Week 12: Energetic Thinking

Part of this week's lecture in MIST 7510 was a presentation on Energy Informatics.

I found this very interesting and exciting because we're often told to use less energy, but less than what? Our only measure of our impact is the monthly energy bill and if you are on an energy plan in an apartment building you won't even get that. It doesn't tell you what time of day you're using the most energy, whether your energy use is normal or not for your area and household size, and it certainly doesn't tell you which devices are draining the most energy. It’s hard to know if you’re doing enough when you don’t have any numbers to go by.

The presentation showed some examples of technology being used and in the works to collect and present that type of information so that people can use it, although in some cases it was simply a matter of getting the existing information to the right people. One thing I hadn’t heard of before was a refrigerator that operates based on the type of energy coming into the home. If the energy is coming from wind sources it runs but if it’s coming from coal it stops (it has more insulation to make up for running less often). Another thing I didn’t know about was all the technology that went into the I-35 Saint Anthony Bridge (photos) which replaced the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge after its collapse. It has 320 sensors monitoring traffic and environmental conditions and can even de-ice itself. No more sending out trucks to remove ice from the bridge.

Towards the end of the presentation a study was quoted that found that the best motivator for getting people to go green was peer pressure. Trying to get people to do it for their own good or for the good of the planet didn't work as well as pointing out that everyone else was doing it. It's the opposite of what they tell you to do in school but it makes sense: if you knew you were using twice as much energy as everyone else, wouldn't you do something about it?

But I think it also needs to be easy which is what all this new technology does as well. The technology is either allowing the devices to use less energy or giving people enough information to make better decisions about their energy use.