower program enables consumers to add extra money to their power bill to have Duke Energy buy their power from renewable resources. Though adding $20/month to your bill (you choose how much you want to add) probably only shifts a fraction of a homes power usage to renewable, it's a start.

So electrimetricers when you are measuring how much power things use and calculating how much this costs you annually, or you calculating off your current bill, future bills, or future bills that use renewable resources?

Inquiring minds want to know.

UPDATE: the linked article in the cnet article says solar thermal currently costs about 13 cents per kilowatt hour. But how much will PG&E be charging consumers?

---------------------
PG&E links with Ausra for 177 megawatts of solar thermal power | Green Tech blog - CNET News.com: "The utility is shooting to get 20 percent or more of its electricity from renewable sources, not including traditional hydroelectric power, by 2010. It currently gets 12 percent of its electricity now from renewables and has contracts that push it up to 18 percent. Most of its renewable energy so far comes from wind and biomass: PG&E right now gets only a little of its power from solar."

is saving a penny worth it?

2007-10-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

As a blogger blogging about ways to save a few cents here and there, one has to consider whether it's "worth it" to focus energy on saving small amounts when the resource consumptions issues are so large. I try to at least only focus on areas where the savings are "easy" so that the cost of learning about and implementing the savings are not out weighed by the opportunity cost (I could be outside planting a tree or for really low payback savings things I could instead be riding a bike to generate electricity )

One definitely has to acknowledge that saving a few dollars on electricity is not going to solve global warming, but it's easy to look at the big problems and feel discourage about your ability to impact on a big scale, and we certainly don't want people to learn helplessness (c.f. Martin Seligman who does research that shows if you learn that your actions have no affect it can lead to unhappiness or depression like symptoms and you no longer take action to change the situation even if it's easy Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control)

So, while we are still looking for big ways to help, is it worth it to tackle the little things?

Turning off the lights when you aren't in the room saves a few cents a day (or week if you are using fluorescent or LEDs)
Turning off the water while brushing your teeth
etc.?

To the average well-to-do american (and by that I mean almost all of us are well-to-do by international standards) the financial reward and or vague hard to quantify environmental reward may not be enough to make it worth our while or hit us in the pocketbooks (which is americanese for "make it worth our while")

However, for all those of you who have ever said "If I had a nickel for every..." think about all those electrons saved in aggregate!

I'm reminded of a book I read once about the history of American Airlines and how their chairman pushed for cost savings, and they saved multi tens of thousands of dollars a year in GAS by going from two olives in their salads to one.

When you are the size of walmart, taking the light out of employee coke machines saves $1 million / year in electricity according to this article:
How Wal-Mart is saving millions with clean tech | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

So if everybody could reduce the amount of lighting electricty they used by a little bit, and turn off the water while brushing their teeth, maybe it'd add up to a number that may not solve anything relative to our GDP but would sound like a big number for most of our wallets, and that'd help motivate us to do the easy and small things to help save resources.

------------------
Coming soon power measurement comparisons of the 65nm "falcon" revision of the xbox360 that is silently appearing on shelves now, with the old version.

Inhabitat » GET A TAX CUT FOR GOING GREEN - by Dec 2007!

2007-10-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Inhabitat » GET A TAX CUT FOR GOING GREEN - by Dec 2007!

One could argue that the government is realizing they are going to be the ones to pay for cleaning up from our energy consuming ways and so they are buying your action now at a discount rather than paying for clean up later.

In any case if you're reading this you're probably already interested in "greening" your home so you might as well take advantage of this tax credit before it goes away!

Ann Arbor street lights to be replaced with LEDs - Engadget

2007-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Ann Arbor street lights to be replaced with LEDs - Engadget: "
"

Flying over the country deffinitely makes you realize how much light is used to light the outdoors(and thus money and future money to reduce carbon emissions and save the enviroment)

Despite my fervent wish for motion sensors the trend seems to be in switching to LEDs (Though motion sensors would be cheaper and still solve the safety issue -- though I question the $ effectiveness of streetlights everywhere vs. $ spent on police or other safety)

Bwahahaha: Halloween CFLs Keep You Spooky AND Eco-Friendly

2007-10-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Bwahahaha: Halloween CFLs Keep You Spooky AND Eco-Friendly

