http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/some-vampires-prefer-energy-over-blood/2007/10/31/1193618894615.html

A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of the electricity that seeps from your home's outlets.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.

The percentage could rise to 20 percent by 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

In California, lawmakers passed a proposal last year _ dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act _ to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker uses when on, off or in standby mode.

"It's something people don't know about," said Dave Walton, home ideas director for Direct Energy, a utility and energy services company that has one of its four main offices in Dublin, Ohio.

The International Energy Agency has estimated standby energy use by vampire electronics at 200 to 400 terawatt-hours a year. The entire country of Italy consumes about 300 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, according to the agency.

"About 40 percent of the electricity being used to power your home electronics is consumed while they are in that standby mode," Walton said. "If you just focus on that piece, you will be making a big step."

Some chargers halt the flow of current when it's not needed, which should happen automatically with chargers for lithium-ion batteries. If you're uncertain, Walton advises unplugging chargers when not in use.

He recommends hooking up your home computer system, including accessories like a printer or scanner, to a single power strip that can be easily switched off each night. He advises shutting off the other vampires too, though the inconvenience of resetting the clocks, channels and timers on those devices each morning will discourage most people.

Good darticle.

Hopefully someone will invent a device to turn stuff off.

Quote:

Good darticle.

That would be "article" :P

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bjrn_lomborg/2007/11/paint_it_white.html

Today, the fastest-growing cities are in Asia. Beijing is roughly 10C hotter than the nearby countryside in the daytime and 5.5C warmer at night. There are even more dramatic increases in Tokyo. In August, temperatures there climbed 12.5C above the surrounding countryside, reaching 40C - a scorching heat that affected not only the downtown area, but also covered some 8,000 square kilometers.

While celebrity activists focus entirely on cutting CO2, we could do much more - and at much lower cost - if we addressed urban heat islands. Simple solutions can make a vast difference to temperatures.

Cities are hotter than the land around them because they are drier. They lack moist green spaces and have drainage systems that efficiently remove water. In London, the air around the river Thames is cooler than it is a few blocks away in built-up areas. If we plant trees and build water features, we won't just beautify our surroundings, but we'll also cool things down - by upwards of 8C, according to climate models.

Moreover, although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities have a lot of black asphalt and dark, heat-absorbing structures. By increasing reflection and shade, a great deal of heat build-up can be avoided. Paint most of a city and you could lower the temperature by 10C.

These options are simple, obvious, and cost-effective. Consider Los Angeles. Reroofing most of the city's five million homes in lighter colours, painting a quarter of the roads and planting 11m trees would have a one-time cost of about $1bn. Each year after that, this would lower air conditioning costs by about $170m and provide $360m in smog-reduction benefits. And it would lower LA temperatures by about 3C - or about the temperature increase envisioned for the rest of this century. Compare that to the $180bn cost of implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which will have virtually no effect.

At the moment, we don't hear much about the smartest choices when it comes to addressing global warming. That needs to change. We do get to choose which future we want.

Agreed. Do the easy cheap simple stuff first. The difference it will make may be surprising .

I insulated a roof over a room and verandah once with insulpaint.  
An thermal acoustic insulating paint , very effective.  
Just paint it on like any other paint.  More effective than I thought it may be.

freediver wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2007 at 11:09am:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bjrn_lomborg/2007/11/paint_it_white.html Today, the fastest-growing cities are in Asia. Beijing is roughly 10C hotter than the nearby countryside in the daytime and 5.5C warmer at night. There are even more dramatic increases in Tokyo. In August, temperatures there climbed 12.5C above the surrounding countryside, reaching 40C - a scorching heat that affected not only the downtown area, but also covered some 8,000 square kilometers. While celebrity activists focus entirely on cutting CO2, we could do much more - and at much lower cost - if we addressed urban heat islands. Simple solutions can make a vast difference to temperatures. Cities are hotter than the land around them because they are drier. They lack moist green spaces and have drainage systems that efficiently remove water. In London, the air around the river Thames is cooler than it is a few blocks away in built-up areas. If we plant trees and build water features, we won't just beautify our surroundings, but we'll also cool things down - by upwards of 8C, according to climate models. Moreover, although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities have a lot of black asphalt and dark, heat-absorbing structures. By increasing reflection and shade, a great deal of heat build-up can be avoided. Paint most of a city and you could lower the temperature by 10C. These options are simple, obvious, and cost-effective. Consider Los Angeles. Reroofing most of the city's five million homes in lighter colours, painting a quarter of the roads and planting 11m trees would have a one-time cost of about $1bn. Each year after that, this would lower air conditioning costs by about $170m and provide $360m in smog-reduction benefits. And it would lower LA temperatures by about 3C - or about the temperature increase envisioned for the rest of this century. Compare that to the $180bn cost of implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which will have virtually no effect. At the moment, we don't hear much about the smartest choices when it comes to addressing global warming. That needs to change. We do get to choose which future we want.

It pays to be aware of all the options.

Good one!

