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After a week (172.5 hours to be exact, or 7 days 4 hours and 30 minutes) I finally have my results of my phantom power test. The total phantom power used in that time was 0.30 kW total – or 300 watts, almost 1/3rd of a kilowatt. Here’s more math for you:


Hours in a year = 8736.00
Test hours = 172
kW used = 0.30
8736 / 172 = 50.79 time measurement units
50.79 x 0.30 = 15.24 kW of phantom power used in one year by the XBox


As of 1am PST on Nov. 11th, I’ve got the X10 appliance module plugged into the Kill-a-watt, the XBox plugged into the appliance module, and the module is “on”. I’ll need to figure out a good way to power on and off the module. I have two basic options. I can manually use the X10 remote used with the modules and turn off the unit before I go to work (@8:30am), and then turn it on after I get home (@around 8:30pm). The other option is to put my laptop out in the garage (where the test is being conducted), and set up a cron job to automatically turn the module on/off. I’m leaning towards the laptop option, but I’m not certain yet.

The main purpose of this part of the test is to see if using the module to totally cut power to the XBox actually saves any electricity or if the module itself will use as much, or more, power. I’m guessing it will actually use more since the module will always be in a powered state – and the amount of electricity saved by cutting the power to the XBox will be overridden and amplified by the constant draw of the module. We’ll find out in a week.

UPDATE: I’ve changed my mind about using the module to regulate the power flow to the XBox. Instead, I’m going to leave everything just the way it is but leave the module in the “on” mode for the entire week. That way we can see how much additional power the module utilizes in addition to the XBox.

My wife recently went through a major wardrobe overhaul. There were bags and bags of clothes, shoes, and accessories she was going to get rid of and donate. It’s really quite amazing the amount of clothing she had in her closet, considering it’s only slightly larger than a coat closet. The main reason for the transformation was because she met two “Fabulous” women who’s specialty is (if I understand correctly):

• to de-clutter the closet
• use the rest of the existing wardrobe to mix and match versatile items to create multiple new ensembles
• and help educate on what items to purchase going forward to get the most out of your money while putting the least amount in your closet

Pretty cool. There’s an eco-friendly byproduct in there somewhere, but that’s not the purpose of this post.

The ladies website, and business, is called Fabulous On A Budget. Their website is full of energy, whimsy, and some great information. One thing I found particularly interesting was their post on “Keeping your Electricity Bills Fabulous For Fall!”. They even take their energy conservation beyond what we do in our house, and go as far as to unplug their washer and dryer when they aren’t being used!

If you find yourself with some free time then take a look at the site. I think you’ll agree that it might just make your day a little brighter.

I’ve been trying to think of creative ways to fund my long list of projects that I have planned. Advertising on the site hasn’t really panned out too well, which I understand. I’m not usually inclined to click on, browse, and buy things from banners myself. Also, my “Help me go solar” PayPal link hasn’t exactly seen very much action either, so it’s time to go in a different direction. Not only do I want to do as much as I can to promote environmental sustainability, but my project funding also needs to remain sustainable as well….

My latest idea came to me while I was out at lunch with my wife, who came to see me at work today. After lunch, as a treat, we went to the local coffee shop to indulge in a little caffeine consumption. As we were standing in line, I heard two high school girls order two “medium iced latte in a large cup”. What?? What are they going to do – add a little vodka? After ordering our beverages, and as we were waiting for our drinks to be made, I had this urge to approach the girls and ask them, “Are you going to recycle those cups when you’re done?”, but I refrained. It looked like I’d just get a double earful of attitude and not really get anything accomplished.

This suddenly gave me a spark of an idea. A shirt that simply says, “Are you going to RECYCLE that?”. Simple, to the point, but not intrusive. Well folks, now that dream is a reality. Not only can you get a 100% organic cotton t-shirt (made in the USA) with that phrase on it, but you can also get a tote bag and a mug! Head on down to the ECOEXIST online store and get yours today!

Oh yeah – and don’t forget to vote in the POLL on the left there!!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to plug an old Xbox that I had lying around to my Kill-a-watt, leave it powered off for a week, and see how much phantom power it used. I got it all set up last night out in the garage (which suddenly makes me wonder if weather/temperature will skew any of the results in any way….) and this morning, before I left for work, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to check the status.

