energy consumption
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Prepare for a world energy war
Reliance on fossil fuels could lead to 30 years of bloodshed as world powers fight over limited resources.
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Knowing what you spend on energy can cut usage by more than half
Feedback: It works for robot monkey arms and Scientology auditing, so shouldn’t it work to help you save electricity? Networking company Silver Spring Networks and Oklahoma Gas & Electric think so (and so do we). They’ve teamed up for a year-long experiment in Norman, Okla., to test smart grid solutions, allowing users to get feedback […]
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How malls can save both the Earth and your ears
Photo: Carol LinWe’re big fans of anything that saves energy while generally improving your life — biking, for instance, or gardens. So we were psyched to hear that malls could save 1.18 gigawatt-hours of energy every year, and cut back 3,000 metric tons of CO2, just by turning off the Muzak. Enterprising Stanford students crunched […]
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Snappy answers to stupid questions about smart meters
Smart meters are a revolutionary technology that could save money, save the planet, and enable a switch to renewable energy, so you’d think they’d be really popular with Californians, right? Except that California is also full of right-leaning tin-foil haberdashers and left-leaning hypochondriacs, says the New York Times. The two groups have formed an unholy […]
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Understanding the smart meter backlash
The California revolt over smart grids says plenty about the importance of psychology in energy tech. And while protests over radiation and cost ripoffs may be debunk-able, privacy concerns aren't going away quickly.
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Which has a bigger footprint, a coal plant or a solar farm?
It's a common assumption about energy that fossil fuels like coal are "concentrated"� and renewable sources are "diffuse." But it's not true.
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The smart grid could help you be smarter about your home electricity use
The smart grid, we?re told, will integrate renewable energy and decentralize power production. But what?s in it for you and me?
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The only thing 'green' about NASCAR's switch to corn ethanol is the cash
Using an energy-hogging fuel to gas up cars circling a track is absurd. NASCAR might want to ask its fans whether they'd rather watch races -- or be able to fish in clean water or hunt in abundant habitat.
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Conserving while preserving: Energy and food storage
I've been canning, freezing, and dehydrating summer's bounty to enjoy in winter. But it bothers me that all these methods use substantial amounts of electricity. Readers, help me out?