My neighbours have a silver roof. It hasn't ever bothered us, but I was helping out the other nieghbour over the back fance on the weekend and the glare from it was horrendous. You had to look away it was so bad. Unfortunately it pointed at the side of their house with the large veranda.

freediver wrote on Nov 26^th, 2007 at 10:24am:

My neighbours have a silver roof. It hasn't ever bothered us, but I was helping out the other nieghbour over the back fance on the weekend and the glare from it was horrendous. You had to look away it was so bad. Unfortunately it pointed at the side of their house with the large veranda.

Yeh, those factors are important too.

I insulated the ceiling on Saturday. It cost $460 all up, and about 8 hours of work, including the trip to Bunnings. Apparently it is the most effective way to save money on heating etc. We don't actually have air con, and we use very little heating in winter. But we were thinking of getting air con and hopefully we won't need to now. It seems to have made the house noticably cooler, but I think it was a bit cooler on the weekend anyway.

Its good. I have it in in a few houses. Also used insulpaint, an insulating paint. Very effective.

Wise use of pedistal fans is also hugely beneficial.
Use them to suck the hot air put of the room, replacing it with cool air from outside (at night).

Forgot to add. meant to do ALL of the roof space of the whole house. Even the top of the manhole cover.
Apparently a 10% gap leads to a 50% reduction in effectiveness.
Anyway, well done freediver

Insulation does work, to a limit. Should I ever build a brick veneer again I will do all internal walls (as sound proofing) and external walls. I currently have that awful blow-in ceiling insulation which gradually disappears over time into the eaves, down the cavity and all over you when you enter the roof space for maintenance/alterations.

In Adelaide after a sustained spell of 35deg days the external brick walls heat up and take forever to cool. Whirly birds on the roof do absolutely nothing.

Ive just spent $7.5K having ducted reverse cycle inverter system, mainly as a luxury in my old age. All I have to do now is chase Fujitsu for the (core or non-core?) promise of a $500 Visa card.

Gadgets to Go Green at Electronics Show

http://news.smh.com.au/gadgets-to-go-green-at-electronics-show/20080104-1k4c.html

Consumer electronics aren't exactly easy on the environment _ they consume electricity that contributes to global warming, and toxins leach out of them when they end up in landfills.

But the industry that's inviting us to get a new cell phone every year and toss out that old TV in favor of a great new flat panel is also trying to show that it cares.

At the world's largest trade show for consumer electronics, starting Monday in Las Vegas, manufacturers will be talking not just about megapixels, megahertz and megabytes, but about smart power adapters that don't waste as much electricity, batteries that are easier to recycle, and components made from plants.

Many of the products on display will be striking rather small blows for the environment, but the industry is realizing that even in electronics, going "green" can be a powerful marketing tool.

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CES to Highlight Tech for Greening Homes

http://news.smh.com.au/ces-to-highlight-tech-for-greening-homes/20080104-1k3j.html

While most electronics companies are still trying to establish green credentials, 2008 could mark a turning point for previously obscure "home automation" technologies that now are being advertised as a way to save electricity _ not just personal energy.

With systems that dim lights from a TV remote control or "smart" meters that help cut power usage during costly peak times, the environmental benefits of home automation will be touted at next week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Systems that let people configure lights, security and entertainment devices from single control points are not new. But like most technologies, early buyers mainly have been hobbyists or wealthy consumers willing to spend thousands outfitting their homes with smart controls.

Now the industry hopes that high energy costs and environmental awareness _ combined with people's desire to manage entertainment content from single control points _ will push home automation into the mainstream.

"Green is becoming a big part of why a connected home makes sense," said Mike Seamons, a vice president at Exceptional Innovation LLC, which sells the Lifeware line of home-automation products.

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Obviously there are not a lot of places where heating and cooling are used simultaneously, but they should be taken advantage of. Our supermarkets still run massive fridges and freezers in winter.

Cows' milk key to Swedish castle's heating

http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=1014104&source=cmailer

A castle outside Halmstad, Sweden, is ready to use the energy from the milking of 1,000 cows to help heat the regal site.

The Local said Saturday that by collecting the energy used to help cool the nearly 8,000 gallons of milk produced daily from the castle's bovine inhabitants, castle officials will be able to heat the castle and its surrounding buildings.

Lennart E Bengtsson of Wapno castle explained that the energy is captured during the cooling process and has been used to heat the castle's water supply. It soon will also become part of the site's central heating process, Bengtsson said.

Bengtsson told the Local the new heating system would allow castle officials to do away with the oil-based system previously used.

"The oil-fired boiler in the castle will now be removed and scrapped," the castle official said.

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Property plan's 'low carbon' goal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7288320.stm?source=cmailer

Improving the environmental performance of buildings in North America can cut the region's carbon emissions more than any other measure, a study suggests.

The rapid take-up of current and new technologies could save the equivalent of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by transport in the US, it concluded.

However, it added that developers and homeowners were not willing to pay the extra cost for energy saving measures.

Buildings are responsible for about 35% of the region's man-made CO2 emissions.

The report published by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation (CEC), an international organisation created by Canada, Mexico and the US, said it was possible for the most efficient buildings to consume 70% less energy than conventional properties.