Kill A Watt, Eat for a Lifetime
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I don't want to be a hippie. I don't want to be "green". I do not, under any circumstances, want Al Gore to give me a pat on the back. I would be wary of any politician touching parts of my body because I am sure it leaves a slime that never goes away. I really hope my mom never let the mayor or county commissioner kiss me when I was a baby because that's disgusting. If you see me doing anything environmentally friendly, I am only doing my best to try to keep that scary Mayan snake thing from consuming the world just as he consumes his tail.In order to beat back the snake, I have issued a personal Jihad on myself to cut down on mindless wastefulness. I could list all of the environmental things I do as a self-congratulatory pat on the back, but to do so would be worse of a sin than saying aloud what you wished for over your birthday cake.
Anyway, I'm not an electrical engineer, but I do play one at work. Sometimes working on electricity messes with your head and makes you think about irrational things... like how Taco Bell flowing down your stomach is exactly like electron current flow. The experience at your mouth is positive but the only way to have any EMF is if for your stomach to become negative, so very negative.
Awhile back I remember a lunatic environmentalist lady telling me that I should unplug my cell phone charger when I'm not using it because it did something awful in the Rain Forests to make female gorillas go in heat, but not put out. This would cause the male gorillas to tear down acres of rain forests in fits of frustrated anger. I wanted to find out for myself if this was true. I bought a Kill-A-Watt meter to check how much gorilla anger not unplugging your cell phone charger really causes.
So here is the raw data to glaze over so you can decide for yourself. The Kill-A-Watt meter will tell you how much power in used in KWH. From the amount of time you leave the tester plugged in, you can calculate all kinds of nerdy numbers. From my electric bill I figured out that $/KWH = $0.082 (that's 13 blades of grass, Mongolian).
| Device | time/day | kw | kw/day | kw/yr | $/day | $/yr |
| 13" TV | 2 | 0.036 | 0.073 | 26.545 | $0.006 | $2.177 |
| 13W compact florescent* (60W equivalent) | 24* | 0.010 | 0.240 | 87.600 | $0.020 | $7.183 |
| 60W Lamp* | 24* | 0.060 | 1.440 | 525.600 | $0.118 | $43.099 |
| 23W compact florescent (100W equivalent) | 1 | .023 | .023 | .8233 | $0.002 | $0.675 |
| LED Lamp post (8 LEDs) | 12 | 0.000 | 0.004 | 1.460 | $0.000 | $0.120 |
| Cell Charger Standby | 24 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | $0.000 | $0.000 |
| Desktop computer always on | 24 | 0.177 | 4.257 | 1553.747 | $0.349 | $127.407 |
| Desktop with hibernate | 24 | 0.105 | 2.508 | 915.561 | $0.206 | $75.076 |
| Freezer / Refrigerator | 24 | 0.084 | 2.016 | 735.840 | $0.165 | $60.339 |
| Ionic Breeze | 24 | 0.007 | 0.174 | 63.553 | $0.014 | $5.211 |
| LED night light (5 LEDs) | 12 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | $0.000 | $0.000 |
| Uranium Cyclotron | 24 | 4000 | 96000 | 35M | $7872 | $2.8M |
| GE Microwave 's Clock | 24 | 0.005 | 0.120 | 43.800 | $0.010 | $3.592 |
| Roomba (Charged) | 24 | 0.005 | 0.120 | 43.800 | $0.010 | $3.592 |
| Roomba (Charging) | 1 | 0.009 | 0.009 | 3.266 | $0.001 | $0.268 |
| Shreader on Standby | 24 | 0.001 | 0.021 | 7.831 | $0.002 | $0.642 |
| Washer (2 loads/week) | .023 | .293 | .007 | 2.463 | $.001 | $.202 |
* KWH and Cost based on leaving the light on all the time like a filthy animal
--Pansonic 37" Plasma , Toshiba HDMI dvd player, Denon reciever, Nintendo Wii, Comcast HD cable box--
| Device | time/day | kw | kw/day | kw/yr | $/day | $/yr |
| TV + DVD + Receiver | 2 | 0.269 | 0.537 | 196.119 | $0.044 | $16.082 |
| TV + Receiver + Cable | 3 | 0.300 | 0.900 | 328.500 | $0.074 | $26.937 |
| TV + Wii | 2 | 0.288 | 0.575 | 209.875 | $0.047 | $17.210 |
| TV OFF + Cable + Music | 2 | 0.080 | 0.160 | 58.400 | $0.013 | $4.789 |
| Entire system standby | 24 | .060 | 1.44 | 525.6 | $0.118 | $43.099 |
Lessons Learned
- I used to leave the computer on all the time unless I was going on vacation. Now I let it hibernate after a few hours. Hibernation should save about $50/year.
