Comments on: Orb for Monitoring Home Energy Use

By: Andy Dent

Andy Dent — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:40:14 +0000

re the carbon footprint in the Pacific Northwest – if you aren’t using that power it can be sold to someone else who would otherwise be using dirty power.

Thus, until the majority of power is clean, an averaged footprint is perfectly justifiable.

By: Asuntomessut, taloautomaatio ja käyttöliittymät — Oivallisia juttuja

Asuntomessut, taloautomaatio ja käyttöliittymät — Oivallisia juttuja — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:01:39 +0000

[...] tarkkailla sähkön ja veden kulutusta. Erilaisia mittareita on pohdittu mm. täällä. Esimerkiksi Orb Energy Monitor olisi [...]

By: Giving Electricity Carbon Footprints Some Context

Giving Electricity Carbon Footprints Some Context — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:03:06 +0000

[...] the comments to an earlier post, pfly asked a key question that hits on a problem designers and architects of green interfaces will [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:32:50 +0000

Hey pfly, that’s a really good question. I’m glad you brought it up, because it’s an issue we’re going to be dealing with for a while as we aim to make these types of tools more useful. There’s not a lot of specificity to them, yet – in terms of carbon emissions, a kWh in Seattle is not the same as a kWh in London.

Most carbon footprint calculators out there use national averages of co2-per-kWh. Fortunately, however, there is one from safeclimate.net (there may be others; I’m not sure) that asks you what state/province and country you are in, and accounts for that in the calculations. That’s better, certainly. (Though I’d argue that there’s still a long way to go before these calculators are where they should be)

If you try it, be sure and click on the correct calculator icon on the first screen, because the default if you hit return (after entering the number of individuals in your household) is to begin the calculator for people outside of the US and Canada.

We need feedback that informs us according to our particulars. So a calculator or a device like the Orb should be able to show us our footprint based on how we’re getting our energy, and account for whether we’re putting energy back into the grid.

I’m really curious to hear if others have uncovered elegant calculators and feedback solutions that take into account more particulars and context.

In case anyone is interested, there is a database put out by the US Department of Energy called the Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) that contains data on emissions of electric power systems. In the most recent version (2006) Washington state power systems averaged 360 lbs co2 per MWh, to the US average of 1,363 lbs co2 per MWh.

Safeclimate.net calculator
http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/

Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID)
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/egrid/index.html

By: pfly

pfly — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:12:12 +0000

Hey teno! — just found your blog email amongst all the spam in my inbox. A semi-random thought… this orb thing, says: the display on the Orb could show the user the direct electricity cost and CO2 emissions equivalent”. Living in the Pacific Northwest as I do, I’ve heard that the “carbon footprint” type calculations, as well as any simple electricity to CO2 emissions conversion, doesn’t work so well in this region — since the vast majority of the electricity produced around here comes from hydro power rather than coal plants. Not to suggest that hydro power is without downsides, but i wonder if you know about this kind of thing — how would one work out their carbon footprint or their CO2 emissions from electricity use in the Pacific Northwest?

Also, hi! Nice blog so far!