July's Popular Science "kit of the month" features plans to build a Tweet-A-Watt.  The Tweet-A-Watt is a great idea, but very limited in scope.  If you remember my post on the Kill-A-Watt you know that this devices measures individual circuits.  So it can measure your toaster, refrigerator, TV,...
Perpetual Motion Impossible   ***Update -7/27/09 - I've confirmed with my own eyes that Magniwork is a SCAM! One of the readers was kind enough to share the Magniwork plans with me and they are laughable.  The whole "document" is 57 pages long and looks like something a kid in high...
Clothes slow Lance down I love watching the Tour de France each summer and I enjoy watching the coverage and seeing the cyclist's wattage as they race away from the peloton or climb the Alps. By understanding how much power a person can produce, it should give you a good frame of reference on...
Usually when you hear the term "Not in my back yard (NIMBY)!" it refers to opposition against a utility's plans for a power plant that will offend residents.  The residents are usually fine with the goals of the utility, after all, everyone needs power; they just don't want to have to see the...
Energy Efficiency vs. Stock Market Where and how should you invest your hard-earned money? There are so many options to invest in, which is the best one? What is the payback on energy efficiency for your home? I originally posted this comparison on whether to invest money on energy...
This is best analysis I've found if you are seriously considering buying a wind turbine.  This is a re-posting of a blog written by Amy Berry for Green by Design and can be seen here.  Amy can be found on Twitter at @wind2power and helps promote the Windspire Turbine by Mariah Power.  I'll comment...
TrickleSaver Engadget recently posted an article on the TV TrickleSaver by TrickleStar. The purpose of the device is to cut off the standby power (a.k.a. vampire load) to your gaming systems attached to your TV. So when you turn off the TV, the TrickleSaver cuts off any standby power to your...
Anemometer You know those spinney things you sometimes see  on top of weather vanes?  They're called anemometers and they are measuring wind speed.  Wind speed is by far the most important factor in determining if a small wind turbine will work on your property.  Just because you see flags...
TED 5000 opened In the future, when the smart grid is finally here, every home will have a smart meter.  But the future is a long ways off, so there is no sense in waiting. Energy, Inc., the manufacturers of The Energy Detective and the TED 5000 announced on Tuesday, June 30th that the TED 5000...
"Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea" Family vacation time means piling the kids in the car and setting off on the open roads. It also means it is summer and gas prices are high. Save money, foreign oil and some CO2 by following some of these easy steps to improve your mileage...
How much electricity and money  do you save when you raise the temperature on the thermostat? This week I have been focusing on lowering energy bills due to air conditioning because it has been so darned hot outside. First I looked at a few strategies you could employ to lower the demand on your...
Amory and his Banana Today I had the pleasure to watch Amory Lovins give an excellent lecture at the Virtual Energy Forum - which labels itself as the worlds largest online energy conference.  If you've been following this blog since the beginning you know I'm a huge fan of the leader of Rocky...
My recent post on lowering your energy consumption due to your Air Conditioning provided steps you could use to control your AC, but it didn't analyze how much energy your air conditioner uses when it is running.  We will look at calculating AC energy consumption in this post. In order to figure...
Hot enough to Melt Witches The past week in Atlanta has been hot.  They don't call this city Hotlanta for nothin'.  And we aren't like those lucky Arizonians.  We don't have the luxury of "dry heat".  Our heat is dripping.  It was almost too hot to sit in the pool yesterday.  The water was so...
I recently started occasionally blogging for the Sustainable Business focused blog, Triple Pundit.  While Mapawatt is focused on what the individual can do to lower their energy and water consumption, Triple Pundit focuses on larger issues like business and sustainable policy. My first blog was...
The Carbon Counter I had the chance to speak with Mark Fulton, the Global head of climate change research for Deutsche Bank (DB), this afternoon.  We discussed DB's new website, Know The Number and how they are trying to bring the actual numbers behind Global Warming - greenhouse gas figures -...
I think the Honeywell WT6000 wind turbine sold by EarthTronics  has the opportunity to "blow" open the residential and light commercial market. From the Earthtronics Honeywell WT600 wind turbine website: The Honeywell Wind Turbine is a gearless, “free wheeling’’ turbine that generates power from...
Simple is effective In the past two months, I've had two people recommend the book Sustainable Energy: Without the hot air by David MacKay to me.  I visited the website on the first recommendation, but was initially turned away by the design ( I know, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover...
Like cell phones in China, light emitting diodes (LED) have the potential to leapfrog CFLs as a technology in parts of the world that are looking for a replacement to the incandescent bulb for residential lighting.  The ability of diodes to produce light was first recognized in the 1920's, so LEDs...
I was going through some files on my old computer and I found the article below, which according to the properties I wrote on 2/16/2007. I wrote this before I found a voice through this blog and submitted it to my local paper and a few friends, but it never went much farther than that. I had...

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