If you've paid attention to the ruckus about this week's poll, in which I was ardently flamed, you might want to check out my thoughts on the issue. Or you might not.
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It's back to Rob for next week's hints. He's been keeping me up to date on his vacation activities, with fun in the sun, drinks with umbrellas, pool-side massages, and much more. Ah, the joys of Caribbean vacations...
If you've paid attention to the ruckus about this week's poll, in which I was ardently flamed, you might want to check out my thoughts on the issue. Or you might not.
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Goodbye For Now
I blame electricity waste on people like Al Gore... He probably uses more electricity running the air conditioner in his house in one day than all the dsl/cable modems in the United States running constantly for a month...
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Ooops... Hit the enter key...
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I've known more than a couple "hippies" who were into "the technology". As for me, I think affluent people living in an industrialized, high-tech world have a responsibility to be self-critical about possible negative repercussions of their petro-electro-centric lifestyle--for people the world over, for the only habitable planet within reach, and for own health and happiness. That said, I haven't turned my DSL modem off in about 3 years, and I was under the impression that stuff like that uses a negligible amount of electricity.
re: Goodbye For Now
I would like to say not everyone feels like the flamers. I thought it was a great hint. Yes, it was a hint. I'm sorry you got flamed and I totally agree with your thoughts, especially on your blog. I am one of the 5.5% in your poll. Where I live, most of our power comes from hydroelectricity. While many say it is green power, the animals and people who's land got flooded by the building of the dams might say otherwise.
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Hey, you did good, so don't lose heart. Every time you speak, there's a chance of getting flamed, especially from Mac lovers who tend to be more vocal and opinionated. Hope to see you soon. :-)
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Made me think, may lead to change. Hang in there.
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You did perfectly fine! :)
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America, how strange.
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>> It is unthinkable in Europe to leave your computer on while on holidays.
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As a good Mac OS X Hintster, you should know that you can accomplish that, without having to leave your Mac on all day. Simply use the Energy Savings system preference to have your Mac wake up at certain times of the day and turn itself off at others. No need to keep it on all day.
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I enjoyed your post. Usually comment-generating (and flame generating) articles are the ones that make people think. I'm not sure about your figures, though. On your post linked above (to mcelhearn.com), I wanted to make a comment, but it required a separate registration, so I'll just make it here. You talk about "gas guzzling SUVs." I hear that phrase so often. I happen to have an SUV (a Jeep Cherokee). And you know what? It gets exactly the same mileage as many of the plain ol' non-SUV cars out there (about 20-some). Even the "energy efficient" cars promoted in magazines often get little more than 25 or so mpg, with a few exceptions such as hybrids that may get 30-50. So please avoid blanket statements about SUVs. Maybe "gas guzzling non-hybrid cars" would be OK. But not everyone can afford them. Also, in that article you talk about saving "one or two hundred dollars extra" per year. Considering that my electric bill for the year is about $700 (wild guess ... varies between $40 and $80 per month), I doubt that turning off the trickles on devices (many of which have built-in energy saving features) would cut the bill by a third. Maybe your energy costs are much higher. But not everyone stands to gain much by this advice. Again, why not focus on how people can offset their convenience usage (solar, wind, etc.), rather than doing away with it?
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My 1.6L engine 4-door non-hybrid Nissan Sentra has a 39mpg EPA highway estimate. An SUV with a similar passanger volume gets almost a third less along with a higher chance of rollover. It does not matter how vainly you try to justify it, SUVs are more wasteful. If it makes you happier to drive an SUV, you are welcome, but in that case why try so hard to show that there are others who are almost as wasteful as you?
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My point was that SUVs like mine are not worse than many non-SUVs, and therefore the focus on SUVs is misleading; better to focus on actual fuel efficiency. I've been hunting for a more energy efficient vehicle (and still am), but was surprised to learn that many of the vehicles listed as energy efficient by third parties were scarcely better than what I already own. Here is a government website rating cars by fuel efficiency. If you select the Family Sedan size for the current year 2008, you will see that of the 60-some family sedans listed, only about 5 do significantly better (4 mpg or better) than my Jeep Cherokee SUV. In fact, most of the sedans are in exactly the same range as most of the SUVs. As a matter of fact, there are more SUVs with fuel efficiency >= 25 mpg than family sedans >= 25 mpg.
This "Good" is the enemy of "Enough"
...do you think about the power you waste...?
Howzabout turning those moralizing pieties into some real results? Let me guess (hard data welcome): My DSL gizmo and WiFi router, between them, use maybe 30 watts, and turning them off 20 hours a day would therefore cut about 4 kWH per week. The latest DOE figures I found ($0.104/kWH) means that I could save about 45 cents per week by making two or four trips down to the basement each day, "earning" less than $2 per hour for the short trips. That's assuming the power cycling doesn't cause my the power supplies to fail sooner or the cords to fray to death, requiring money and energy to produce new ones and recycle the dead ones. I hope you can serve yourself & the environment more effectively than thru an activity that saves worth one-quarter of the minimum wage rate, by using some elementary social and intellectual skills. The energy / warming issue is too important to trivialize with clutter that gets the world nowhere. Maybe by organizing a donation drive for your local schools, libraries, non-profits or gov'ts to convert from CRT to flat-screen. Maybe by setting up a campaign to get local companies' IT depts to optimize Energy Star usage on their Windows machines (rather than letting stupid wavy corporate logos burn away 24X7 on hundreds of machines). Maybe in more creative ways. This site is all about creative ideas, no? But please, don't cite the least efficient activity imaginable as a paragon of efficiency.