According to the Kill-a-watt, it had been plugged in for 12 hours and 45 minutes, and had used .02 kW. That doesn’t seem like much, but after 24 hours it should be around .04 kW – again, I know, not much. *But* if you combine that with several other electronic devices plugged in around the house – tv, computer, computer monitor, dvd player, phone charger, clock, rechargeable batteries and/or flashlights, night lights, lamps, video game player, stereo, electric razor, hair dryer….I’m sure you get the picture – then it will turn into something quite substantial quickly. If I had 10 items pulling the same amount of phantom power as my “control” test, then they would be using a half a kW (500 watts) about every 30 hours. Here’s what could happen:

1 device @ 24 hours = .04 kW (40 watts)
10 devices @ 24 hours = .40 kW (400 watts - what a 200+ watt solar panel produces in two hours of full sun!)
.40 / 24 = .0167 kW per hour
.0167 kW * 30 hours = .501 (501 watts, or half a kW)
There are 8736 hours a year (24 hours * 7 days in a week * 52 weeks)
8736 total hours / 30 hours = 291.2 * .501 kW = 145.89 total kW used in a year

Almost 146 kW used in a year from only 10 plugged in and powered off devices. I know I have a lot more than that around my house, how many do you have?

Due to a recent article on TreeHugger about BestBuy’s naming October 30th as “Vampire Awareness Day” (referring to the idle, or phantom, power consumption of the plugged-in-but-not-in-use electronics in our homes), it brought to mind a few items I had acquired a few years ago that I had completely forgotten about. I have a whole box of unused X10 lamp and appliance controllers just sitting in the garage.

Doing a quick check of the X10 website shows that the prices of the wall modules are still relatively inexpensive. Most of the modules are just plugged into an outlet then the electronic device – be it a tv, stereo, computer, etc – is plugged into the module. Then, using an ifra-red remote, the power to the device can be cut off at the wall, potentially saving a lot of phantom power usage. X10 also has wall outlets as well which allows for whole outlet to be disabled whenever needed. The other benefit to having such a device is for when we are away on a vacation. I can control the modules from my computer so I can turn on/off the lights for security. Pretty nifty.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be installing many of these modules wherever I feel they may be useful. I’ll update on my progress and document the pro’s and con’s of the devices (and have pictures!). I think I’m going to do a trial run with a specific appliance, maybe a spare Xbox I have, and plug it in for a week with my Kill-A-Watt attached to see what kind of energy consumption it uses while powered off (for the entire week). Then the next week I’ll use an X10 module to cut the power for 10-12 hours a day and compare the difference. That should at least give me a basic baseline comparison. It would be difficult to get a consistent comparison with something that is randomly being used for varying periods of time – like the tv or the microwave.

I’ve recently been confronted with an issue of having too much available reclaimable water. As I’ve posted before, I bring a 5 gallon bucket with me in the shower (5th paragraph down) to capture the cold water while I’m waiting for the water to warm up, and I reclaim bath water when I can. I’ve also have been wanting to capture the washing machine discharge but haven’t found a good way to do that with the approval of my wife

I’ve divulged before that I have an in-ground pool and that is a big part of why I wanted to reclaim as much water as possible – to offset the amount of water I need to put in the pool to account for evaporation (I also try to look for ways to offset the electricity consumption of the pool as well, but that’s a different topic). We decided this summer that the pool needs to be resurfaced since the gunite is very rough and porous-like, and is even worn away in some areas. To do this, of course, we need to drain the pool. As fate would have it the pool pump just died a couple of days ago (which actually is a good thing since I needed to get a more efficient replacement anyway) and now I’m stuck with about 20,000 gallons of stagnant water. What do I do with it?

Unfortunately we don’t have any use for that much water. We don’t have any grass (about 95% of the yard is covered in concrete or the pool) and we only have a few small flower beds. The flower beds are mostly taken care of with the shower water I collect with the bucket so…. I’m going to offer the water to my neighbors, hose down my concrete more frequently, wash the dogs a few times, hose off the house (lots of dust and ash from the recent fires), and wash the cars with the water. Other than that I’m out of ideas. I tried to find out if there was a place I could “donate” the water too but that seems a bit futile. I also had thought to rent a large water storage container originally, but the levels of “dissolved solids” – or TDS levels – is quite high and it is overdue to be changed.

