Home Automation and Being Green

I was flipping through Time Magazine today (The August 26/September 2, 2013 issue). I came across a one page article in the Tech Section titled Home, Smart Home. I've had a soft spot for home automation for a decade or so now. I was among the "early adopters" when I started playing around with X-10 modules which would allow you turn on and off lights with your TV remote. I'm telling you ten years ago that was mind blowing stuff! Especially when you used it to turn on and off the Christmas lights!


It was all kind of cool, but in it early days was a bit unreliable. And while it was cool to turn on and off lights without getting up it was more parlor trick then actually useful to be honest. So after a year or so of messing around with home automation stuff I kind of forget about it.


So this article reminded me of the coolness of it all again. And apparently in the last ten years things have really improved. Especially because we all now carry little wi-fi connected computers in our pockets called smart phones. Most of the technology for controlling and tracking all these new cool devices are in our pocket all ready. This makes adopting home automation cheaper and easier to learn as we are all ready familiar with the interface known as our phone.


One cool item the author (Harry McCracken) mentioned was a new door lock which you could install on your entry door and could be operated with your phone. It works with bluetooth on your phone and automatically unlocks the door when you arrive home. You can also grant temporary access to friends who you want to access your house. It of course makes me thing of the possible security issues should you lose your phone on the subway, but that aside you can't argue with the coolness or convenience of the idea!


He also mentions the Nest thermostat which is available in stores now (I saw it on an end cap in Lowes a couple of weeks ago). Apparently this new gizmo starts to keep track of when you are home and not and figures out patterns of when to raise and lower the temperature in your home to minimize your heating/cooling energy use. Sounds pretty cool. I don't know the exact price, but I think it's hundreds though. I tend to be really conscious of my energy use, and very rarely forget to turn down the thermostat when I got to bed or leave for work. I haven't done the math, but I feel like since I tend to be good about turning it down anyway, it would take quite a while before I recouped the cost of the the Nest thermostat in energy savings. With that said it looks cool, and that is what a lot of tech is all about really. So at some point I'm really going to look into it closely, do the math, and will likely write a post here as well.


All of this got me to thinking about the tie in between home automation and energy savings. Being green and Saving Green! In fairness much of home automation is more focused on the cool of technology. Changing the color or lights in different rooms to create mood settings (cool but in practice, you'll never use it). Changing the radio station that is playing through out your house from a touch screen which is located in the kitchen, living room, and upstairs hallway. All of that is definitely cool, but likely is only going to use more electricity then you would have otherwise.

The stuff that I'm thinking about are the gizmos whose main function is to use less energy. The Nest thermostat is a great example of that. Whether or not it would pay for itself installed in my house, it's main purpose is to save you money. So sure it took ten years to pay for itself, but in the mean time you were using less fossil fuels and where there for saving the planet, even if it did come out of your pocket. I'd love to see home automation devices which would serve a similar purpose for your hot water tank. Or maybe something that would open and close your blinds depending on the time of day, amount of sun, and time of year, to help warm your house or keep it cooler. These are the kinds of items which can pay for themselves and help save the planet.

So I'll be checking out the Nest, and I'll be on the look out for other items which can be installed to save energy. Additionally I'll be checking out these items to see what the potential payoff would be. In other words home long do they have to be installed before they save you enough money in energy usage to cover their cost of purchase and installation.

Christmas Trees Are Green But Are They Green

So we made the annual family trek to get the Christmas Tree today. Mission accomplished. I even have it in the stand and strung with lights (LED's of course). I saw an interesting sign at the tree farm this year though. It ready something like, "Breath Deep - the trees naturally collect carbon dioxide and let off oxygen. If you don't cut them down we can't plant more. So get your tree and do you part for the environment". 

Now I guess you could call getting a Christmas Tree a guilty pleasure for me. I mean the gas we use on the way to and from is a waste, and the whole process of growing the tree and running the business I'm sure has a big carbon foot print. I do still do it though, I think some traditions are necessary, as long as you try to keep it limited to some extent. In fairness we carpooled to the tree farm and like I said I light the tree with LED's, so at least that's something.

Anyway, the sign keeps sticking with me. It just feels like the string of half truths that normally the crazy climate change disbelievers put out. Yeah trees do suck up CO2, so that part is good. But once you cut them down you have killed them and therefore begun the decomposition process which is going to release that CO2. Trees are like CO2 storage compartments. They do indeed suck it up and pull it out of the atmosphere, but once they die or are burned they release that back into the air again. So yes planting new trees is what will then capture the CO2 that was released from a older trees breaking down. But we as Christmas Tree consumers would really only be helping if we were cutting down trees that were about to die and making room for new ones. The trees we are cutting down are in fine shape, that is why we chose them. I'm not sure what the total life expectancy of a Christmas Tree is but I know when I walk though the woods most of them on 40-100 feet tall. The one I put in my living room is less then 8 feet, so there was a lot of life left in that tree if it was just left alone.

So don't get me wrong, we all need to live a little as long as we stay conscious of what is happening to this planet and work to get it back on the right track. So you and I don't have to beat ourselves up because we partake in a old tradition with our family. It just bothers me that these kind of statements are made so that people are thinking they are really helping the planet when they are actually hurting it. You gotta do what you gotta do, but at least know what it is that you are doing!

Holiday Guilty Pleasure - Christmas Lights

So if you think of almost any Christmas scene in your mind which brings that nice warm fuzzy feeling to your heart and brings you back to your childhood, you will more likely then not notice that there are at least a few Christmas lights. Now being that I'm constantly trying to do what I can to reduce my carbon footprint and save money at the same time, I am constantly walking around the house turning off lights behind my kids. I always make sure to mention that they left the light on and I had to turn it off for them so we weren't wasting power. I have to admit there are occasions where they catch a light I left, which is annoying and makes be proud at the same time.

So I am really conflicted when it comes to Christmas lights. I grew up with them. It was a holiday tradition at our house growing up to string the lights out on the front bushes and on the roof line. I remember how cool I thought it was when technology came around so that we could have the traveling lights along the roof and twinkling ones in the bushes. Cool stuff for sure. The problem is there is no real need for the lights so really I'm just wasting power to put them out there. But there has to be some joy in life right?

The happy medium for now is that I at least make sure that all the lights we are using are LED lights. This saves quite a bit of power and they don't get as hot at the old style Christmas lights so I don't worry about fires either. That's a win win for sure! I also make sure to have them all plugged into a photocell timer as well. No point in having the lights on at 2 in the morning. If someone happens to drive by the house at 2 and misses out on seeing my lights, I'm OK with that. The photocell timer is pretty cool and I picked it up a few years back for like 2 bucks. It has different settings on it, but the one I use turns on the lights when it gets dark and keeps them on for 8 hours. Really simple, and saves me money. I'm sure it's paid for itself by now!

The new things I've heard about but don't have yet is solar Christmas lights. My understanding is that there is a solar panel of some kind that you put on the roof and let it charge the batteries during the day. Then when it gets dark they kick on and run until the battery dies. I'm not sure how long they are able to run and how bright they are but for me the concept at least is the ultimate in guilt free Christmas displays! I mean if its all solar then why not put up as much as you want and run them as much as you want right? Like I say I'm just not sure how well they actually perform. If possible I'll probably buy at least one set of the solar ones this year and see how they go...so I'll report back.

I'll also put a link to all the kinds of products I've mentioned here below.

So I guess I can't always be the power grinch all the time, even though most of the time it's needed so we can save this planet, so go ahead and deck the halls. Just make sure you are at least using LED Christmas Lights!