Philip Greenspun has an interesting post on energy usage in cities and buildings with tidbits like this one:
In the U.S., residential and commercial space accounts for 40 percent of our primary energy consumption; 38 percent of CO2 emissions are from operating buildings.
He also talks about his desire for smart buildings.
I really do hate going around turning off the lights so one of the things I want to do when I move into my new place is to re-wire it so that I can turn off all non-essential energy consuming devices from a switch by the door or by the bed. This should be a fun little home automation project :).
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5 responses so far ↓
1 mhays // Jun 13, 2007 at 8:59 am
Living in a condo/apartment and not having a car means you use a much less energy than someone who has a house and drives. On average.
Details like efficient bulbs, the temperature setting, window thickness, etc., are important too. And the gas mileage on your car if you have one. But, if you want to make a difference, first deal with the big stuff.
2 EconE // Jun 13, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Matt…that’s a super cool idea. I never really thought about it. Is it something that you would connect to the breaker box? I think that it would be exceptionally important to have something like this for the people in the larger SFR’s as it I could see people leaving their house, and on the way out seeing an upstairs light left on and just shrugging it off whereas a person in a smaller condo/house would be able to see what is left on on their way out the door.
Besides refrigerators, what are the main culprits for energy consumption in a home?
3 Art Vandelay // Jun 13, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Water heaters and HVAC
4 kh // Jun 14, 2007 at 10:57 am
Mithun worked with the Lady Bird Johnson Center to develop this new calculator for embodied CO2 in construction projects.
http://buildcarbonneutral.org/
5 EconE // Jun 14, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I’m finding that compared to my “mom’s basement” the power isn’t very clean in the condo that I’m renting (not bitterly might I add). It really doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I’m going to look into one of these for my audio gear.
http://www.exactpower.com/products/ep15a/index.html
Clean power *does* make a difference.
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