How much energy are we consuming now....?

... posting Q&A, comments, etc. What do you think when you read that
鈥?..your average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian....鈥?br> Nicholas Carr, a business writer and blogger, recently worked out that each of the 15,000 or so residents logged in at any one time consumes electricity as a result of their activities in the virtual world almost as fast as the average inhabitant of Brazil does in real life. Second Life's residents, Mr Carr
concluded, 鈥渄on't have bodies, but they do leave footprints.鈥?br>
(I got the impression that Second Life is not being singled out here, it just came in handy as the data for it has been calculated.)

Would you give up (or cut down on) your time on the internet for the sake of going green?

Bob, you didn't get my Q - I don't need the general advice on going green, I'm not new to it. Nor did I propose giving up the internet, I asked about cutting down on it, too. I asked a specific question and thought it was illustrative enough. An avatar is consuming the same amount of energy as a real person - and you are telling me about laptops?

This was an interesting question. I think comparisons like this really help us to begin to be aware of how we use energy.

For those of you interested in the math: Brazilian鈥檚 average in 1998 was 2.16 kwh per day (found here: http://www.aceee.org/pubs/i001.htm ), but is probably a little higher than that now. That works out to an average energy use of 90 watts per hour. Fascinatingly enough when I looked up what the average energy usage for a desktop computer (in The Home Energy Diet) it was exactly 90 watts.

For 90 watts you can:
-Power a desktop computer for 1 hour (depending on your system and the monitor) 90 watts
-Watch a reasonably sized television for 1 hour and 6 minutes. 100 watts
-Run your clothes dryer for a minute and a half. 5000 watts at 75% cycle
-Operate your VCR or Fax machine on standby mode (not doing anything except waiting for someone to make it go) for 18 hours. 5 watts

To answer the question: I am really not sure that I would be willing to cut down on the internet- at least not at first. However, I am willing to make the 鈥渟acrifice鈥?to put my VCR on a power strip and turn it off when not in use. And unplug the old refrigerator in the basement that we really don鈥檛 need anymore. In short 鈥?my plan is to cut out all the stuff that isn鈥檛 adding any value to my life. Then I will look at all the other stuff that really will require some sacrifice.

I salute everyone who chooses to log off early in the name of energy savings. An electron is an electron no matter how it gets saved.

-All wattage references were from 鈥淭he Home Energy Diet鈥?by Paul Scheckel.

they have a CO2 gauge on stopglobalwarming.org


you just have to enter info and it will tell you if you are too high or just right....and what you can do

yes i would
imnotsayingmyname: where can i find that on that website?I looked and couldnt find it, thanks

I'm all for fighting global warming, hard.

But we don't need to give up things we like very much like the Internet.

All we need to do is stop being wasteful, and do things more efficiently. Better light bulbs, insulation, smaller cars, use less disposable things, etc.

And maybe use a lower energy laptop (grin).

We don't need to stop doing things, we just need to do them more efficiently.

Better to be sitting at a computer, than behind the wheel.

tons

No... I am not into "trends." "Going green" is another commercial trend... remember Y2K? Lots of food dehydrators got sold in 1999 during that little trend gone awry. Live a little longer and you'll see... the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Right now humans globally require 13 trillion watts (or terawatts) of power. By 2050, we鈥檒l need 28 terawatts
i would and i have, i used to leave my computer on alll day...:( i know.. so bad! it was on from 6 am to 11 pm. but now its on from 6am to 12pm, turn it off, even turn off the surge protector to save a few extra watts. and turn it back on when i get home from work around 8ish and turn it back off around 10 or 11. but if i need to cut more i can. i have yet to use my a/c so far this year! i have my windows open from 11pm to 11am to let that cool air come in. although it was 89 here yesterday. phew.. hot, but i stayed strong cause i knew i would have to leave soon to go to work. and i thought no point to turn it on if im leaving soon.