Is it possible to have too many books? » green

Feeling Green

Sarah — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:17:34 +0000

I’ve just decided to ditch my 14 year AAA account and have switched to the Better World Club. They are comparably priced, have essentially the same car coverage PLUS bicycle coverage, and donate 1% to environmental advocacy and cleanup. If I had a hybrid I’d get a discount and even better (philosophically) if I had a Hummer or something similar I’d get at 20% surcharge. I was about to renew my AAA membership and thought – Wait, I should look at the other auto club I keep thinking about. Quick bit of research and I’ve switched to car & bicycle coverage with BWC. I am feeling satisfied. I like to try and put my money where my mouth is.

Want to plant some trees?

Sarah — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:57:49 +0000

You can via Doubletree Hotels and the National Arbor Day Foundation. Just fill out the pledge application by May 31. 2007 and Doubletree will send you 2 free tree seedlings (climate appropriate based on your shipping address).

Kill-a-Watt Project

Sarah — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:50:39 +0000

So I borrowed this spiffy little device called the Kill-a-Watt from a coworker. As they say:

Connect your appliances into the Kill A WattÃ¢â€žÂ¢, and assess how efficient they are. A large LCD display counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour just like utility companies. You can figure out your electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. Monitor the quality of your power by displaying Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor.

In other words, be a geek and plug in all your electronics one at a time and see how much juice they use. Very interesting and has the side benefit of making you clean up all your power cords because you have unplug and rearrange everything anyways to fit the Kill-a-Watt in. The ongoing number collection can be found at here at Google Spreadsheets. FYI, you’ll need a Google account to view it. Sorry about that but the Docs & Spreadsheets are to useful to not use.