Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Efficiency, part 1 – electricity

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Efficiency — power is ever stealing [into your home]. — Me, with apologies to Wendell Phillips, Thomas Jefferson, or whoever said it first.

Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Monitoring | 5 Comments

LED lifetime update

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Eric Sandeen


Almost exactly a year ago I posted about switching my kitchen to some PAR20 LED bulbs, talking about the economics of them, given their very long (50,000 hour) expected lifetime, and 5 year warranty.

The bad news – last night one quit on me. :( Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Energy | 5 Comments

The Perfect Porchlight?

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

EcoSmart 40W LED Bulb

I’ve done everything I can to eliminate incandescent bulbs from my house, relying largely on CFLs.  This has helped me dramatically reduce my power bills – but with some drawbacks. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Energy | 20 Comments

A day in the life of a net meter

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

Ever wonder what the energy flow through a net meter looks like when you have solar on your house?  No?  Well, if you did, take a gander at the graphs above  (click for a bigger version).  Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Monitoring, Renewable | 3 Comments

What are individual actions worth?

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

I read an article over at Green Building Advisor.com, with the title/subtitle “Is the Green Movement Just Spinning Its Wheels? Can individuals make a real dent in climate change, or does our future hinge on government intervention?”

It was a fairly gloomy take on things. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Energy, Renewable | 2 Comments

Hyperlinking my Solar Array

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

I’ve had enough people ask, while randomly meeting me as they walk down the alley, “hey, how do those solar panels work?” that I figured maybe a little object hyperlinking was in order. Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Renewable | 8 Comments

Hanlon’s Razor and Online Comments

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Eric Sandeen
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. – Hanlon’s Razor

 

Boy, but sometimes it is hard.  There was a recent article in the local paper about a solar manufacturing plant going up on Minnesota’s Iron range.  And you can bet that any article about alternative energy will bring out the interesting comments in droves.  (Maybe this is true about any article about anything?)  Warning: If you don’t want a boring rehash of anti-solar comments and my attempts to bring a few factual nuggets to the conversation, you should stop reading this post now.  You have been warned… Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Renewable, WTF | 6 Comments

How to build an 18W, 4 terabyte, commodity x86 Linux server

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

Can you build a Linux server for web, email, printing, and 4 terabytes of media serving purposes from commodity x86 parts, and come in under 20W? Absolutely! Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Energy, Linux | 28 Comments

And now Hohm gets the axe

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

So, Microsoft Hohm is going away next year, too.

The feedback from customers and partners has remained encouraging throughout Microsoft Hohm’s beta period. However, due to the slow overall market adoption of the service, we are instead focusing our efforts on products and solutions more capable of supporting long-standing growth within this evolving market.

blah, blah, blah….

Gosh, now how will Microsoft charge all those Ford Focus EVs? :/

Ok, big guys, get out of the way. I’ve seen what the little guys can do – witness pvoutput.org (granted, solar geeks are already a self-motivated bunch). I think energy monitoring absolutely has a future, and a positive role to play. But it may go better when led by a passionate, democratic, fired-up community than something that was born on a powerpoint slide. It might even catch on some day. Maybe not ’til energy prices double or triple though. :)

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

First Year of Solar

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Eric Sandeen

11 x 230W Siliken Panels, Enphase Microinverters

We’re at the 1-year anniversary of throwing the big red switch (yes, there really is a red switch!) on the 2.53kW solar PV installation on our home. Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Renewable | 6 Comments