Webware

Assembling a Tweet-a-Watt kit: the weekend project to assuage carbon gluttons' guilt.

(Credit: Adafruit Industries)

Like many of you, I'm addicted to Twitter. It's not just that I like knowing the real-time minutia of my friends' lives (sorry friends, you're all boring), but I like the idea of what Twitter can become. It's evolving in a free-form way, and there's no telling what it will be in the future. But right now people are learning to utilize it in very interesting ways.

The Tweet-a-Watt is one such example. Using a modified version of a $20 off-the-shelf wattage meter, the Tweet-a-Watt kit, now available online for $90, tracks daily power usage for an outlet. It then reports that information back to your followers via your Twitter account, including the daily average and your daily goal.

The kit includes the wireless transmitters and receivers needed to report the data, plus cables and various components needed to get it all wired up. It's the product of an open-source hardware project that had the main goal of wirelessly tracking power usage for a household. The Twitter aspect is a fun byproduct of this idea.

For DIY'ers, there are instructions for making your own kit and links to download the software for your project.

Tendril shows off its iPhone app for monitoring home power use.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

PALM DESERT, Calif.--At Demo 09, new conference honcho Matt Marshall led a panel where three companies showcased their new technologies to save power, and with it, they hope, the planet.

Google's Thomas Sly started by comparing buying power to what it would be like if you bought groceries without an itemized receipt--just one bill when you left the store. Google's goal is to collect and help distribute the data on power use, which, Sly says, will encourage people to consume less.

Google is currently in a test with about 100 devices that track power use, and that should grow to about 200 soon, Sly said.

The goal is to get 50 percent of households to cut 10 percent of their power. Sly said that would be as much as all the solar and wind power now produced in the U.S., or the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.

Tendril's CEO, Adrian Tuck, showed off hardware devices that monitor and control AC power. Small devices plug in between an outlet and an appliance or lamp, and transmit power use to a home device that then puts the data on a Web service where consumers can see what they're using. The devices also control power (turning off lights, for example). Tuck showed an iPhone interface that told the user not just how much power they were using but that also let him turn on and off outlets, or change his whole house to a different power-using profile.

AMEE, "the world's energy meter," sent Vice President Robin Baker to pitch his company's goal to create the global platform for tracking energy used (and thus carbon consumed or emitted) "for everything on the planet."

The overarching theme of this panel is that these companies are all working on the same thing: collecting information about power consumption. It appears that they are also moving to shared data, so that, for example, data from Tendril devices can feed both Google and AMEE databases.

However, the picture from Washington, D.C., is not so rosy. As we reported earlier today, our power grid isn't currently set up to collect and distribute this information.

LocalCooling floats on your desktop in a tiny box. This expanded view displays more details.

(Credit: CNET)

If you tend to zone out and leave your computer on to suck energy needlessly, Local Cooling (download it from CNET Download.com) helps you tell your Windows XP beast when to rest, giving the electric company a break, too. I've been using this free download on two PCs for a couple of weeks. It lets you time automatic snoozes or shutdowns for precise periods of neglect (also see Earth2Tech). Use Vista? Check out this battery saver.

By bringing hidden details about consumption to the surface, Local Cooling encourages you to relax your energy usage with little effort. Otherwise those controls are buried pretty deeply within Windows or Mac system folders. But Local Cooling sits on your desktop, calm and translucent, showing the true power hunger of your CPU, monitor, and graphics card.

Then it quietly adds up how many kilowatt hours and trees you might be saving. By last count, I've spared 0.362 of our leafy friends (is that like saving the bark or a pile of branches?). Since using Local Cooling, I haven't noticed my CPU or monitor napping any more than they already were before, although that could be because I tend to turn off the screen when I take a break.

Power-saving controls can be as lax or strict as you like.

(Credit: CNET)

You can log in to your Local Cooling account from any browser to see results from your stable of machines, and check out what other users are saving. The widget's maker, Uniblue Labs, calculates that using 15 computers leads to about as many globe-warming carbon emissions as one car on the road.