Reduce your halloween electric bill with orange compact fluorescents! :)

WD Caviar GP: The "Green" 1 TB Drive | Tom's Hardware

2007-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

WD Caviar GP: The "Green" 1 TB Drive | Tom's Hardware

Another instance of tech company branding themselves as green. In this case it's not greenwashing, they have added technology to spin the hard drive more slowly when it's not in heavy use. Granted most energy efficient desktops spin down the drive to 0rpm when not in use, but this doesn't always work because windows or some other piece of software might access the drive once a minute. This will also be especially useful for servers that over night still get requests but aren't heavily hit. It won't be huge savings but a little bit on every one of google's rumored 450,000 servers would add up to a lot!

VMware tool tries new twist on power savings | Underexposed - CNET News.com

2007-10-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

VMware tool tries new twist on power savings | Underexposed - CNET News.com

VMWare has virtualization software that lets you move the functions a server is performing to another server. Typically this is done to save money on server hardware (put two lightly used functions on one server) or recently they have been getting in to dynamically moving server instances to spare servers when extra load is needed. However they have taken that to the next step (for the opposite scenario) to save power and shut down unneeded servers by moving their functions to a single server.

Not exactly implementable for the average us consumer, but interesting (to me anyway) nonetheless.

The drawback usually is that the cost of the vmware software to do this, is high enough to make it much easier to just pay for a lot of extra server hardware and a lot of extra power. And really if the cost is that high for the softwrae, that means they are paying lots of programmers to work on this, and those programmers could be working on building solar cells or something like that. Or at least that's how I just ify being cheap and just buying another $500 dell server instead of a $3000 vmware license.

G'Day: Australia to Ban All Plasmas & Some LCDs by 2011? - Gizmodo

2007-10-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

G'Day: Australia to Ban All Plasmas & Some LCDs by 2011? - Gizmodo

The government in australia is getting in to the energy reduction game. First england takes on wall warts and other things drawing standby power, then california takes on incandescent bulbs and now asutralia is going after power hungry plasmas and some LCDs.

I'm sure the libertarians think people should be making these decisions, but I think given that the full costs of power doesn't include future environmental clean up costs it's probably a good idea for governements to force consumers hands. Disagree with me in the comments!

Mishmash TV show created to judge power consumption - Engadget

2007-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Mishmash TV show created to judge power consumption - Engadget

A consortium is getting together to have a standard set of material to play while measuring TV power usage.

A lot of my measurements are just instantaneous measurements. How much was the tv using at the moment I looked at the kill-a-watt. I sometimes will watch for a range that the nubmer is bouncing over and list that range. But really we should be measuring how much power is used to do something. Ie how much power is consumed in toasting a piece of bread or watching a movie. The problem is that we like different movies and different toastiness of bread (to you all you half burned crunchy people out there --> you're weird ;) ) Hence these people's efforts to have a standard measureement set of viedoes. Hopefully it will be reasonably priced and available on DVD/HDDVD/Bluray and not get embroiled in copyright debate. That would expend a lot of unnecessary energy.

Ecodrive data-logging software - Autoblog

2007-09-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Frankfurt 2007: Fiat/Microsoft announce Ecodrive data-logging software - Autoblog

While it isn't electricity it is in the spirit of quantitating resource consumption to motivate us to reduce our ecological footprint. This takes the toyota announcement of including the "eco" light whenever you are driving with low gas usage, to a new level of data. This system will enable you to log how you are driving and emissions and gas usage to a much higher level. Of course this may only appeal to people that are prone to read electrimetric, and the toyota eco button will probably have a much broader appeal.

220V measurements?

2007-08-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

Anybody out there in blog world know where in france to buy an equivalent to the kill-a-watt?

Also, I want to introduce a new poster, "Macgyver" as we call him, who will be posting a few things on how more energy could be saved by more efficient designs.

Bright Ideas: Lunar-Resonant Streetlights Only Shine When the Moon Doesn't - Gizmodo

2007-08-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

Bright Ideas: Lunar-Resonant Streetlights Only Shine When the Moon Doesn't - Gizmodo

It's just a concept but these streetlights use LEDs to save energy and dim when there's a full moon to save even more energy. Why not take it a step further and keep them almost entirely dimmed unless there's motion?!?