- People will still pay over $100 for an Ionic Breeze, and all it does is effectively shred $5 a year.
- The Comcast cable box on idle is like leaving a 60W light bulb on all the time. I'm getting rid of Comcast and throwing the box into the river.
- Making tables with blogger is really hard.
- A nice man from Oman has offered to buy the Uranium Cyclotron. Now I'll finally have some beer money.
- LEDs are expensive but hundreds of times more efficient than compact fluorescents. Most indicator lights on your electronics are LEDs. The power use of many standby items is next to zero. Leaving something on standby does not necessarily mean that you'll bring down the entire power grid.
- And finally - CELL PHONE CHARGERS DO NOT CAUSE MONKEYS TO GO IN HEAT. My charger said it used ZERO power, but I am sure some trickled through the transformers. However, unless your charger has a 100W spotlight indicator bulb when it's idle, chances are polar bears will have just as much hunting ground in the summer whether you unplug it or not. Unplugging your charger is the equivalent of letting Al Gore goose you while you're bent over and will never solve any real problems.
posted by Ghengis @ 6:38 PM,
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Mommy, what does nappy mean?
Friday, April 13, 2007
Hey I don't know if you guys have heard or not but the radio and TV have been telling me about this guy name Eyemist. They have been going crazy talking about this guy. There are so many differing opinions on this guy, you could probably fill an entire month of nonstop news coverage and never hear the same thing twice.I bet this guy could use all of this publicity to launch into a career in radio... maybe even be on TV! He could probably even talk about himself just like everybody else.
He looks like he is 157 years old. I guess the old adage is true; good things come to those who wait.
In other news there is a nice lady named Anna Nicole who had a baby. The baby is either a boy or a girl and its weight was measured in pounds and ounces. I am sure she and her husband are so thrilled to have been blessed with a human life. Lets hear it for the new family!
That is all of the news that happened in the last two weeks. Please continue to have a peaceful and stress-free life.
posted by Ghengis @ 7:00 PM,
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Magical Prophecies
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Illusionist was a pretty good movie. It made me wonder how long those old time magic shows would go on. Would people get all dressed up in their Sunday dresses and best suits and hats to pack into a dimly lit theater to watch a performer on stage show them a neat trick? In the infancy of modern magic tricks, would people sit there and be satisfied with a simple 15 minute show where a man tricked them into believing that two solid rings could be linked together and then pulled back apart just as easily?
The movie made me wonder if the attention spans of today's society could be captured by a live performer showing them one trick in a short amount of time. Would it delight them so much to tell their friends and create a local, national, or even worldwide buzz? My first thought was that with so many different people with so many different interests, such a performer could not exist these days. When I popped out the Illusionist DVD, my answer was on there playing for free on Showtime.
I was looking forward to seeing An Inconvenient Truth because I always like to see the science behind a theory so I can understand exactly how the use of 30% of the earth's surface can have such a profound effect on the upper stratosphere 10-50km away. That kind of stuff interests the hell out of me, but sadly this movie had nothing to do with that. The title should have been more specific - An Inconvenient Truth - An hour and a half introspective of how ice melts when it gets warm. I learned that from Mr. Wizard when I was 7. You can learn a lot from an old man that invites children over to his house to film them one at a time.
The plot of this movie was stolen by Underpants GnomesI'm not really a skeptic of this climate change stuff, but I don't think the whole truth is being told. There are plenty of other theories out there as to why climate is changing other than people. Sunspot cycles are hardly ever mentioned in these discussions. To take it a step further, the Mayan Calender runs out in 2012 during a sunspot festival and the earth is supposed to turn sideways and fly through-out the galaxy bouncing off of planets and stars in a game of heavenly billiards until we are sunk in a black hole for eternity.
That snake thing scares me most of allPerhaps the best theory is that of the Titanic. Ol' Unsinkable angered the ice when it intentionally engaged ramming speed and crashed its pointed bow into that poor defenseless little iceberg that was minding its own business on that crisp April evening in 1912. This sent tremors through the iceberg community and they vowed to get revenge on the human blight. However since icebergs communications are slowed by the cold the message took a long time to reach the entire Arctic community. Coincidentally the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic's murderous rampage is 5 years and 7 days from the day I am writing this. April 14th, 2012. That is the date we all need to look out for. That is the date that the icebergs will launch the attack.
With permission I plan on making a sequel to Gore's film. An Inconvenient Truth II - April Snow brings May Controversy. From my back porch, we will be lying on our bellies with our heads cupped in our hands while kicking our feet in the air, with a camera trained on the snow, waiting for the spring sun to bring its melt on. Can you say Academy Award?
Not that this means anything...
posted by Ghengis @ 12:18 PM,
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