Posts Tagged ‘electricity’

Ever wonder how many sitcoms you can watch for a dime? Well, wonder no more.

Do you remember a couple of months ago when customers had their electric meters upgraded to “smart grid” versions, only to see their electric bills double or triple?  And then, when customers complained, do you remember how the electric companies told them that it wasn’t due to meter malfunctions, it just happened to be cold [...]

A couple of months ago, the Energy Circle blog covered a new product called PowerHouse Dynamics eMonitor. It’s a whole house electricity monitor that can measure and report on each individual circuit, giving the homeowner unprecedented levels of information on their home’s energy usage patterns.  More data can mean more understanding and more control. But [...]

I received a letter yesterday from my friendly local Duke-Energy office, letting me know that they’re re-branding a load shedding program they’ve had around for ages.  The “Air Conditioning Load Control” program (major snore) is now “Power Manager” (merely a yawn). Here’s how it works: Duke Energy installs a remote control device on your air [...]

If you’ve ever considered installing a wind generation system at your house, MapAWatt has a helpful primer on calculating your home’s wind potential. Turns out, it’s not quite as straight-forward as the calculation for solar potential, but those living in the mountains, plains, and coastal regions may have sufficient wind speeds to make the project [...]

I often think about the appliances plugged into my outlets, but I almost never think about the outlets themselves. Luckily, inventor John La Grou does. He and his colleagues searched for a way to prevent electrical fires in homes, and his solution could have major impacts on how we use energy in our homes and businesses. [...]

Occasionally, I like to take a Friday to tell you about the blogs I read on a regular basis.  Today, it’s porno-graphic. Chart Porn, run by DC Economist Dustin Smith, is an all-you-can-eat buffet of infographics.  Dustin compiles links to just about every note-worthy visualization, flow chart, or map on just about any subject. Thankfully, ecometrics [...]

Once that “Save the Whales” bumper sticker wears off of your 1984 Pinto, you may want to invest in a “Free the Grid” upgrade. An electric grid is a difficult thing to manage, so its care has been traditionally left to the power companies.  The state government usually acts as overseer/dictator/blind eye, depending on where [...]

Energy and Eco-bloggers are taking advantage of the Halloweekend to talk about energy vampires – the always-on parasites like phone chargers and dvd players that slowly, silently leech electricity from the outlet and money from your wallet. I was going to avoid the whole discussion until Christmas when it would take on a proper level [...]

I’m happy to be the proud parent of a new TED 5000 home electricity monitor!  A friend of mine happens to be an electrician, so he helped me install the meter inside my circuit breaker panel last night.  I’ll have a full report as soon as I get some time to play with the data. [...]