Google Engineer Hacks His Energy Usage

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
So there is this article about a Google engineer that bought a $10,000 device to track his home energy usage. According to the article he can now say taking a bath is 3x more expensive than taking a shower! That means if it costs 45 cents to take a bath, he only has to take 66666.66 showers to pay for his new energy tracking device!

Darrell Anderson always knew that running a bath required more electricity and water than taking a shower, but he's an engineer at Google, so he decided to quantify that difference. His tool of choice? A new resource monitoring system designed by some ex-NASA engineers called Agilewaves with a price tag north of $10,000.
Click to expand...
 
Well, that's just shower versus bath. If he finds other savings, that could add up quickly.
Otherwise, the 186 ROI isn't so hot...
 
How much energy does it take to monitor the energy usage of a house i wonder...
 
Now if only google would follow the hardocp ways by making the background to their website black instead of white.
 
heh, I love research like this. Kinda like the environmentals protesting deforestation and pollution by burning down some structure.

10,000 for a machine to tell him baths costs more and how much he'd save by showering. Btw... who takes baths anyways these days?
 
I can see ware this is going to end up...........No more curtsy flush becuase it's a waste of water.......damn it.
 
can't wait to relay this one to the wife - she's always bitching at me saying I take too long in the shower, but she's always taking baths.. oh the poetic justice of it. :D
 
neurobash said:
can't wait to relay this one to the wife - she's always bitching at me saying I take too long in the shower, but she's always taking baths.. oh the poetic justice of it. :D
Click to expand...

I had the same problem. This is what you do.

When she gets in her bath you get a big bowl or cup. Go outside with that bowl or cup and fill it with dirt. Yes dirt. Then go in the bathroom and dump it on her......Then she will have to shower and stop bitching.
 
I wonder if he's saved enough environment to pay for harvesting the copper and other metals that go into the manufacture of that $10,000 thing he tacked to his wall.
 
We've been hearing this for years, but I have yet to see "Bath" or "Shower" as SI or Imperial units.

I've got a small bath and take long showers. I'd probably fail his test but the $10k I save by not finding out for sure will make a nice down payment on a hybrid.
 
Meh... I have a Kill-a-watt meter, I think it cost me like $30 or something, measures energy usage as well. Granted not natural-gas, but any electrical outlet? No problem.
 
I thought he was cheating the power usage or something.. lol. We were going over that in our circuits lecture the other day. You can hook up capacitors in parallel to improve the power factor so you only pay for a fraction of the power you use. ^_^
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top