Savings from turning off computer/TV accessories
September 29, 2009
The TrickleStar calculator works out your CO2 and money savings when
you install a TrickleSaver (a USB or power sensor) that then switches
off accessories attached to your TV/Home Entertainment setup or your
home or office computer setup.
computer, then work out how much they are normally left on or on
standby. Then the calculator will tell you how much you save in a
year, and the payoff period and CO2 savings. The payoff periods end up pretty small especially if you have a game
console that is left on. Wow. A lot of them use a lot of power. I really like this calculator, but I would say that. I built this
one for TrickleStar. It is embeddable, sharable, and comes in an
increasing set of languages. We spent quite a lot of time getting the data together for this
calculator, ending up getting some help from AMEE and the MTP Whatif
data for estimating average device power. Try it out at http://calculator.tricklestar.com
Posted via email from calculators
work with your neighbours, tailor messages to individuals
September 23, 2009
New Scientist reports on the psychology of climate change, and references a couple of papers on the subject.
Bottom lines from this:
1/ Psychology can help how we sell the message that change is needed, and that change is good.
2/ Messages need to be tailored to the interests of individual groups
3/ ‘Fitting in with the crowd’ is powerful. So working with others to conserve resources works.
4/ Having information about your own consumption is really important, as are comparisons with others, but look out for data that shows people use less than their peers, which may encourage more usage.
Some quotes:
In one experiment, the researchers left information with households in San Marcos asking them to use fans rather than air conditioners at night, turn off lights and take shorter showers. Some messages simply stressed energy conservation, some talked about future generations, while others emphasised the financial savings. But it was the flyers that implored residents to join with their neighbours in saving energy that were most effective in cutting electricity consumption (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 34, p 913).
…
MOST people seem to conserve energy if provided with real-time feedback on how much they are using. But feedback can be too immediate.
…
Studies show that devices that display domestic energy usage produce savings of between 5 and 12 per cent.
Lots of useful info and links to the actual papers at newscientist.com
Posted via web from CO2
Three ways to save that 10%
September 5, 2009
To make good on that 10:10 committment of reducing your CO2 by 10% by 2010, how are you going to do it?
Here are three things you can do to get started:
1. Sign up to 10:10
If you haven’t made a committment to the 10% reduction, go to the 10:10 website and sign up. That’s important. It adds to the volume of people and business that have signed up, and makes it harder for the government to ignore, so there’s something useful for them to take to Copenhagen. You can sign up as a person or as a business or as a school or an organisation.
2. Look at the Guardian G2 guide to get ideas where to make changes
The Guardian published a really clear guide to personal carbon reductions, with simple actions and real numbers. They start with averages of CO2 per year then lists lots of actions you can take to make CO2 savings. It begins:
Every year, each person in the UK is, on average, responsible for about 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. (The government’s published figures suggest a lower amount, but they omit things such as international aviation.) So, if we want to make a genuine cut of 10% across the board, we need to reduce our emissions by about 1.4 tonnes each. Let’s call it 1.5 tonnes, just to be sure.
And goes on with useful savings you can make by tonnes per year. This is the best short reference I have seen so far.
3. Start an EcoTeam, measure and reduce
Gather your neighbours or online friends and start measuring, learning and reducing your Rubbish, Energy, Water and Travel. Sign up and create an EcoTeams online — invite friends, and start measuring and learning and reducing your usage.
EcoTeams Website
You can sign up online now and get started gathering your team together.
EcoTeams is one of my favourites, perhaps because I’ve been working on several releases of the EcoTeams website over the last couple of years. This latest version makes fully online EcoTeams easy, and support you a lot in taking measurements and inviting others to get involved.
Here are three ways to get started. I’ll do an update article in a few days with a few more online resources to have a look at, incluing using power saving plug adapter things, energy monitors and turning things off.
Reduce 10% by 2010: 10:10 lauches today
September 1, 2009
The 10:10 campaign, born out of the Age of Stupid film, launches today, September 1st.
Great film. Please go and see it or put on a screening if you haven’t seen it already.
It puts the case for doing something to avoid a future climate disaster. But what can you practically do now? That’s the question that 10:10 answers. Reduce your carbon footprint 10% in 2010. Not that hard, just takes a small behaviour change or two and there you are, part of the (positive) future.
Sign up, take on the future and Do Something:
One of the actions you can take on as a part of you 10:10 action is to join an EcoTeam, to work with you community or group of friends to measure and reduce your energy, water, waste and travel in a small group working together. By measuring your resource use, and making your results visible, you get to see how you can change your behaviour. Doing this in community helps you make a change and feel good about it, by doing it together.
I spend most of my days building and enhancing the EcoTeams website and measurement and reporting tools, so I’ve seen it work and have seen the positive, carbon saving, money saving results that people get from it. 10% is achievable and worth doing. You save the planet and save money and feel good. Beat that.
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