land of talk

the bus

cail at katemcy

billy's

cruisers

nothing artsy this week since most of my week was spent working on land cruisers.

kill more watts

some preliminary numbers from the kill-a-watt just for fun...

• macbook powered off, battery fully charged: 1 watt
  
• lamp with 13 watt CF bulb: 13 watts (ok, it works...)
• macbook at idle, charged: 22 watts
• dell laptop at idle, charged: 22 watts
  
• macbook at idle, charging: 40 watts
• macbook running 3d screensaver: 48 watts
• dell laptop at idle, charging: 87 watts
• 26" lcd tv: 97 watts
• 50" dlp tv: 195 watts, 28 watts when powered off completely!?
  
• marissa's hair straightener: 200 watts
• water pump for creek: 460 watts (this ran 24/7 we moved in, it's now on a timer and only runs during the day)
  
• toaster: 900 watts
• espresso machine in ON position: 1215 watts!
• microwave: 1215 watts
• electric heater: 1480 watts

i have a feeling i will be forgetting to turn off the espresso machine a lot less now that i realize it's equivalent to leaving the microwave on :/

kill-a-watt

one of the ways we hope to cut down on our electricity usage is by monitoring how much electricity our household items use with the Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. i'm very curious to see which devices are costing us the most and finding ways to either reduce the usage of that device or replace it with something more energy efficient. i'll post some examples once i've tried this out.

green

am i allowed to post tangents? yes, i am. according to my new rules i will post at least one photo a week with some all natural filler in between.

marissa and i just signed up with austin energy's 'green choice' program. we'll pay a little more now but we're locked in at the current 5.5 cent per kWh rate for the next 15 yrs. this energy is sourced primarily from wind energy but they also get engery from solar panels and by harvesting methane gas from landfills. our goal is to offset the price difference by being more mindful of how much energy we use.

week one

i've been wanting to start a 'photo a day' blog for a while and since i'm not sure i can commit to a photo every day i'm going to try a photo a week.