Arizona Public Service or APS as we better know our electricity provider recently did us the incredible favor of installing smart meters in our apartment complex. A smart meter allows us to see our daily and even hourly electricity usage, as soon as the following day in a browser on the internet. This fantastic service allows us to adjust our consumption on one day and see the next day how that would impact our overall usage. For example, we now know that using the dishwasher is a huge draw even without the drying cycle – back to washing dishes by hand (although this is not for certain yet as we are just today doing the dishes in the sink and will have to wait until tomorrow to see if hot water usage and the subsequent electricity usage is significantly different from going through a dishwasher cycle – I can guess we’ll see large savings).

This January we started using Windows 7 in which the sleep function for the computer now works perfectly. Compared with last year, based on usage in the middle of the night we have trimmed approximately 190 watts per hour out of our electricity usage this year. This past Friday I rewired our computers to plug our router, modem, printer, speakers, backup drive, and table lamp into a different power strip and it appears we cut another 240 watts per hour out of our usage when the power strip is switched off. With the TV, DVD player, amplifier already on a powerstrip (and turned off when not in use) we are down to 140 watts of electricity per hour overnight.

Why is this meaningful to me and hopefully you? We are presently paying $0.133 per 1,000 watts of electricity, if we can save 400 watts of electricity per hour for only 7 hours per day, we save a whopping $0.37 per day – no big deal you might say. But, over 365 days this equates to a savings of $135.93 or $11.33 per month. I figure the average family could turn off equipment that uses “Standby Power” for nearly 13 hours per day, that would be from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and then again from 9:00 a.m. to maybe 3:00 p.m. saving that family $0.69 per day for total savings of $252 per year or $21 per month.

Late last July our attic was given a second layer of blown-in insulation, which resulted in an immediate 25% drop in how much electricity we were using. July and August of 2008 both saw daily average temperatures of 95 degrees but our July bill dropped from 2,202 kWh of electricity used down to 1,659 kWh for August. During 2007 we averaged $7.31 per day over the 120 hottest days of summer costing us roughly $876, based on my initial estimates of saving about 25% of summer time electricity usage we will see savings this year of about $219 over those 120 days or about $18 per month as we pay on a yearly average plan. Is it economical to have a new 3-inch layer of blown-in cellulose insulation? Well, it only costs $0.20 per square foot from King Insulation in Phoenix so you can see that your savings can be terrific, especially if you plan on living in your current home for more than another year and a half. Heating over the winter has seen similar dramatic results, during the previous 3 years for our January billing cycle we used an average of 1002 kWh per month, this January we only used 623 kWh for a 38% reduction in electricity use.

To read more and to be shocked at how much electricity your appliances are using in Standby Power mode visit the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory webpage on Standby Power by clicking here.

This photo of a drying droopy-headed flower reminds me of an old Mark Twain quote: “You can’t depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus”. While the background is blurry due to the shallow depth of field, the beauty of the flower is still in focus. Some people might not find that beauty but see rotting brown death overtaking the flower. To you, I would say, your imagination is out of focus – you have lost your ability to see the world through the eyes of a child – to paraphrase Ruth Draper.

Close to earth but not too near the soil and hopefully, out of range of predators, a tiny hummingbird built its two-inch (5cm) wide nest of feathers, spider webs, and various other delicate materials piece by piece weaving together a temporary home where two eggs less than a half-inch will be incubated, hatched, and two youngsters fed until feathers appear and the two are ready to leave the nest. Perched upon her nest in a blossoming orange tree this mama hummer sits upon her two-day-old hatchlings looking at me nervously but bravely, not willing to budge as I move in with my camera.

On March 7 I finally finished recording, scanning, organizing our 650+ CDs that had been stored in the closet, on shelves, racks, in boxes, on desks, in CD book holders, the car door, plastic bags, and CD spindles. Our music tastes are wide-ranging and seem to have little in common with most anyone we know. Some of what we are enjoying these days can be watched and listened to on YouTube such as Benjamin Biolay from France singing Une Chaise A Tokyo, Cheb Mami with Idir from Algeria performing Azwaw, from Thailand Duay Nam Ta by Num Sornram Theppitak, also from Thailand are the China Dolls with Muay Nee Kah. Out of Germany is Tic Tac Toe with Ist Der Ruf Erst Ruiniert a kind of Rammstein meets the Spice Girls, auch von Deutschland is Fettes Brot with Schwule Madchen – German hip-hop. From India, Karsh Kale has a beautiful song with Beautiful, an elegant song from Japan from Mandrave & Miyagi titled Asian Lights. Finally from Spain is Hijo De La Luna, a cover by Loona.

This is just a small sample while in our collection we listen to everything from ambient to salsa from Zaire. I still have an ear for noise from Whitehouse, the gothic whine of Current 93, pop songs from Ian Brown and Royksopp, drum n bass from Pendulum and Black Sun Empire, classical music from China, black metal from Burzum, bhangra from Tigerstyle, and the ambient dub of Banco de Gaia