I wanted to buy a tiny, energy efficient server, but I opted for a fast, powerful one. Next one will be energy efficient just like my next car. The combination of fast and powerful but energy efficient always comes at a premium. Its why celebrities drive electric cars.

I ordered this interesting device that allows you to measure the amount of electricity in watts that a device is pulling at any particular point. The device itself is cheap and plugs in between the device and its power source. THis is not the exact device I own, but its the exact same thing

Here are some interesting facts:

• The Samsung LNT4665F 46" 1080p LCD HDTValone 67w
• TV with macbook pro 270 watt
• TV with macbook pro but mac screen closed 250w
• macbook pro 85w
• mac book pro screen 20watt?
• TV with wii 130w
• TV with wii playing game 170w
• tortoise lights 250w
• tortoise heat pad 130w
• tortoise heat low 600w, med 924w, high 1460w
• living room heater same
• Dell 1950 server with 2 dual core 5160 3.0Ghz 120w-700w depending on usage Usually it is on the really low side.
• Dell 1950iii server with 2 quad core X5460 3.0Ghz 120w-700w depending on usage
• mac mini server 85W with a single 2.0ghz quad core i7

We use so much electricity and our bill is around $180-200/month for 3 people. For example jan-feb of this year we used 1577 kWh and it cost us $188.36 with services and taxes, etc. Looking at the bill I think it is somewhere around $0.12 per kilowatt hour. Which is 1 hour worth of 1000 watts.

I think we could probably save so much money by unplugging things that are not being used. One way to save a lot of money is to plug everything into power strips and then just turn those off when you leave. This is especially useful for devices that draw power when not in use, which is most of them.

This pro-fracking advertisement is everywhere. Every time I turn on Hulu, every time I read any news site. Exxon is really trying to promote fracking as some sort of simple, environmentally friendly action to solve our energy needs.

"A lot of the the time, things are right underneath our feet and all we need to do is change the way we are thinking about them. A couple decades ago we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. Technology has made it possible to safely unlock this clean and green natural gas. These deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. It just takes someone having the idea, and that is where the discovery comes from."

::Download Flash Video::

The windmills near Warsaw were so cool looking.

Has anyone really thought about daylight savings time? I never really thought about it much. (e:robin) cam eover and her and (e:matthew) were talking about when it begins this year. I looked it up an dfound ou that it begins the first sunday in April but starting in 2007, it is extended a month an begins in march.

The reason is that it saves a ton of energy. According to this site

Daylight Saving Time Saves Energy

Spring Graphic One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.

In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

Studies done in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.