I know spring is here because I've been able to get out my bike on an almost nightly basis. Along with flowers, green grass and sunshine, spring seems to usher in a renewed interest in sustainable talk. Especially because Earth Day is smack dab in the middle of it (April 22). In honor of...
I recently received the below email from Lyn Chapman of Chapman Specialty Equipment & Inspection. It seems that the Efergy E2 is made by a U.K. company and Lyn is based in Ontario, so I'm not sure how it would perform in the U.S., but it definitely looks like a good product has the potential...
When it comes to vital importance to survive, Water trumps Energy. On a society scale, you can’t have one without the other: you need energy to produce clean water and you need water to produce energy (in all cases except solar and wind). But it seems that energy usually gets the most focus....
We've been putting up posts on the Mapawatt Blog now for over a year. We have over 200 posts to help you conserve energy and water, learn about clean energy, and think about sustainability. But the blog is just a part of our larger plan. We plan on being the number one community related site...
PrePay Power
One of the readers tipped me off to something I had never heard of: Prepaid Electricity. Most of us sign up with a utility after they check our credit and deem us worthy, use electricity all month on credit, then get billed by the utility at the end of the month on the faith that...
Microsoft Hohm and Ford: EV partners
When we first had the idea for Mapawatt we merely focused on the home and basic appliances. You know, air conditioning, TVs, lighting, home energy monitoring, etc. But then all these auto-makers started talking about Electric Vehicles (EV) and we realized...
Solar Powered automatic mower
Buds on the trees, spring-training baseball, and April showers all mean one thing: In a few weeks you are going to crank up the mower and cut your grass. While gasoline mowers get the job done, they emit a disproportionate amount of air pollution (compared to cars...
Gasoline powered alarm clock
While skimming through the NY Times last Friday I read their article titled, "EnergyStar Program Audit Finds Fraud Vulnerability" which chronicled the experience of the Government Accountability Office (basically a congressional watchdog) and their ability to easily...
It's not how hard the wind blows, it's where.
The most important decision in buying a residential wind turbine is determining if you have enough wind! Unfortunately nature hasn't made determining your average wind speed at the site of your wind turbine that easy. With Solar PV...
Earlier this week I had a reader suggest the need for the U.S. to develop a nuclear fusion program so we can finally stop relying on fossil fuel for electric power (he suggested this would be a U.S. only program, unlike ITER, which is an international collaboration). I mentioned that such a...
Share PowerMeter data!
The driving force behind Mapawatt is the belief that if energy usage became more transparent, then more people would be inspired to conserve. Luckily Google feels the same way. If you've seen our post on Google PowerMeter and TED 5000 you know that it is possible for...
If you've seen the new iPhone app commercial where the mom turns off her lights while heading off to the family vacation then you've seen Schage LiNK in action. But let me go ahead and get this out of the way: I'm not recommending this product for a lighting energy conservation measure! Read...
Some people think you have to spend a lot of money to save a lot of money for home energy and water conservation. As this list shows, there are many things you can do under $100 that will have a huge impact in your consumption habits. I put them in order based on what I think would have the...
Our goal at Mapawatt is to help people visualize their energy consumption so they can understand where to make a difference. This is also the goal of the Pyramid of Conservation by Minnesota Power. The pyramid is a simple tool that homeowners can use to decide which conservation choices will be...
Rechargeable Batteries + Thumbs Up = Smart
As the amount of electronics in my home climbs my need for AA and AAA batteries climbs as well (some of our more frivolous battery eaters: wireless electronic grill thermometer and electronic meat thermometer, trivia game for the PS3 that needs 2 AA's...
Home + Star = HOMESTAR
HOMESTAR is a program proposed by Obama to provide incentives for homeowners to make energy efficiency investments in their homes. This is different than the Energy Star Appliance State Rebate that we covered last month. Last week Obama was in Savannah, Georgia to...
We humans are needy people. We want cars and nice clothes and good beer and flashy jewelry. But we only need water, food, and shelter to survive. If you live in a single family home the shelter part is probably provided by a roof with shingles. This is good news for Dow Chemical, who is about...
Monkeying around with water heating controls
While watching the winter Olympics I saw the great ad for the new GE GeoSpring hybrid water heater. If you missed the ad with the snow monkeys chilling out in the heated water it can be seen here. The new GE hybrid water heater is called a hybrid...
Energy Efficency in Your Home
Today, we've updated our blog to have a new layout and look. As many of you know, we're building a portal that will help residential consumers learn more about their energy usage and find out ways to become more efficient in their home and lifestyle. Mapawatt Blog...
The following piece on energy conservation was written by a reader who has contributed some excellent comments to the site. David Fay writes from Harvard, MA where he and another son run Energy Metrics, an energy audit and consulting company. If you live in the New England area, check them out...