How Green is Your Game ?

Not very.

The short story is this.

If you’ve got a video game console in your house, and you leave it on, you’re wasting energy.

The exception - the Nintendo Wii.

A new report by the National Resources Defense Council surfaces some pretty interesting data - and a clear message (note that figures are for US only):

Through the incorporation of more user-friendly power management features, we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation’s electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO2 each year. In this November 2008 issue paper, NRDC provides recommendations for users, video game console manufacturers, component suppliers and the software companies that design games for improving the efficiency of video game consoles already in homes as well as future generations of machines yet to hit the shelves.

The full report is available as a PDF from the NRDC web site.

Here’s an example of some of the data they present, and there’s one thing very clear from this chart. You can do something right now, without having to wait for anyone - just turn the darned thing off.

Cape Breton To Get Wind Farm

Having lived in almost every region of Canada, I’m still surprised we don’t have more wind farms.

I base this purely on personal observation - nothing scientific whatsoever - except that it seems to me one thing we don’t lack in this country is an abundance of wind.

[Read more]

Smart Meter Talks Back

A Burnaby company has been developing a smarter meter reader. They’re currently being used in Ontario, California and some southern US states, and are part of a larger vision for ’smart’ energy networks.

At its most basic function, Tantalus Systems ’smart’ meters let the home owner know what’s going on with their energy consumption. Right now, these meters simply record power consumption. A story in the Montreal Gazette explains:

the meters look virtually the same as all other electrical meters, but that they include a radio transmitter that lets consumers know when they’re spending more money. Energy typically costs more to produce during peak times when more people are using it - around the dinner hour, for instance, when people are cooking, using dishwashers and maybe throwing in a load of laundry. full story here

A quick look at the Tantalus web site shows that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their plans for managing power consumption, with networked meters talking to a central system and even allowing for remote control. Basically, each meter is part of a larger local area network - smart grid.

On the face of it, it makes perfect sense. If nothing else, maybe it’ll do away with the archaic system actually sending someone out to your home to read the meter. Aside from that mundane task, the benefits of a smart meter are obvious in helping home owners be more selective about their power consumption.

But you don’t have to wait until the technology gets implemented to do something. You can act now.

SPEC has some great tips on making you house more energy efficient and info on Energy Star appliances. Terasen Gas has their Home Energy Savings Tips web page, and a PDF pamphlet you can download.

photo from the Tantalus web site