Actually, Kermit, I think it is.

For quite a while, I've been concerned with reducing my energy consumption, for both economic and environmental reasons.  I've actually wanted to invest in a home energy generation system, but the upfront cost of doing so is rather prohibitive at the moment.

For the time being, however, I have done what I can to reduce my energy consumption.  I bought energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (insert side rant about cheaper CFLs' startup times and the still ridiculous cost of far superior LED lighting), turn off computers and other devices when they're not in use, and program my thermostats to lower the temperature in my house when I don't need it.

Several months ago, I learned of The Energy Detective, from Energy, Inc.  TED is basically nothing more than a electromagnetic induction transducer, the same type of ammeter used in any number of portable power meters, or the one the utility company has on the mains coming into a building, but like the power company's meter, TED is designed to measure usage of a whole house.  TED's receiver unit stores and displays long historical data, along with making estimates for future usage.  Their new model, the 5000 series, is also Internet connected.

Sarah decided to get me a TED 5000-C for Christmas, though due to a recent surge in popularity and an issue with their manufacturing, I didn't actually receive it until last week.  This model has three parts; the Gateway (the device that collects the data and connects to a home network), one Metering and Transmitting Unit (MTU), and one display unit (to display information without the need for a computer).

The MTU includes the clamp-on transducers that get installed inside the service panel.  For more complicated power systems (like those that generate power), up to 4 MTUs may be used in a single system, but my system doesn't need that (at least not yet).  Because it's not safe to put low voltage communication lines in the power service panel and a wireless transmitter wouldn't work through the grounded steel cage, the MTU sends its data using the home's power lines, in a similar manner to how many home automation systems work.  The MTU installation was pretty easy, with Sarah's help.

Once installed and turned on, it was simply a matter of plugging in the receiver and I was good to go, or so I thought.  Unfortunately, powerline communication systems are easily interfered with by switching power supplies, which, unfortunately, my house has many of.  A temporary move to a clean circuit (fixed later with a handy noise filter I picked up online) solved that problem.  All that was left to do was configure the software and it was all set.

After about a week of monitoring my power usage, I've learned a few things.  First, just how much power some of the large appliances in my house consume.  For example, my oven draws about 5 kilowatts (when the element is on), my range draws about 3 kilowatts _per burner_, my apparently very efficient refrigerator draws a measly 200 watts, and as I just learned while writing this, my clothes dryer uses a tremendous 5.5 kilowatts (or a little under $1 worth of electricity per hour).  On the other hand, I learned that I've already taken some good steps at making my home energy efficient, and there's really not all that much I can do to improve on it.

My base load (the amount of power used all the time by devices that are effectively never off) is about 430 watts.  This is a bit higher than the average home in the US, but this includes about 300 watts consumed by my 3 servers that live in my basement and all of the communication gear associated with them.  The remaining 130 watts is a combination of all of my electronic devices, constantly using power in "standby" mode, the various chargers that are always plugged in, and a few other things that are always on, like the recirculating pumps on the fish tank and the cat's water bowl, etc.  This figure is actually reasonably low, all things considered, and there's not really all that much I can do to reduce it.

So is the TED going to help me save power?  Well, probably not.  But it's still a pretty nifty gadget, and I like it.  And for some reason I wrote this five days ago and am just publishing it now.

As of yesterday evening, Sarah and I are no longer Nextel subscribers, and have moved over to Sprint, and in the process, acquired "smart" phones.

I've acquired a Sprint/HTC/UTSmartCom/Audiovox PPC6700, running Windows Mobile 5. Granted, it's not an iPhone (which, by the way, I got to play with today, and it's freaking cool, and freaking slick, and freaking fast), but I think this will suit my needs. It's also significantly cheaper than the iPhone, especially considering I'd be breaching my contract with Nextel to move over to AT&T at this point. And the fact that you can't get an iPhone right now because they're sold out everywhere.

Anyway, my initial thoughts aren't too bad. The Windows Mobile interface is kind of slow, but definitely usable. The phone is a lot bigger than what I'm used to, but it's still smaller than many comparable smartphones on the market. Having access to my mail is a nice feature. Pocket Internet Explorer is almost completely useless, but I suppose it's better than the "browser" that was on my Nextel phones. I downloaded a copy of minimo, which is a Mozilla project. It works, and does some things better than IE, but it's significantly slower and not terribly stable, so I can't really make a determination of which is "better".

Unfortunately, signal strength at my house isn't great on Sprint's network either. I get somewhere between zero and two bars depending on where I am. This is similar to how Nextel was when we moved in last year, but a few months later, they must have put up a new tower or something because the signal went up to full nearly overnight. Hopefully Sprint will do the same. Granted, I'm not depending on the cell at home, as we have telephone service over the cable network from Time Warner.

One nice thing I found out is that the Windows Mobile software does not correctly indicate to the network when a data call is coming from the phone itself or from a Bluetooth device, which means that I can use my phone as a high-speed bluetooth modem with the cheap data plan that I have, rather than needing to buy the exorbitantly overpriced plan that Sprint wants people to use if they want Bluetooth modem functionality.

Anyway, I'll give the thing a few days and we'll see how it goes.

Update: Opera mobile kicks Pocket Internet Explorer's ass.  Suitable web browser found.  Also, I discovered that my phone has a very realistic sounding sampling of a mechanical phone ringer available as a ringtone.  It urges to be paired with this.

My attempts to integrate my photo gallery into this blog seem to have worked correctly, which means that this can now be my new, totally awesome website!  My only complaint is that I had to make all the images in my Gallery smaller to fit the Wordpress template, but the high-res versions are still available via a convenient link.

Click on the "GALLERY" link at the top of the page. :-)