Street lights are a real obvious waste of energy when flying over cities at night or early in the morning. They are put in place to stop crime, right? Well make the criminals walk really really slowly if they don't want light. Plus streetlights ruin viewing of stars!

Go Greener: EVERLED, LED "Fluorescent" Tubes - Gizmodo

2007-08-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Go Greener: EVERLED, LED "Fluorescent" Tubes - Gizmodo: "These EVERLEDs are rated at a 10-year lifespan, compared to the 5-7 year lifespan of their fluorescent counterparts. Plus, the lights require 20% less power, which would be an energy savings of incredible magnitude from a global perspective."

$150 is a lot of cost that's going somewhere (are there big energy consuming semiconductor plants involved that use lots of sulfuric acid and other things? probably)

I suspect the price will come down dramatically in the future, so it's nice to see that there will be drop in replacements so all the existing fixutres can be used.

However, LEDs don't typically need the high voltage that fluorescents do, so all the fixutres that increase the voltage are probably wasting a bit of energy relative to just native LED fixtures.

Toyota to sell a cheaper Prius | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

2007-08-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Toyota to sell a cheaper Prius | Tech news blog - CNET News.com:

Toyota is dropping the price on the 2008 price by 5.5% to $20,950 and they are working on a plug in version.

Of course the plug in version is going to massively increase your power bill (more than erase all the savings we've worked on here so far). The plug in hybrid is just shifting the power generation to the power plant which in my case means it'd be a mostly coal powered car :(

Though to be fair if you are in state that is using clean energy this is a nice advantage to have a plug in. Additionally you can make the argument that nuclear and hydroelectric power is available at night and would otherwise be "wasted".

In the end a 5% price drop on a hybrid is a very good thing!
Saving on gas in your car, is like saving a lot of electricity in your house, from a budgetary and environmental perspective.

Remote Control Outlet

2007-06-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Dad Might Like This: Get a Remote Control Outlet, and Never Get Up Again - Gizmodo

Another remote control outlet option

One button off switches

2007-06-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

A post over at gizmodo links to a concept for a one button off switch for your house to turn off all non essential items when you leave the house. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/tree-huggin/house+off-button-makes-going-green-easy-264876.php

It's just a concept but a good one. Though really it's been around for a long time. I've seen quite a few hotels in Europe and China that have this built in to the hotel rooms. When you enter, you put your key in a slot right next to the door which turns power on to most of the outlets in the room. Something like this

This sort of system should turn off the a/c automatically when you leave too. Normal thermostats can be set to do this based on a schedule but for people with variable leaving time you have to set it to your latest leaving time which isn't ideal. (a 7 day thermostat approximates this)

Also, by turning things off at the outlet you eliminate all the "zombie" power suckers, like wall warts and electronics in standby mode that you can't turn off without unplugging.

Basically it all comes down to making it convenient to turn things off.

Jackson Industries - Product Details - Wireless power point

2007-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Jackson Industries - Product Details - Wireless power point

A remote control for power outlets (for Australia)

It's a low cost simple version of the insteon/z-wave/zigbee home automation stuff.
Just click a button and turn off your 240V appliances.

54 TVs' consumption compared - TV power consumption - CNET reviews

2007-05-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

Cnet has power measurements for 54 TVs.

54 TVs' consumption compared - TV power consumption - CNET reviews: "TV power-saving tips"

Bedfan saves energy by localized cooling

2007-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

As mentioned previously only cooling the area surrounding you saves energy because you aren't cooling your whole house. One product that touts this is the Bed fan for cooling your bed area while you sleep. I'm not sure how well it works but it's nice to see that products are being touted for saving energy by localized cooling.

