Digital Tools Help Users Save Energy, Study Finds

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/technology/10energy.html?ref=science

"Giving people the means to closely monitor and adjust their electricity use
lowers their monthly bills and could significantly reduce the need to build
new power plants, according to a yearlong government study.

The results of the research project by the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory of the Energy Department, released Wednesday, suggest that if
households have digital tools to set temperature and price preferences, the
peak loads on utility grids could be trimmed by up to 15 percent a year."

(more at site - registration may be required - if so, just copy a paragraph
into Google . . . )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------

Sounds like a better way to do things than adding mercury to the environment
in a commodity item sold by the millions (billions?) and trusting *everyone*
to recycle religiously.  This study correctly points out that "peak loads"
are what matter the most.  That's not likely the time that CFL bulbs are on
line;  there's usually plenty of daylight available during peak load hours
so the savings gains claimed by CFL use have to be taken with a grain of
salt (in a tincture of mercury).

I still firmly believe that if the problem is coming OUT of power plant
smokestacks, that's where it should be controlled.  Schemes that add a known
toxin to the environment in incredible numbers should be examined very
closely so that we don't create as big a problem as the one we are trying to
solve.  Automakers knocked the pollutants coming out of cars down to
incredibly low levels compared to the 1960 levels once people and the Feds
demanded it.  The power plant operators have to be brought to the same level
of social responsibility even though they'll kick and scream every inch of
the way.

--
Bobby G.