The TFH Power Project: Adapter Audit

Running the TFH takes some juice. So does keeping it connected to the wider world. Where would we be if we couldn’t, say, dial up a two-year old news package from Knoxville? Or use the Tiny Fun Server as a dedicated remote desktop connection to Reston, Virginia? Or stream music via Melissa’s iPod touch? We like life convenient. But convenience (which sin is it related to? Sloth?) isn’t the best thing for the power bill, not to mention planetary resources at large. So we introduce the TFH Power Project, which will attempt to reduce the TFH’s environmental footprint. Because its spatial footprint is about as small as it gets. My work and this weblog don’t cross paths very often, with the exception of periodic posted photographs of my dictionaries and style guides. But last February, I wrote a story for work about the “greening” of hospitals and medicine in general. Part of my reporting included one of the first green hospitals in the country, Boulder Community Hospital. The facility was the first medical center in the country to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, meaning that its design and construction took its environmental impact into account at nearly every stage.

As you might imagine, hospitals produce a lot of waste, and they use a lot of power. Re-use of medical equipment can be risky, and the cost of disposability is low in the face of a patient’s survival. The building is “on” 24-7; it requires light and heat or AC constantly. To cut back on what’s needed and what’s thrown away is difficult.

For that story, I spoke with Boulder Community Hospital’s head environmental officer, and he explained what they’ve been doing since to keep their facility’s footprint in check. One first step they’d taken was a waste audit, in which they had carefully cataloged everything being carted away from the hospital. They found that blue wrap, which is the sealed plastic packaging that covers all kinds of medical devices when delivered, made up a huge portion of the trash.

Seeing as we don’t do a lot of surgery here in the TFH, the lesson we’ll focus on is the value of auditing. We use a number of electronic devices in here. Two cell phones, two-three laptops. Two handheld organizers. Two digital still cameras. One digital video camera. A Dust Buster. A printer. Two external hard drives. The last answering machine in New York City. A cordless phone. Three two-way radios. A Wii. DVR. DVD player. Television. A scanner. A router. A cable modem.

These all need charging or constant power when they’re running. Because many are adapted to DC from AC, some consumer power when neither running nor charging. The simple answer to reducing the consumption of these devices is to unplug them completely when not in use. Setting aside the diligence required to constantly plug and unplug small appliances, the tradeoff is convenience. Two particular examples come to mind: the DVR sips power all the time. But unplugging the DVR is impractical: It won’t serve its purpose of recording shows automatically. It takes a little while to start up when plugged in, and then acts dazed for several minutes thereafter. Same with the TV itself.

To find the balance between responsible energy consumption and effective use of our various devices, we’ll* be undertaking an adapter audit. We’ll take a look at each device and examine how we use it, how much power it draws when on duty and off, and what the consequences are of unplugging it completely. (A reader recently completely unplugged half of his household heating system to eliminate an intense off-duty draw. We hope to bring you his experience later in the series.)

*Some occupants have expressed skepticism about the labor/boredom-cost of the activity itself. Next up: boredom audit.

Step one in our audit is to create a chart listing each device and/or adapter, its listed power consumption of each, its use and the unplug consequences (start-up and power-down time; wear/tear and opportunity cost). I elect Google Docs for this purpose.

Step two is to take a power snapshot. We do not have immediate access to our electrical meter, so we’ll have to rely on billing information from ConEd.

Step three: unplug stuff.

Step four: Compare before and after power consumption. Our electrical bill is not huge (heat/hot water is included, and what little cooking we do is done with gas), so it’s really about the principle and the challenge.

Step five might be some way to bring time efficiency back into play, possibly through increased use of surge protectors or other switched power outlets. But I’m getting ahead of myself.