Green social networks for cleaning up your carbon footprint include Make Me Sustainable (more here) and Yahoo Green (more here). In addition to providing smart, power-saving tools for socializing, computing, and even hosting your Web site lately, people are dreaming up computer hardware that's green out of the box. The novel Zonbu rental PC is energy-efficient, while this regular-looking Dell notebook is the first to win an EPEAT gold rating for sustainable design.

There aren't enough down-to-earth, Web-based tools to help you visualize a greener home. The Green Building Studio is for architects, while Lucid Design Group's energy dashboard is found only in a slim number of buildings. Yahoo's Green House is pretty, yet it can't be personalized.

By contrast, the Department of Energy's frightful Energy Hog.

But I just wasted a fine chunk of the afternoon playing with a kids' Web site that makes a great model for what I'd like to see for adults. My Abodo is an excellent, Flash-based interface that walks you through building a virtual green home. Created in part by the British government, it's more happy-go-lucky than our Department of Energy's Energy Hog games (though not as fun as killing cows in the McDonald's Video Game that it reminded Josh of). My Abodo lets you hand-pick various parts of the house, from the flowery green roof to your own vegetable garden, while adjusting trash in the nearby dump accordingly. When you're done, you can embed your abode on a blog or other Web site, just like so below.

I'm crossing my fingers that someone might offer some freebie to bring green building down to earth for grown-ups. Google Earth (more here) and SketchUp provide so much potential for environmental imaging and modeling. Imagine if the search giant also served up an amateur architecture tool that let you design buildings online from the inside out.

Carbon footprint, energy use, green tech: some phrases that won't be going away. From gasoline prices to global warming, we're likely to become more aware of what energy we burn up, just as most of us now have some sense of whether we're eating wisely (or not).

Front page of carbon calculator

(Credit: earthlab)

Just today the Live Earth concert folks e-mailed me a link to their carbon calculator. This one walks you through several pages of simple questions about how you live, and especially how you travel. This calculator was built by Earthlab.org. They want to know the size of your dwelling, your car if you own one, energy bills, airplane and daily travel. After going through their process, I can't imagine how bad an airline pilot would look, environmentally speaking.

My score on the Earthlab quiz: 301, and 11 tons of carbon. So I'm clearly doing my bit to warm the planet. Live Earth folks say they'll post overall test scores and more information on 7-7-07.

Then there's this site, which gives you the really bad news--how many planets humanity would need to supply energy if everybody lived as you do. My score: 6.3 planets. I think that translates into a couple more solar systems 'cause I don't get the sense there's a whole lot of oil, coal or biofuels to be had out beyond Venus. I could probably do nicely with a tiny sun, however.

Then the Yahoo folks have built a carbon dioxide emissions calculator. My score was pretty much the same as what I got from Earthlab...until I added in my infrequent air travel. From a few plane trips: 21.8 tons of carbon dioxide. Where are the calls for solar planes? Or goose-powered, or human-paddled balloons, or something? How about those Star Trek transponders that would beam you up? Could they be energy efficient? No crappy airline "food" either.

Altogether these sites are: depressing, educational, geared to getting you to do something about your consumption patterns. Turn off your work computer when you are done for the day (or night). Carry your own shopping bags. Use alternative energy when possible. Use efficient bulbs and appliances. Walk more. Freak out over air travel. All good advice. And aimed at making each of us less of a carbon bigfoot.

Electrocity

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Like a mini-version of SimCity, the Flash-based Web game Electrocity lets you develop your own metropolis from the ground up. Rather than existing solely as a entertaining Web diversion, however, Electrocity has a hidden agenda.

The sponsor of the game, Genesis Energy, is an energy provider and retailer in New Zealand. Electrocity was developed to increase public awareness about energy usage, its cost, and its effect on the environment.

Electrocity is a fairly simple, turn-based strategy game. You get 150 turns to create your masterpiece, but the challenge is to allocate resources wisely as you build. One-hundred and fifty turns may seem like an eternity, but many of these will be skipped in the process of gathering cash and natural resources, so it's essential to build infrastructure early. A full game at average speed takes about 30 minutes. It's also easy to save any game in the middle, then restart later using a personalized city code the game assigns you.