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Bedfan Bed Fan sleep cooler save energy: "We are doing this for several reasons. One is to make it simpler for people to make their purchase without the full payment up front. Once you have fully tuned the Bedfan® to the most efficient setting you should be able to recover your investment in a very short period of time, Some people are able to recover their cost within a month. See our savings table for further explanation."

home built a/c and other alternatives -- non peak electrical usage

2007-05-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Arwen posted in the comments on "fans & a/c" this cool homemade air conditioner that uses ice as the source of the "cool"
http://www.instructables.com/id/EIYO2TKH8AEPA8L3IO/

In a similar genre are evaporative cooling devices are called "swamp coolers" and misting devices like "cool zones" (You'll see them at football games spraying a mist of water on the players on the sidelines)

Here are my thoughts:

Indeed those certainly look like they'd keep you cooler than a fan (basically it's using ice as a source of coolness and running the cold via copper piping across the fan so that the air the fan is circulating is cold).

However, where does the ice come from? The cost of the electricity to generate the ice has to be figured in to account. Ice is quite expensive to make or buy, and you lose a fair amount to melting in the cooler and inefficient heat transfer. So while you may have a free source of ice, some power plant somewhere is powering the compressor used to create that ice.

However, on the plus side, very few materials were used to build this "a/c" system so you aren't wasting a buch of resources building a fancy compressor motor for an a/c unit. Also, the ice can be generated at night, when power plants that run all the time (like hydroelectric or nuclear) are producing energy that may not be being used. If you pay your electricity bill on a time dependent basis this can save you a lot of money to shift your electricity use to night time. There are commercial a/c systems that are being built to take advantage of this. They will generate "cool" at night and store it in some form of ice or cold store and then blow air over it during the day. See more at cnet from may 2007 Throwing cold water on energy-hog air conditioners
from 2006 Ice-powered air-conditioner could cut costs

Will all this non peak electricity evaporate as more and more people get time based billing and start using products like this? There's talk of charging plug in hybrid cars at night for the same benefit. Also schemes exist like compressing air in to caves at night and releasing the pressure during the day to generate power (by shifting power from night to day). But the fact of the matter is that most of our power comes from coal and fossil fuels. Which go away whenever they are burned day or night. So if our power plant is one of those, we need to use the most efficient cooling methods rather than shifting the electricity use somewhere else.

Also perhaps the biggest take away point from the instructables is that you are cooling your immediate area, not the whole room. Bingo! That's going to save a huge amount of energy even if the method is slightly inefficient.

What do other people think?
If you don't have night time electricity going to waste that can be used to generate the ice, how efficient is ice creation vs. a home a/c system?

Power measurement of the day - Treadmill

2007-05-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Landice Cardio Trainer L8 (Big treadmill)
off 2 watts
idle 12 - 13
on 46-48 (0.5mph no load)
51-151 (0.5mph 225lb load walking)
113-123 (3mph no load 113-123)
119-457 (225 lb load)
200-209 (6mph 200-209 no load)
220-590 (6mp 225lb load)
518-923 (9mp 225lb load)
342-356 (9mp no load)

It's probably best not to worry about the treadmill though. Knowing most americans you'll end up carrying it up to the attic soon enough. :)

Actually since we are relativistic here, sure not using the treadmill would save energy, but what's the flip side? how much energy is wasted by not using the treadmill? Anybody have power figures on what those crash cart paddles use in hospitals?

Tho on the flip flip side, treadmill might increase your metabolism causing you to eat more food which uses energy resources... gahhh....

Though I feel confident in declaring a victory to.....
The treadmill. Keep it, it's pro environment.

-or-

hook up your treadmill as a generator and power your house like this hong kong gym :)
http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2007/03/gym_powered_by_.html

Computer power supplies

2007-05-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

jils (who has an excellent software development blog at dev.notoptimal.net) notes an efficient power supply can make a big difference. By the chiming in with this sort of thing is greatly appreciated. The blog format is not ideal it was just easy way to put stuff the web, but I really hope that people chime in ways of measuring and reducing energy usage, and for evaluating environmental decisions.

One other item of note on quantitating computer power usage, the power supply rating (say 350Watts) is the output number, which means you have to factor in the efficiency rating to determine how much power it will conceivably draw. While most computers don't draw the peak amount, you may be wanting to know this for peak loading if you are sizing a UPS or solar system.

So a 80% efficient 350W power supply can draw 350/.8 = 437.5 watts and a 60% efficient power supply can draw 583 watts. That one component can make a big difference especially if you leave your computer on all the time. Keep in mind that the .2 or .4 "inefficient" part of the power supply all goes to heat which means you have to run your a/c more.