Any ideas? Let me know.

My wife came to me tonight with a pair of hole laden slippers and asked, “Are these recyclable?”. I know that clothes can, and should, be recycled but I hadn’t really looked into it until now. There are a lot of good sites on the web that offer up suggestions, but it seems that Goodwill is an all purpose recycler. They not only take the good stuff, but also take the unusable stuff and send it off to a recycler who shreds it up for several uses – things like insulation in cars for example.

I have been wanting to tinker with converting a vehicle to electric for a while. I, unfortunately, have a full sized 2003 GMC Yukon that I bought a few years ago and have looked into ways of making it all, or at least partially, electric. I can’t get rid of the thing since it’s not really a desirable vehicle with the fuel prices, and it is completely paid off so it’s not really costing me anything except for insurance and the rare tank of gas (it hasn’t moved in over two months). We do use it when we need to get sheets of plywood from the hardware store or have large items we need to transport, which of course we could just rent a truck for.

There are a few options to convert a full sized SUV to electric but, as usual, cost is the issue for me. On a side note, I did convert a pocket bike I had from gas to electric. It’s pretty fun to ride and it’s easy to sneak up on people Here’s a pic – it still needs to be put together better so it’s not pretty yet. I used two telco 12ah batteries wired in series for 24vdc, used a 24v scooter motor I got from a local electronics junk yard, and bought a controller from a scooter web site. If you want specifics then let me know.

One site that I’ve been tracking for quite some time is Kiwi EV. It’s an excellent documentary of his mission to convert a Mitsubishi into full electric. It explains in great detail the process he took, the parts he used, why he made the decisions he did, and how he got it certified as road legal. It’s really quite impressive. He is in New Zealand so some things might be a little different, but he provides a lot of very useful information. It’s even complete with videos and lots of pictures.

I started a new job about two months ago at a company called MonsterTrak. They specialize in entry level jobs for college students and recent grads, as well as others looking for an entry level job. I noticed right away that there were several things around the office that indicated they were, at least in the realm of, thinking green. Most things aren’t what I would consider to be impressive, but as a whole I am impressed that they at least acknowledge there is a need to be green.

The most noticeable things are:

- signs, mugs, and cups that offer the age old mantra of “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.”, as well as some tips on how to accomplish those things (see the image at the bottom of this post)


- we all telecommute one day a week


- actual recycling bins in the breakroom area


- a soda machine instead of cans of soda


- a water cooler instead of bottles of water. This is important for me to note since my last job *only* had bottled water and wouldn’t even consider getting a water cooler – even though I continually brought it up….


- the building is Energy Star certified – although that’s not the companies doing, but still pretty cool

Things I’m trying to do here to do my part is to recycle as much as I can since they make it so easy to do, educate my co-workers if there is an opportunity to (most of them didn’t even notice the recycling bins until I pointed them out!), and I’m starting a little herb garden at my desk that will hopefully provide some garnishment, be aromatic, and provide some entertainment (no – I’m not expecting them to become animated and do tricks). I bought the herb garden kit at Lowe’s for less than $5 and it comes with a mini greenhouse, six little planters, growing medium, and a pack each of parsley, basil, and chives. I went to a store close to work and also got cilantro and oregano as well to add some variety. We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s a picture of one of the signs hung up around the office that I mentioned earlier:

Not only do we try to recycle water (and even more water), but we also try to recycle as much garbage as possible. There are two adults, a child, two medium-to-large sized dogs, and a cat in our house. We’re not huge consumers by any means, but we do generate our fair share of garbage. We, of course, try to bring our own bags to the grocery store, buy our groceries almost daily (to minimize spoilage), and try to buy things with as little packaging as possible. Going by these pictures, it seems we are well on our way to minimizing our contribution to landfills:

One week of garbage



One week of recycling

If you look closely then you can see we still have a long ways to go – there are two visible plastic bags in the garbage bin, and it would be great to reduce the overall amount of items we need to throw out, recycling or otherwise. The key for us is that the more conscious we are of what we are buying and using, the less actual garbage we produce.

We are working on setting up our own garden which will also help to reduce the amount of trash we produce. More on that later.