Played on a 5x5 grid, Electrocity starts you off with a small urban center, a population of 10,000, a 25 percent tax rate, and one wind farm that provides all the town's energy. Surrounding areas are randomly populated with forests, plains, mountains, rivers, or oceanfront property.

Each area may provide resources that can only be discovered by prospecting. Once you've discovered coal or gas, you can build plants and start selling energy on the open market. You can raise and lower taxes, and upgrade your wind, coal, and gas plants as you see fit. Once you amass enough cash, you can start building luxury items such as sports stadiums, ski resorts, or beaches to attract a larger population. If you grow your population too quickly, however, you'll get crunched on your energy usage and end up paying through the nose on the open market.

I previously thought that I was much better at turn-based rather than real-time strategy games, but after playing through Electrocity, it turns out that I stink equally at both. Aside from building coal plants where there was no coal, my addiction to alternative energy and campgrounds proved to be idiotic.

On my first try, I accidentally went bankrupt in round 68 after building a large geothermal plant that send me plummeting into the red. My population barely peaked above 30,000 people. The second time, I lasted the whole 150 turns, but I couldn't seem to maintain more than 40,000 residents or keep much more than $1,000 in the bank. Good thing I'm not the king!

The city of Heter provides massive energy and numerous tourist destinations for a top rating in the Finished Cities chart

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you make it to the end of the game, you'll receive a score based on your energy management, popularity, population, and environmental prowess. I spent all of my time logging and planting forests, so it's no surprised my environmental grade was "A." My energy management (since it never advanced beyond large wind farms and small coal plants) also received an "A."

My popularity was about 90%, which only merits a "B+" grade, and I dropped the ball completely on population, averaging 34,150 citizens, which received a "C-." Oh well. My overall score wasn't much better: 76 for a "B-." After you've received your final score, you can submit your city to the Finished Cities page, which also enters you into a prize drawing.

The Finished Cities ranking on the Electrocity Web site is determined by final score, though maximum population seems to be a tie breaker. Currently the city of Heter by the player Rong is No. 1, with a whopping population of 3,897,182. Your strategy is determined slightly by the random environment you begin with, but it appears that Rong topped the list by building three large nuclear plants on the edge of town, along with oceanfront development to bring in the tourists. Your mileage will vary. My only advice is don't build a large geothermal plant without the scratch to back it up. Good luck, and happy urban planning!

(Credit: CNET)

Even if the people in your life are spoiled, you don't need to turn to coal as a holiday gift. Instead, you can stuff stockings with gift cards that send cash in their honor to a worthy cause.

Changing the Present lets you make charitable contributions in the name of a loved one. Unlike other do-good gifting services (see below), you and your giftees can set up personal profiles that specify favorite causes. Plus, Changing the Present's Stupid Gifts Hall of Shame could be a destination in its own right (although I think fake vomit makes a fine present).

The list of causes runs the gamut from Aging to Women--with the environment, microcredit, and 28 others in between. For example, you could pay $160 to send a laptop to a child on the wrong side of the digital divide, or $15 to clear 10 meters of landmines--then deduct it from your taxes come April. Your loved one gets a recycled paper gift card to show off his or her passive selflessness.

(Credit: Kiva)

While it connects with hundreds of nonprofit organizations, Changing the Present doesn't yet hook up to GuideStar or another database that would let you add just about any 501(c)3 group to the roster. The site plans to expand its listings, although at this point, for instance, I only found three Illinois organizations.

