FedEx hybrids

Spotted in San Francisco in May

I recall reading somewhere they have purchased 200 or so (a small percentage of their fleet anyway).

But certainly it seems like local delivery trucks are an area where hybrids would be more resource conserving than highway driving

Quantitative eco statement of the day - Flying versus driving

<b>$15,000 for a Airbus A320 to fly from New York to Long Beach.</b> The article cites $3.50/gallon for aviation fuel => 4285 gallons of gas. Google maps says it would be 2827 miles driving => 1.5 gallons of avgas per car mile. A car can hold 4 people where as an a320 can hold 150 people in a typical us carrier configuration. So to equate to the same efficiency as driving in a theoretical 30mpg car, you'd have to have 80 people on board that A320. Given that load factors are in the 70-80% these days, you could easily exceed that.

Of course that's assuming people would be driving if they weren't flying and ignores the fact that google says it's 42 hours driving time so there would most likely be some rest stops, hotel stays, food etc.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Any kind of cost savings is vitally important at a time when the cost in fuel of flying from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Long Beach has jumped to $15,000 a flight from $9,600 last year, according to Baldwin. That change makes adding Los Angeles International service unaffordable, Baldwin said.

Quantitative eco statement of the day

I am going to start posting a series of quantitative statements about resource consumption that I've run across. I haven't fact checked them at all, so take them as they are intended to be: an interesting look at the different numbers being used on the web to discuss resource consumption.

clipped from www.ecogeek.org You think you hate sitting on the runway couped up in a plane that seems to be going nowhere. Well, the airlines (and the planet) hates it too. In 2007 $1.6 billion of jet fuel was burned by planes waiting in line to take off at airports. That's 740 million gallons of fuel. And from the perspective of climate change 7.1 million metric tons of CO2.

View of Eath Lights at night

In my last post I mentioned lights at night. Long time readers know I've whined about streetlights and their waste of electricity (and their lack of motion sensors). This incredibly beautiful poster (composite image of earth taken at light exposed for the lights and merged with landforms, clouds removed) definitely influences my opinion on street lights, as do the plight of the astronomers dealing with light pollution or merely sitting on my back porch unable to see the stars most nights.

However on the flip side, I have enjoyed flying over our beautiful country staring out the window, and the shapes of our cities outlined by lights is as entertaining as the view of all the landforms (and both are more than the in flight movie that has been very edited for objectionable content)!

I often try to take pictures of the lights of the city as we are landing but the exposures are so slow that the lights blur (though that can be a cool effect -- see images at left )
Anyway, I have seen cities that look like neuronal cells, cities that are very grid based, cities that clearly illustrate the underlying geographic forms and cities that outline new development by the color temperature of the newer streetlights. But I haven't been able to capture these images to share. However NASA seems to have figured out a stable platform from which to take these pictures (they are a bit higher orbit than united airlines flies!)
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/CitiesAtNight/

My pics:



Note: images are copyright bryn forbes 2007

Map of just roads

Here's a very interesting image http://benfry.com/allstreets/map5.html made from drawing all the maps in the US on the map. It has a similar effect potraying how much of the natural habitats we have made an impact on, as the nighttime view showing all the lights. Of course in this case the rural areas with a road around 40 acre plots is a lot less of an effect than the dense areas.

Another giant yellow hybrid

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9926763-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Speaking of giant sized hybrids that are yellow, GE is making hybrid dump trucks. Now that's what I need for the trips to the grocery store!

Hybrid school buses!

I found out a friend works for a company that make hybrid school buses!
Check em out here

they claim 70% improvement!!!

I hesitate to mention this in case people buying hummers think they can be green (or in this case yellow) and have a hybrid SUV (schoolbus utility vehice)

Lower mercury CFL bulbs

Don't count CFLs out you scrappy LED upstart you!
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9916140-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

New CFLs have less than 1.5 milligrams of mercury (normal have 5mg). (There's a snide remark about tuna having more in here somewhere -- though I'm refraining since I don't have data for fish bulbs)


Though you have to worry when technology starts to integrate other gadgets (alarm clock/golf bag anyone?) so maybe CFL manufacturers are starting to worry since one is making a CFL that makes your room less smelly (sure to be sold at sharper image if it wasn't bankrupt)

http://gizmodo.com/379136/viatek-cfl-makes-your-rooms-brighter-less-smelly

13W LED bulb

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/13w-led-bulb-replaces-100w-incandescent.php
Treehugger reports on a 13W LED bulb as replacement for incancdescents.