This "Good" is the enemy of "Enough"
The particular activity was the result of a conversation (well, an iChat) between Rob and I. I raised the question of turning off devices, and asked if he turned off his network access. From there, he suggested I mention it in the hint, then set up the poll. We could have mentioned turning off your Mac insted, though I would assume (or at least hope) that the majority of readers don't leave their Macs on all the time doing nothing. Rob, however, was sure that the majority didn't turn off their network access, hence the poll.
It was a great poll
...IMHO.
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Kirk,
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Kirk, I though that it was a good call.
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I'm one of those people who doesn't turn off my cable modem. I also don't bend over while I walk down the sidewalk to make sure I miss all the ants.
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Don't worry about it Kirk. Some people like to live in denial. If you mess with their delusions, they try to shout you down. There is no reasoning with them, so why worry about them. I enjoyed your reminder that I could save a little electricity and money.
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Or people could simply stop looking down their nose at other's choices, respond to what they aspire to when asked, and keep it to themselves when not asked. Speaking in generalities is fine, but pulling out the "SUV" card and all the other divisive buzzwords is pointless as it is childish. Offering enlightened views on how much better you are at conserving energy is about as useful as crap-flavored ice cream. And pointing the "denial" wand at those who simply disagree or at the most don't care is nothing more than the elitism that creates the rift we have now in the whole energy discussion. It serves no useful purpose to goad people, get their venom and step back in "disbelief" at why they'd be pissed at your statements. Simple as pie...
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The comment about turning off, not even sleeping, your Macs assume that they aren't doing work during that time. I keep mine busy 100% of the time. The monitors go into sleep mode, thus saving most of the energy normally consumed.
use less electricity
Using less electricity is always a good idea. The amount saved by turning off a modem and router will vary from person to person. It is good you made us think of this. Silent devices like this are often skipped over when we think about our power usage.
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Environmental issues are a legitimate concern, but I do think there are perfectly valid reasons the leave you router, modem and computer on.
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Thank you for manning the fort during Rob's
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A little food for thought: My PowerMac G4 with all its peripherals was consuming nearly 400 watts. The old 21-inch CRT monitor consumed another 275 watts on top of that. Even though it was managing a lot of items in my household environment, I programmed it to power off in the evening once it had completed all its duties. I traded it out with a MacMini — which even under a full load barely reaches 39 watts of consumption. The CRT has long since been replaced with a 23-inch flat panel Cinema Display at 90 watts of consumption active, 3 watts in sleep mode where it spends most of its time. 675 watts vs. 42 watts (screen is off, most of the time). And that was just one component! Sadly, I can't shut off the router because all my sensors are using ethernet connections to communicate to the household server/controller (the Mini). Swapped out 30 60-watt lightbulbs with 30 15-watt flourescent bulbs, taking my lighting down from 1800 Watts to 450. Then, swapped out ten of those lights with LEDs, resulting in shaving another 120 watts (estimated at this point) off the 450 to bring it to about 330. Just those items alone resulted in an 65% reduction in my electricity consumption (85% if I don't include household appliances) and a corresponding reduction in my electricity bill. That is a sizable chunk of change each month! By taking over the household management from the G4, the MacMini paid for itself in less than a year, due to the reduction of the electricity bill. I took my energy savings one step further. Looking at what I used to pay in the electricity bill and what I pay now, I took the difference and invested it in several companies. What I save each month based on what I used to pay, I dump into various stocks and mutual funds (yes, AAPL is one of them). So, not only am I seeing my bills go down, the money I invested has resulted in fairly significant returns. It is one thing to look at the straight dollar value that these things have saved me. It may take up to eight years before everything has paid for itself based on that. But when I look at the money I've made due to my investing the saved money, everything I bought has actually paid for itself and actually made me money. In the end, it is astonishing just how much I've accomplished just by turning off a little bit of electricity. A Mac can turn itself on and off at specific times. Add remote electrical controls to that, and a Mac can turn itself on and then turn on your router remotely, and then turn everything off in the evening. That can save you yet another couple dollars per week, just doing that little thing. Just a couple dollars per week add up very quickly. I think Kirk started a really good thread here. It triggered a lot of discussion, and that means that a lot of people are now thinking about what the effects might be of powering down certain items when not needed, or at least reducing power consumption when powering down isn't an option.
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Ok, I admit I was probably hasty in my initial reaction to the poll--the argument that the routers, devices on standby, etc. is a drop in the bucket compared to major appliances is beside the point. For those of us that live in this convenience society, it's easy to forget the little things we can do that might make a difference.
I flamed you first, but you're still unassailable
Please don't take my initial flame (too) seriously. I just felt like there was a tone in your wording of "why can't everyone be as thoughtful as me". It happens, you probably didn't intend it. I COMPLETELY SUPPORT your macosxhints efforts however, and I am very glad that you are vigilant (militant?) about saving energy. I just had an issue with the wording of it. Perhaps it wouldn't have ideally taken place in a public forum... and I actually broke my own rule of "public praise, private criticism"...
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Kirk, a few things: |
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