Archive for November, 2008
House Gadgets And Appliances
Posted on Nov 22, 2008 06:39:45 PM
What utilities do you need and what do you want in your micro house? It is interesting to contemplate what modern living has brought us with all the conveniences of ‘home’.
What does that mean to you? Obviously we have come to take for granted many of the amenities that a contemporary modern house contains.
A lot of the appliances and gadgets that we use daily depend on large inputs of energy, whether a small continuous supply such as chargers or electronics on standby, or periodic peaks of high usage by such things as air conditioners, ovens, and water heaters.
As economic times have changed, the last few decades have seen an explosion of gadgets and utilities that we have enjoyed, from telephone, broadcast and cable television, to high speed Internet and mobile voice & data.
If the economy tanks to the level of a widespread depression, what services would you consider mandatory and what are discretionary? What gadget would you be prepared to give up? Take a look around your home or apartment now and consider how much stuff requires a supply of electricity. Check how many items are ‘on’ but not in use. It is amazing how much energy is used by TVs waiting for a remote control command, DVD players, Audio systems, cable boxes, cordless phones, electric toothbrush, shaver, curlers, vacuum, cellphone chargers, laptop, desktop computers on sleep or hibernate, router or hub, numerous electric clocks and alarms, night lights, timers, coffee makers; can you find more? Any adapter or transformer plugged in to an outlet is using electricity even if the appliance is not in use. Every LED and LCD display is consuming milliwatts, 24 hours a day.
How many of these things could you unplug and not miss? If you had to live in a time when power supply was intermittent or unpredictable, or extremely expensive, what would you eliminate?
Or, in a different scenario, what appliances and gadgets would you like to add or replace over the one’s you have now? Can that rat’s nest of cables connecting the VHS, cable converter, DVD, TV, receiver, and audio entertainment be replaced by AppleTV instead of video editing production equipment?
How often have you used that 30″ oven to cook a 20lb turkey? Perhaps a dual microwave or halogen mini-oven could serve better.
Perhaps the landline telephone is redundant. Maybe a data-enabled cellphone service could combine several utilities such as phone, Internet, TV.
Consider all the facilities you have now both coming into your house and leaving. Water, electricity, sewer, solid waste, phone, TV, and how much or how many of them do you feel provides you with the most effective use of resources.