It's interesting that it so much more efficient than an incandescent (which wastes most energy as heat) but has a fan inside of it to reduce heat.

They also tout other features of LED long life bulb, less mercury than cfl, etc.
But cost cost cost cost cost?

How many watts hours of solar electricity could you buy for the cost of this bulb?

Motion sensor lighting

This was a cameraphone pic I shot in the hallway of a very very large apartment building in mid town manhattan. Every other light fixture was motion sensitive. Most of the lights near the elevators were constantly on but the ones near the ends would definitely be off most of the time.

Plug in hybrids better for the environment despite being coal powered?

I've often snidely remarked that plugin hybrids are coal powered, but it seems I will have to change that. Here is a link to an article by EcoGeek with some data claiming that they end up being better for the enviroment overall despite the eletrical transmissions losses.
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1569/69/

Per capita CO2 emissions

Check out this map of per capita CO2 emissions.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/new-high-res-ma.html

UPDATE: I showed my texas geography ignorance and slandered houston, my apologies!

how much energy is your city consuming?

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/04/nuage_vert_energy_power_plant_visualization.html

Infosthetics notes a idea to project how much energy a city is using on the plume of a coal power plant for all to see.

Electrimetric was created with the idea that if we know how much energy we use, and see feedback based on changes, we will reduce our resource consumption. The question is would this help because it reminds people how much energy they are using? or hurt because they see turning off their light is just a cigarette amongst the coal power plants pollution.

It seems like you could do this via a web page reporting how much energy your city is using, and I'm sure there are things like this out there. Avid readers, send those links in!

Dark Vader

A friend was telling me about her father who would proclaim himself "Dark Vader" with an innovative power saving technique. If she or her family left the lights on, he would unscrew and take the lightbulb. Certainly solves the problem of leaving the lights on from then on out! I guess you'd learn pretty quick or else you would leave the switch on all the time but not use any energy (hope you ate your carrots!)


Apologies to the folks at Buy Star Wars Costumes for the bastardization of their image.
Also the artists at
Star Warped

Concept home power monitoring system

I've wanted something like this for a long time. It's just a concept, but would be very cool. I would want to make sure that the monitors don't end up using more power than you'd be able to save by having the information, but for a quantitative data geek like me, cooooool. The Greener Grass via
Gizmodo

Playstation 3 measurements revisited

erac3rX (who is working on a killer gaming setup -- site coming soon at http://www.modsbox.com)
writes with measurements of the older revision of the playstation 3 to compare to the new revision in the 40GB PS3 posted here

Note the interesting difference between cold start and hot start on booting. Are there really 15 watts or more of fans running? Wow!


PS3 (60GB, one of the latest manufactured)
Off: 1
Booting (cold): 140-145, max 156
Booting (hot): 158-160
Menu (XMB) (cold): 156 at login screen, 163 after logged in and ticker tape running.
Menu (XMB) (hot): 167-169 waiting to login, 175 after logged in w ticker tape running.
Resistance Fall of Man: Cut Scenes: 163-164
Playing first level of RFOM: 180-185, peak 190
RFOM paused: 158-159
Loading Bluray/Menu: 169
play Bluray (House of Flying Daggers ch 14): 169-172
30x Fast Forward: 167-169
Paused bluray: 166-167
Running Folding @ Home: 191 w/ active visualization, 175 screensaved
Web page loading sony store page: 167-169

Time Lapse energy video

Check out this time lapse video It's not very quantitative, but it's quite cool. Even if you don't appreciate the message (it's similar to inconvenient truth in it's message) there is very cool imagery in there. The photographer made the video using still photos taken at intervals to make time lapse sequences in black and white.

EnergyConsumption.org

Great minds think alike :)

Check out this great site that also is posting power measurement data
http://www.energyconsumption.org
The data is here http://ec-users.pbwiki.com/Data

CFL light bulb with motion sensor built in

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/09/cfl-motion-detector-motionbulb/
Engadget reports on a compact fluorescent lightbulb with a motion sensor built in to detect motion up to 25 feet away

Going Green: Cyber-Rain XCI Waters Your Lawn When The Internet Commands It

Going Green: Cyber-Rain XCI Waters Your Lawn When The Internet Commands It

This is something I've been wanting, a sprinkler controller that turns off when it's going to rain based on forecast. Of course, you can provide do a lot more benefit to help fresh water resoruces by putting your $349 to wetlands recovery, though with the droughts in california and the southeast you might save some of your power bill if you don't turn off your sprinklers manually.