(Credit: Heifer)

If ecological cleanup and human rights protections are high on your wish lists, check out these other gifting Web sites:

(Credit: Seva)

• Alternative Gifts International can send clean water, wheelchairs, and doctors to villages on the other side of the planet.
• Heifer International's gift cards enable you to send honeybees, bunnies, chicks or big mammals like llamas and cows to rural families who need a hand to sustain their way of living.
• Seva means service in Sanskrit. Purchasing Seva gift cards in the name of a friend or family member can help fight child blindness and fund development projects for Indian, Native American, Latin American, and other communities.
• Through Modest Needs, you can offer a no-strings help to U.S. strangers who are having trouble paying paying medical bills and other vital expenses.
• Want to help, but you need the money back? Kiva microloans connect you with people in Eastern Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa who are looking to borrow funds for their small businesses.

There are many online calculators for assessing how your lifestyle pollutes the planet; environmental nonprofits sponsor most of them, such as the Earth Day Network's Ecological Footprint Quiz. But learning about the downstream effects of your driving, computing, and shopping can give you guilt to last. Once you feel like the sky is falling, what are you supposed to do about it?

(Credit: BeGreen.com)

Entrepreneurs bent on spreading sustainability have created Web sites to capitalize on either your guilt, survival instinct, or nobility--whatever the personal motivation may be--by letting you examine the ecological impact of your way of life. Then, you can plunk down matching penance cash to fund clean energy efforts intended to cut down on carbon emissions and combat global warming.

(Credit: OffsetMyLife.com)

Among the various carbon pay-up plans, Be Green incorporates social networking. This project of Green Mountain Energy lets you set up a personal page to show off your progress. It quizzes you about your use of energy and transportation, draws a chart of your carbon consumption, and then lets you buy certificates that send cash to wind and solar energy or reforesting projects. My chart (above, right) reflects how I've given up my car this year but have indulged in many plane trips. I'm supposed to pay $195 to enter the pearly gates of carbon neutrality. Be Green remains in beta testing, so it's currently short on user profiles.

Offset My Life beta gets a little more specific. Not only does it calculate carbon emissions from your jet-setting, it even adds up how much your coffee-drinking, TV-watching, Web-surfing, and UPS-shipping habits might contribute to climate change. The Web 2.0 angle is its invitation for you to add your own offsets and get a commission when someone pays up (anyone up for a chocolate offset?). A business edition is in the works.

TerraPass was one of the original carbon offsetting services, which have been winning corporate allies, as seen in Travelocity's partnership with the Conservation Fund. Along the same lines, Sustainable Travel seeks to remedy the blight caused by your flight. The Sioux-owned NativeEnergy helps you to finance wind and solar energy services. Conservation International lets you give offset gift cards, such as $10 to make up for a cross-country road trip.

(Credit: Fivelimes.com)

(Credit: Alonovo.com)

In the market for a laptop bag made of recycled soda bottles or a solar-powered iPod charger? You could spend hours searching online for boutiques that stock those green goods. Or you could go straight to Five Limes, a social-shopping site linking to stores that hawk ecofriendly products, such as Green Home for nontoxic bedding, BTC Elements for organic blue jeans, and Green Office for recycled-paper Post-Its. Five Limes is "something like an Angie's List for green products," as Sustainablog puts it. Five Limes saves a history of your activities to tailor search results accordingly and to help you hook up with other users.

Shoppers get to rate the quality and sustainability (see graphic above left) of stuff for sale with up to five limes--or you can toss a lemon at junk. The ratings at the Alonovo marketplace are far more thorough and customizable (right). But unlike Alonovo, which offers a broad swath of products, both green (Fair Trade coffee) and ungreen (leaf blowers), Five Limes focuses exclusively on the burgeoning market serving consumers who care about Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (aka LOHAS). Once you locate the perfect bamboo-fabric sweater, Five Limes takes you to the merchant to pay. Vendors can feed their products for free to the site, which takes a cut of referred purchases.

Five Limes is still a work in progress; for example, a search for LED only retrieved one $28.99 lightbulb that's supposed to last a decade. Some of the sites Five Limes links to offer products still in development or that you can't buy yet in the United States, such as USB-rechargeable batteries. Still, the Web 2.0, social-networking aspect is ideal for niche communities, in this case for ecofriendly shoppers looking to make transactions, forge relationships, and pool their resources to attract broader attention.