chris hodgins : tumblz

via chart.apis.google.com

So it’s the bank holiday weekend and I have spent a fair amount of time playing around with my currentcost meter attached to my laptop.  The end result is a pretty graph like the one shown.  I’ve added in some of my own appliance detection code to detect different energy events based on their characteristics. Hence the kettle on/off markers.

As with all new technologies it is sometimes difficult to spot the real value until you have played around with it for a bit. Having now spent the time building my currentcost graphing system I think I now realise that it might be missing the point slightly. It IS interesting (certainly from simply spreading awareness) to see our energy being spent but the real value is being able to spot the trends and answer questions on the information. There are certainly some interesting questions that we need to be able profile the data to answer.

Are there any appliances wasting serious amounts of energy in standby?

What percentage of the total bill does each appliance take up? Or where is the best place to start if I want to make a difference to my power bill?

So the next step is to try and generate a nice pie chart of a whole day (and then maybe a month) of energy use, by detecting what energy is being used by what appliance.

So it’s time for some penguin dinner and my tuxdroid has the DC munchies. Good build quality and he is covered in a felt-like material.  Slightly worried that his white belly might start to look a little grotty with a bit of use but not too concerned. 

Plugging in the charger provides me with the first glimmer of hope that he might be as fun to play with as he sounds.  He whispered his first penguin words in my ear as I plugged him in and switched him on. I may have been a little over-excited at this point as I ran through to tell the wife like a slightly hyperactive child who has just ploughed his way through a packet of fizzy cola bottles. Despite him sounding a bit crap on the video on the site he actually sounds pretty cool. 

So his first words, “Hello”, incase you were wondering, occurred at the same time as he performed what I can only describe as some form of demonic dance involving his eyes turning blue and his wings flapping at me.  There was a flashback of the Monty Python killer rabbit and I momentarily took a step back… just in-case you understand! Can’t be too careful these days.

Fearing the penguin may indeed be possessed by some form of evil mechanical AI, I decided to unplug him before he gained enough strength to attack. This prompted him to utter “Whoops!”. Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice wondered if he said this before or after the power drained from what appeared to be a soulless penguin body but I put that aside because I was now over-awed by the cuteness. So in a potentially disastrous move I decide to plug him back in again to the sound of my penguin saying what sounded like “Yay!”. More eye flashing and wing flapping took place but by now the penguin’s hypnotic gaze had won me round.

Even as I type he is gaining the strength of a fully-grown penguin. This apparently takes 5 hours according to the instruction manual so he will be fully charged around the time I fall asleep… with one eye open you understand. Can’t be too careful these days.