TweetOccasionally, 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 [...]
TweetOnce 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 [...]
Tweet 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 [...]
TweetI’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. [...]
TweetThere was an excellent article from Fast Company last week about the battle for our country’s energy future, and it smacks of the classic David vs. Goliath. Our current energy infrastructure is like an ailing heart patient: it was strong in its heyday, but now its been patched and prodded and if you give it [...]
TweetTwo interactive data visualizations for you today that have been making their way around the InfoVis blogs recently. The first is an exploration of global oil reserves from The Economist. Apparently, we have 40 years worth of reserves at the current rate of consumption. They don’t mention that there are a couple of billion people [...]
TweetFrom the network that brought you “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” comes a new sitcom titled “My Refrigerator Beats Me at Chess.” Okay, so I made that up, but companies are feverishly working to make all of our home appliances “smarter” by adding unit-level meters with network capabilities. The idea is that during [...]
TweetI can’t hide it anymore – I’m in love, and it’s likely to get me kicked out of my house. The object of my affection? TED! Okay, so this love affair is probably less “Jerry Springer” and more “Star Trek” because TED stands for The Energy Detective, a home energy monitoring device that has recently [...]
TweetHoly Cross Energy, a rural electric cooperative serving Colorado, is moving to establish tiered electric rate structures that will incentivize savings. The revenue-neutral move means that instead of simply increasing rates across the board, the utility will allow customers to save money by “stepping down” their consumption. It’s not clear from this AP article what [...]
