Rhode Island is a beautiful place, a scenic wonderland. Often the subject of jokes because of its small size, I can say for a fact that it is number 1 in at least one category -- the highest electrical rate in the continental United States! With a rate change adopted in late July 2008, the standard electrical rate for residential customers is now $0.183 per KWh delivered, higher than all mainland states and second only to Hawaii (also blessed with natural beauty, but thousands of miles away from its #1 source of electricity -- oil).
I design hardware and software to save energy in commercial and industrial buildings, so I have always had an interest in all things "green". I can tell you that I take pride in the fact that as a result of my efforts over the last 3 decades, products that I've designed have reduced the power consumption (and carbon emissions) of tens of thousands of businesses. That's more than enough to offset power-hungry lifestyles of all the blow-hard, do nothing politicians in the country (even Al Gore's annual electrical consumption of 221,000 KwH -- 20 times the national average).
When I first started working from my home about 3 years ago, I noticed a huge increase in my power bill. I directly attributed that to the equipment that I now have hooked up and running 24/7 in my house (various computers and other technology devices). Part of that is that the electrical rate has gone up (in the past decade, I've seen my power bill more than triple in average monthly cost), but also due to increased consumption on my part.
This blog will detail some of my findings concerning power consumption, and may provide some information that is shocking to some.
The bottom line... the power-footprint of our 24/7 lifestyle is a extra-large one and we can all use some help in becoming a Greener Geek.
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I checked the records and through the end of 2007, the products that I've designed during my day job have resulted in a savings of $789,000,000 over the past three decades.
Expressed another way, it has reduced electrical demand by 15.8 billion KwH. And the Greener Geek is especially proud of the fact that over 21.2 billion pounds of carbon have NOT gone into the atmosphere as a result.
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