Computer power supply efficiencies are actually variable based on load. So really in the end to know how much power you're drawing you have to measure it.

So like I always say, there's lots of things you can do to reduce your energy usage, but how do we evaluate the choices with our own constrained resources (read: wallet)

Is it better to spend an extra $100 to get a 80% efficient supply or is better to spend an extra $100 to get a lower power processor? The lower power CPUs out today are design to be in a 65 watt (thermal design envelope) meaning that they aren't meant to put out more than that. Generally that applies to a range of processors so the fastest ones will put out 65 watts (which is the same as the amount of power they draw) and the slower lower power ones might be in the high 50s. The regular power processors range from 80 as high as 120 watts (though those are typically workstation or extreme processors which aren't in the same purchase category). So lets say you save 30 watts by going with the low power cpu. For a 350 w power supply the difference between 70% efficient (about average) and 80% efficient is 125 watts.

Score one for the power supply.

fans and a/c

2007-05-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

As it starts to warm up and you think about turning on the a/c try a fan instead.

Patton U2-2003 fan
off 0
peak 314
high 171-176
medium 129-132
low 141-144

E20739 20" box fan 80 watts(starting up)
high 76-77
medium 57
low 42

That's a lot better than 900 watts or more for an air conditioner.
Windchaser PACR9 (SA12059 WA9000-ER) Portable air conditioner 9000BTU 868-906 watts

For those of you with a whole house a/c try opening a window. Greenhouse effect may make it warmer inside than out.

Readers, come to my rescue! Explain to me what the heck the fan setting on my thermostat does. It doesn't seem to do anything best I can tell. Ideally it would just bring in outside air instead of running the compressor, when the outside air is colder than inside, but that doesn't seem to be the case!

Power Measurement of the day: Canon EOS 1Ds

2007-05-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

The canon EOS 1Ds is a digital SLR 11 megapixel camera. It has a NiMh battery. However it can also run off a/c. I tested it in this a/c mode.

Just on and not doing anything it uses 1-2 watts.
Holding down the shutter release and shooting continuously it uses 18 watts of power.
The power consumption of writing to the compact flash card or shooting slowly is around 8 watts.

Kitchen related power use

2007-05-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Other than lighting and air conditioning, some of the biggest power users in your house are found in your kitchen (though according to this TVs are going to pass the kitchen up! )

The big items in the kitchen:

Refrigerator -- probably the biggest, new ones are more efficient than old, draws a minimal amount of power all the time, and more when for a while after you open the door to bring temp back down

Dishwasher -- has to heat water to a very high temperature and swish it around

Electric Stove -- has to get very hot :)
A gas stove doesn't use much electricity, but it does use gas (These are profound illuminations of energy use....I know)

Both stove types will incur increased air conditioning use in the summer as well.

The microwave is a more efficient heater because while it has a very high power draw, it takes less time. My theory is that convection ovens are also more efficient than standard because the energy used to run the fun, is probably less than the energy saved by the even distribution of heat and resulting less cook time.

Some measurements I have made around kitchens:
Braun type 4045 coffee grinder 0 139 (setting 3) -- 99-103 (setting 1) 71-73

Delonghi Alfredo XU120 toaster 657 (broil) light toast (1248) 630-640 (broil) 1200 (light toast) .04 kwh used for light toast cycle

Cuisinart KUA-17 kettle 0 1352-1369

samsung MW5370W microwave 0 1306-1320

A good source of appromixate power use is http://www.absak.com/design/powercon.html

So while .04 kwh used for light toast is small it's the bigger items in the kitchen that I haven't measured that make most of the difference.

Practical tips:

Run your dish washer on energy saver dry
Buy an efficient refrigerator
Don't leave the refrigerator door open!

AMD Cool n quiet

2007-05-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine (jils) built a home theater pc with the goals of it being quiet and cost effective. Quiet computers are achieved by eliminating fans, which implies having low heat, which means low power.

With AMD CPUs there is a software program called cool n quiet, that will reduce the clock speed of the processor when it's not being used. On intel computers this is generally known as speedstep and doesn't usually require software.

