Save the Power, Save the World… and some Cash!

by John Sciacca

Being green is all the rage right now. In fact, you can barely attend any event or read about any product without hearing about some benefit that’s designed to keep the globe spinning a bit longer. The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what Green is and many companies seem to be just jumping on the hype wagon to make some green…or whatever color Chinese money is.

Many companies profess to being Green, but what does this mean? Are they Green because their products are packed in a smaller carton with less material? Are they more Green if that carton is recycled from other cartons? Are they Green if their device draws less “Vampire power” when it’s turned off? (The Department of Energy claims that stand-by power can account for up to 20% of a home’s electrical use, and a 1998 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study estimated that this totals more than $3 billion in annual costs. Yikes!)

While all of these issues are sorted out and a real definition of what makes a product Green is defined, I think most people are really looking to make a smart buying decision that fulfills their needs while being as environmentally friendly as possible.

As I write this, I am staying in an absolutely amazing home on St. John in the US Virgin Islands, helping the homeowner install some audio and a couple of surround sound systems. As much as I’d love to center this blog on how amazing this place is, something the homeowner asked about was too perfect a topic to pass up.

She mentioned that electricity costs on the island were staggeringly expensive, and that some of her friends had monthly bills exceeding $7000! Because of this she asked if I would be sure to turn off my room’s thermostat whenever leaving.

This immediately gave me an idea. Why not tie occupancy/motion sensors into the HVAC system? If the person leaving the room presses a handy off button it can automatically turn the A/C off. But if they forgot to press the button, the system can turn it off after a set number of minutes of non-movement. Easy-breezy!

“But what about at night, when people are sleeping and not moving?” she asked. Since nearly all automation controllers feature an astronomic time clock, that’s easily overcome by programming the system to leave the cooling system running from say 9 PM to 8 AM whether there is movement or not.

This is the perfect example of real-world automation coming to the rescue. Helping the client to be Green by using less energy and actually save some real green (US dollars on St. John) at the same time. It also offered the perfect opportunity for me to secure a second visit to the home. But I only thought of that later, promise.