Wattvision

Every so often, a new idea springs forth and we get to glimpse into what could be. I have stated on here before, and our original founder, Jay, has stated on here before that one of the biggest issues that is holding us back to truly mastering our energy consumption is real-time energy monitoring. Now, obviously, there are ramification to an electric company for truly offering this to their consumers, and their have been many products and ways to look at to monitor real time energy use.

Even on this site alone, we have talked about this issue a few times, and different products. Jay even posted an unboxing of an Efergy E2. Yet, something then happened over the last couple years, well actually, two things happened over the last couple of years, that now has a direct effect on giving the power back to the consumer.

The first thing that happened was the smartphone revolution. All of a sudden in the past couple of years everyone smartphones seemed to be readily available and accessible for everyone in almost every income bracket. They slowly started becoming part of our lives. Smartphones have changed the way we live and could very well change the way that we do small things around the house. We have been allowed to have a computer in the palm of our hand.

The second thing that has happened is Kickstarter and the crowdfunding movement. These type of sites allow us as consumers to invest in ideas that we think that would better our lives. We don't have to depend on big banks, or large investors that may or may not get our idea, but we can pitch our idea to a plethora of like minded people, and let them decided if they like our idea. It is truly power to the people.

That is where Wattvision comes in. Wattvision is a prototype real time energy meter that delivers real time energy use directly to your smartphone, and can determine how much energy a specific device in your house. I watched the video, and I was pretty impressed with what they are intending to do. You can check it out here.

These guys also have some pedigree under their belt. They have also gained backing for this nifty solar energy charger called the Ready Set Solar Kit.I am excited to see if this project gets funded and where it goes from there. I think with enough people interested, and the correct roll out that this could be a game changer.

---Justin (link via Angie Fretz)

Something has to be said, so I'll make it quick...one year later

On year ago one of the most tragic environmental travesties started to set in motion in the Gulf of Mexico. For months we watched as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. After numerous failed attempts, the leak was eventually stopped, but the damage had been done.

For much of the public, this is where the story ended. There were months of outrage against BP and the Administration, the past Administration, and pretty much anyone else that had some sort of part in this whole mess. We saw live congressional hearings that taught us nothing, and saw pictures of oiled birds, dead dolphins, and oi balls on beaches. But then something amazing happened, the oil well was plugged, and the problem seemed to go away in the media and in the American conscious.

Please realize, that the problem is not gone. This post isn't to be a political rant or finger pointing, because that is not the spirit of this blog. Yet, on this day and the following months, please think aboutt the energy that you consume. How can you help us get off of oil, what can you do to tell elected officials what you think, how can you lower your own personal home oil and energy consumption. It is really easy to sit back and say the politicians aren't doing anything, but we can always look at our own products we have in our house, how we drive our car, if we drive our car, how much energy do we use at home, all of this adds up. If we can think about that today, and the coming months, we can make a difference, without the politicians, and each little step is at least a step, and many little steps can walk hundreds of miles.

---Justin J. Stewart

SRP Slays Energy Vampires

The SRP (Salt River Project), who delivers power to the Phoenix-Metro region has posted a website of simple things that you can do right away to combat Energy Vampires. They are well known energy vampires and ones that everyone should be fighting against in their home, because they are simple fixes, many which have been talked about before on this site. Something very cool though, is a energy vampire calculator that tells you just how much energy and its cost is being drained from your home. Well worth the visit to hear there advice and plug some numbers into the calculator!

Energy Vampires link on SRPNet

---Justin J. Stewart (link provided by Katie Ray)

Arizona Weatherization funds still available!

...link provided by Angie Fretz

Back in January and February of this year, Jay Fretz & Angie Fretz had their home Weatherized professionally. They received funding as part of the Low Income Weatherization Program, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was passed in 2009, or aka The Stimulus Package. Their experiences was a great one, and is documented here for the January part, and here for the February part.

In a recent article from the Arizona Republic on September 19th and related side article from the same day, much of this money is still unspent and available for use. The grants so far have helped about 2,200 homes in the Metro-Phoenix area be weatherized out of the anticipated 6,400 homes. With many of this help still available, if you are thinking of weatherizing your home, now would be a great time to consider it. Last year, more than 1,200 additional people were trained and put back to work to help with this project. Les Woody who oversees this program for the state says that the average home could get up to $5,500 worth of free repairs through the grant money and rebates. The department has until 2012 to spend the funds, but weatherizing your house now will save you money month after month, and reduce your energy consumption!

---Justin J. Stewart (link via Angie Fretz)

What is a kilowatt-hour?!!!??!

...link via Karen Stucke

Let's talk about some definitions here. We are trying to save energy at our homes and trying to reduce that magical kW/h number. It's an easy concept, the number goes down over time, you are reducing your cost and increasing your efficiency. Here is the real question though, what exactly is you impact. What exactly is a kW/h?

                                                               

Now, a kilowatt/hour is 1000 watts of usage in one hour or 3.6 megajoules! Wow! That's a lot of megajoules right? Or is it a little bit of megajoules? What is a megajoule? What is a watt? Right, it is all confusing that can get to a bunch of scientific definitions, which I could go into with you, but that doesn't save you energy right? No. Not really. We want to express ideas into reality and real life applications. One 60 watt light bulb used to 1 hour is equivalent to .06 kilowatt/hour (i.e. (60W/1000)/1 hour, and 60 Watts being .06 kilowatts, because there are 1,000 watts in a kilowatt. So it would be 60/1000). You would have to leave that light on for about 16 hours and 40 minutes to get one measurable kilowatt hour (which is most if not all electricity companies charge you for).

Now, I just gave you a bunch of math, and still it probably doesn't help you with day to day operations of how much energy you really use. So here is further research. Thanks to one of our readers out there, Karen, we have been supplied with an awesome link to see how equivalent energy is being used in your part of the country versus an amount of kilowatts. The Green Power Equivalency Calculator comes from United States Environmental Protection Agency, and is a quick and easy way to see how much Coal, Gas, or CO2 would be used with your kilowatts that you enter (you can pick any number that you want). The Calculator is supposed to figure out how much your "green" energy purchase through the EPA saves from going into the environment, but can be used as a reverse calculator of also telling you how much of the equivalents you just put into the environment.

I used my last month's electricity bill and entered my 477 kw/hs for my region (region 21 ERCT according to the map on the page). I was then informed that my 477 kw/hs is equal to 242 kilograms of CO2 emission. Or equivilent CO2 emissions of 27 gallons of gasoline, .563 barrels of oil, 10.1 propane cylinders for BBQs, .001 railcar worth of coal, and .029 of the average American home in one year. Interesting stuff I say. It makes you get a better grasp of how much Carbon-Dioxide you are giving off into the air. I am not sure if I ever really answered what is a kilowatt-hour, but I hope I gave you a fun tool that can help you grasp it more...

---Justin J. Stewart (link via Karen Stucke)