He describes his home theater pc designed for watching HDTV on his 720P LCD rear projection tv like this:

based on an A64 3500+ Winchester CPU So it is not one of the super low-power jobs, but still much cooler than a P4 of that generation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64#Winchester_.2890_nm_SOI.29

The Mobo chipset is an Nvidia 6150 with integrated Geforce graphics sharing the onboard RAM.
80 Gig Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 IDE HDD
300 Watt Antec PS
Avermedia analog Tuner Card
Dvico Fusion HD Tuner Card

He reports the following power usage without the software:
All Measurements in Watts. AMD Cool and Quiet NOT Enabled
S3 Standby: 6
Idle: 81-82
High Load: 98 W (720p x.264 Playback inside of the MCE Interface).

With Cool & Quiet software running, the 3500+ clocks down to 1000Mhz and up from there depending on load.

IDLE: 69 Watts
Watching 640px XviD: 69 Watts (no extra CPU needed for viewing).
Load: 720p x.264 MKV: 90-96 Watts

So he saves 12 watts on idle, and a few watts when it's decoding hdtv. Also interesting to note that the system is effectively idling when it's playing a dvd, because the cpu is still fast enough at the lower clock speed so it doesn't need to increase the speed (and thus power)

The intel core 2 duo chips are very cood at power reduction (probably better) but they can be hurt by the chipset taking up a lot of energy.

The AMD chip jils chose was very cheap, and thus also there's implied environmental savings as it probably took less silicon to produce.

Note that letting his computer go to standby (from which windows media center can wake up to record shows) saves a tremendous amount of power and still provides instant on.

He mentions S3 state which is a lower power mode of standby.

Note that screensavers don't save energy! only having your computer turn off your monitor, hard disks or go to standby (best) does! hibernate is even better.

However if you have a AMD computer look in to cool n quiet to reduce your power usage while you are using your computer!

Upcoming topics

2007-05-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Some things I've been meaning to post about:

Another downside of CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs) -- They need to be recycled because they contain toxic chemicals, where as incandescents can just be thrown away

Eco-mode indicator in hybrids encourages efficient driving and is moving to all toyota cars in future

high efficiency incandescents from GE

should I be running folding @ home?

how to reduce your computer power usage

discussion of new biofuels (unintended effects, costs of production)

rise of the evaluation of computers based on power efficiency

discussion of the power saving black version of google http://blackle.com/

Anybody have any other topics to request?

Water use

2007-05-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Electrimetric is about quantifying our resource and energy consumption and using that knowledge to direct our choices for more efficient use of those resources and reduction in energy consumption. The name may imply electricity, but water is a key resource and likely to be "the next oil" as it becomes increasingly scarce.

A product design I saw on inhabitat (a great architecture and design blog that focuses on green and pre fab) is a meter for faucets to see how much water is being used. The theory goes that if are reminded as to how much you are using you will use less. It seems to just be a design/prototype right now but I think it would be great if it becomes a real product.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/05/08/isave-faucets-monitor-water-use/

Why standby power is sometimes good

2007-02-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Remember what I was saying that all electricity used costs extra in the summer because of air conditioning? Well in the winter, it costs a bit less (if you have electric heat) and makes a happy sleeping spot for cats! Those DVR cable boxes that never turn off are a favorite nap spot for my sister's cats. :)

Taming the peripheral drain

2007-01-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

So you know all those handy peripherals for your computer? the printer? the monitor? the speakers? they all draw power even when they are in standby mode (some models more than others). One way around this is to use a power strip that senses when your computer is off and shuts off the sockets that your peripherals are plugged in to. It watches the power draw for the socket designated for your computer, and then disconnects power to the other sockets (effectively like you had turned off the switch on the power strip)

Here's an example of a product:
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/one-click-power-neutralizes-scumsucking-wall-warts-while-you-sleep-231784.php (power strip with one monitored socket and 5 switched sockets -- made for uk)

I bought this one from amazon:

You'll want to get a power strip for connecting multiple things to the switched socket or a power strip liberator (1 foot extension cord) for something with a wall wart

UPDATE: here's a power strip for sale in the US http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/Bits-Ltd./Item/LCG5/

Charge your cell phone while riding your bike

2007-01-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

New gadget enables charging your cell phone while you bike! http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9681394-1.html?tag=rsspr.6153817
[via cnet and gizmodo and ...]

