Comments on: An Eco-Audit of a Modern Geek’s Home http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/03/05/an-eco-audit-of-a-modern-geeks-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-eco-audit-of-a-modern-geeks-home Green Design, Sustainable Technology and Environmental Oddities Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:06:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Derek http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/03/05/an-eco-audit-of-a-modern-geeks-home/comment-page-1/#comment-30545 Derek Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:07:04 +0000 http://webecoist.com/?p=5510#comment-30545 Some geeks aren't fortunate enough to have a mac? Macs are overrated and with a puny single digit sliver of the market it seems like more than geeks are fortunate enough to pass it up. Some geeks aren’t fortunate enough to have a mac? Macs are overrated and with a puny single digit sliver of the market it seems like more than geeks are fortunate enough to pass it up.

]]> By: Tom Harrison http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/03/05/an-eco-audit-of-a-modern-geeks-home/comment-page-1/#comment-30440 Tom Harrison Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:32:04 +0000 http://webecoist.com/?p=5510#comment-30440 Wow, great site, and great article, too. I found you because I work for the company that runs BeatThat.com and we noticed the link. But I read it because I am 1) a gadget freak, and 2) a green freak. As you observe, these two things don't go together that well. I would argue that your fix for Plasma TVs is all wrong -- the fix, at least in the 42" size is to get an LCD instead (and for the greener freaks, 32" or 37" is just fine) -- LCDs are way less power-hungry, and in most cases far less resource intensive than Plasma technology. We have a couple of good articles on the details on our site at DigitalAdvisor.com. A couple others I would add are: TiVo Series 3 or Tivo HD: use it to replace your Motorola cable box and save as much as 100W (7x24x365). I measured this -- it's real. I also gave up my full-time media server (an old Dell 4550 running XP) and replaced it and my old router with an Apple Time Capsule, which acts as a wireless router/switch, and a file server, and a music server via AirTunes, complete with its own wireless remote, thanks to my iPhone. The music isn't quite as cool as the three SqueezeBoxes it replaced, but the total savings was more than 110W (7x24x365). Getting our (stupid) PCs to standby and hibernate properly was another biggie. And two other geek toys that have saved the most electricity: 1) a Kill-A-Watt, and 2) a real-time display of our electrical consumption using a device known as a Cent-a-meter (but actually called a PowerCost Monitor). This is how I know how much all these gizmos use. Bottom line: I have not given up my geeky toys -- I just got smart about how we use our juice. I have <a href="http://fivepercent.us/2008/12/21/top-10-things-we-did-to-cut-our-electricity-bill-in-half/" rel="nofollow">reduced my electricity bill by half</a>, and if you don't believe me, the proof is on my blog. Wow, great site, and great article, too. I found you because I work for the company that runs BeatThat.com and we noticed the link. But I read it because I am 1) a gadget freak, and 2) a green freak. As you observe, these two things don’t go together that well.

I would argue that your fix for Plasma TVs is all wrong — the fix, at least in the 42″ size is to get an LCD instead (and for the greener freaks, 32″ or 37″ is just fine) — LCDs are way less power-hungry, and in most cases far less resource intensive than Plasma technology. We have a couple of good articles on the details on our site at DigitalAdvisor.com.

A couple others I would add are: TiVo Series 3 or Tivo HD: use it to replace your Motorola cable box and save as much as 100W (7x24x365). I measured this — it’s real.

I also gave up my full-time media server (an old Dell 4550 running XP) and replaced it and my old router with an Apple Time Capsule, which acts as a wireless router/switch, and a file server, and a music server via AirTunes, complete with its own wireless remote, thanks to my iPhone. The music isn’t quite as cool as the three SqueezeBoxes it replaced, but the total savings was more than 110W (7x24x365).

Getting our (stupid) PCs to standby and hibernate properly was another biggie.

And two other geek toys that have saved the most electricity: 1) a Kill-A-Watt, and 2) a real-time display of our electrical consumption using a device known as a Cent-a-meter (but actually called a PowerCost Monitor). This is how I know how much all these gizmos use.

Bottom line: I have not given up my geeky toys — I just got smart about how we use our juice. I have reduced my electricity bill by half, and if you don’t believe me, the proof is on my blog.

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