While I don't think it's going to solve the energy crisis, every bit counts!
And for the paranoid, you can use your bike as a charger when doomsday hits (or just a regular old 7 day north carolina ice storm or other power outage)

Plus it enables good fitness by encouraging you to bike!

Though in the trend I'm hoping to create let's analyze this a bit.

Say it's $23 (I have no idea what the price will be), in a pure electricity at market rate trade off (say it's $.23 / KWh) you have to save 100 KWh, which given my cell phone charger using 1 watt for about 4 hours to charge, I'd have to charge my phone with the bike 25,000 times to pay it back. Modifiers: (+ plus indicates a reason that makes this product better - indicates reason it's worse environmentally relative to a pure market rate analysis)
+ Electrical market rates aren't high enough to reflect co2 emissions and running out oil in future and so on
+ body gets benefit, thereby reducing health care costs (health care consumes energy and resources)
- if you have to pedal more or ride your bike to charge your phone you are going to eat more (food production uses energy and resources)
- the actual production of a gadget uses resources and energy (plastic, heat for molding, pcbs have toxic chemicals) which probably aren't reflected completely in the sales price

Note that these modifiers are in now way relative in size in priorities (and in fact some are totally unquantifiable and silly) but I think it's good to explore some of the connected effects

compact fluorescent lighting

2007-01-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

I read somewhere that lighting is 22% of the US electricity usage (I'll see if I can track down the source of that). So it is a big chunk of our energy usage and replacing traditional light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (sometimes referred to as CFLs) is an easy way to reduce your electricity usage.

Pros:
They screw in to normal light sockets
They use approximately 1/5th the energy
They put out less heat

Cons:
Light is cooler somewhat greenish
not dimmable
upfront cost more than standard lightbulb
it's best to dispose of them as harzardous waste http://www.nema.org/lamprecycle/epafactsheet-cfl.pdf

Regarding the non-dimmability, I'm told there are now 3 way CFL bulbs as well as dimmable bulbs. They are still quite expensive but given that it's just changes to the ballast, I imagine the costs of the dimmable ones will come down significantly.

Sources for dimmable bulbs
http://www.energyfederation.org/consumer/default.php/cPath/25_44_169_205
http://blackenergy.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info¤cy=USD&products_id=1238
http://www2.acehardwareoutlet.com/(ijjroa55aqxegp55aojelmm3)/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=3992252&Source=froogle

Now given that lighting does take up a large amount of energy and replacing light bulbs with CFLs is easy, you may be tempted to ignore the 5 watts your router consumes and and the 10 watts of standby your TV uses. But remember those are on 24 hours a day, and even if all lighting was made more efficient we'd still use way too much electricity!!!!

Hidden cost of electrical consumption measurements

2007-01-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous post on lighting, electrical devices generate heat, and in climates that require air conditioning you incur the cost of the air conditioner electrical usage on top of the electrical usage of the device itself.

For example if you were to take a 100 watt lightbulb. Since very little light escapes the house, we'll make the assumption that all the electricity used by the bulb ends up as heat added to the house (more on this assumption later) To convert watts to BTU/hour you multiple times 3.43 and since we leave the light on for 1 hour, we generated 343 BTUs. Say your AC unit is a 10000 BTU unit (meaning it's rated to cool 10000 BTUs/hour) with an energy efficiency rating (EER) of 8.3 which means your A/C unit uses 1200 watts. For now lets assume with the light bulb on your ac unit is running constantly and maintains a stable 75 degree temperature. 343 BTUs of the 10000 it is cooling are due to the light bulb so 3.4% of the work it is doing is cooling the light bulb. 3.43% of 1200 watts is 41.16 watts for a combined total of bulb and a/c of 141 watts. So with the parameters we chose for the air conditioner, you are paying an extra 41% on top of the amount of power you pay for the light bulb directly.

So if you left that light on 10 hours per day for 100 days in the summer, how much would it cost if you pay $.20 per kilowatt hour? $28.32!

The same calculations are applicable to computers where basically all the electricity is converted to heat. This can be very important when designing datacenters, server rooms and offices, where computers can be on all the time, and the air conditioning becomes a huge factor in the cost. Monitors, TVs, DVD players, all convert most of their power used to heat. Some gets converted to light or sound, but this is still energy that gets converted back to heat when it impacts your walls!

Did I get my math right? Don't agree with my assumptions? Post a comment!

Lighting

2007-01-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

Lighting measurements are fairly straight forward. Most lightbulbs have a wattage rating on them, and typically they use around that amount of electricity. So I won't be measuring a lot of lighting and posting them here. However, I'd like to point out that one of the quickest and easiest ways to save energy around the house is to replace your incandescent bulbs with fluorescents. Granted they cost more up front but most places they pay back from between 6 months to 1.5 years which is way faster than just about anything else "environmental" (other than just using less). Also keep in mind that they can't be used with dimmers. But you can get the same light output (yes they do make really high brightness bulbs) at less than 1/5th the energy usage.

There is another hidden advantage to fluorescents, that saves money, they put out less heat.

According to this article over at cnet, 22 percent of the electricity consumed in the US goes towards lighting. They also note that incandescent bulbs are about 5% efficient (ie 95% of the electrricity gets used gets turned in to heat, with only 5% becoming light), so I believe the dept of energy number is actually bigger, given that many people use air conditioning in the summer, they are having to cool their lighting.

Other TV related measurements

2007-01-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

Roku Photobridge HD1000 network media player photo viewer 15-16 16-17 (idle at menu) booting 15 slideshow 17

Scientific Atlanta 8300 hd dvr cable box off 21 watts idle 22-23 peak measured (starting up) 31
Scientific Atlanta 8000HD Explorer (HD DVR cable box) off 29 watts on 30 watts (idle, playing, recording all were 30 watts)

Note that cable boxes and media adapters, are also usually "always on".
DVR cable boxes, because of the 30 minute buffer that lets you go back in time, are always on, even if they aren't recording anything.

Networking gear

2007-01-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

A lot of networking gear gets left on permanently and people don't remember that they are paying for that.

Examples:

Cable Modem 3 watts (Motorola Surfboard SB4200 -- Provided by Time Warner)
Router 5 watts (Netgear FVX538 -- vpn router dual wan)
Switch 5 watts (Netgear GS608 8 port gigabit ethernet switch -- measured with 1 link, 4 watts with no links)

How much power do LCD monitors and TVs use?

2006-12-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Dell 2001FP (20" lcd computer monitor)
39 watts (standby/idle)
42 watts (playing vga video full screen)
29 wats (turning on)

Dell 2000FP (20" lcd computer monitor)
3 watts (off)
3 watts (standby/idle)
50 watts (windows desktop)
47 watts (3d flower box screensaver mostly black screen)
45-47 watts (playing hidef video -- prison break 2x01 720p)
41-42 watts (almost entirely black screen)

Sharp 45GX6U 45" LCD tv (1080P panel doesn't include required A/V box)
0 watts (off)
34 (idle?)
<1 (sleep)
232-236 (nothing on screen)
237-241 (static image)

45GX6U AVC box input box for lcd tv
4 watts (off)
42 watts

The above measurements were made with a kill a watt monitor by electrimetric

Other measurements reported:
mark_1080p from avsforum reports
Sharp LC-32d7u 32" LCD tv 63 watts @ min backlight setting
Sharp LC-37d7u 37" LCD tv 68 watts @ min backlight setting
Samsung LN-S5296 52" Plasma TV 115 watts @ min backlight setting

update 2007-01-19
jils reports:
Panasonic PT-43LC14 (LCD rear projection 720P)
consumes 158-161 watts during use (didn't seem to matter what channel
was being viewed/res).

update 2007-03-01
Sceptre X37SV (-Komodo) off < 1 watt, on 181 watts (idle blue, or full motion video)

Welcome

2006-12-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Electrimetric's blog -- the site for pratical information about how much electricity you use and how to reduce power consumption

Please post in the comments under relevant posts your own power measurements. Make sure to tell us how you measured (Kill-A-Watt or Watts up or other meter) and what the thing you measured was doing at the time of the measurement.

Also don't forget to tell us how much power it uses while it's off or in standby mode (lots of things use lots of power while they are off)

Send email to electrimetric (aaaaaaaaaaaaaat) so5.com