Monitoring Home Energy Usage

I’ve always wondered how much energy turning off a light switch really shaves off my power bill. A good way to gauge what your home is consuming is with Blue Line’s PowerCost Monitor. It informs you in real time exactly how much electricity your household is using. It came out earlier this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a hot seller for Christmas. My husband and I bought it as an early Christmas present for our house.

To set yourself up, first you need to clamp a wireless sensor to your home’s power meter (powered by two AA batteries). This sensor then transmits information to a portable wireless receiver that you keep with you in the house (also powered by two AA batteries). The receiver displays your energy usage on an easy-to-read LCD screen. When you turn something on or off, it takes about 30 seconds for it to register on your receiver. You can program various electricity rates on it for extreme accuracy, including single (flat) rates, tiered rates and time-based rates.

We mounted our receiver on the kitchen wall and the kilowatts (kW) usage is easy to read in big numbers at the top. The first night it was installed we had fun turning on and off different lights and devices in the house to see what sucked up the most power. The very first thing we tried out was the Christmas tree. Surprisingly this was one of the most energy-consuming lights in the house, using 0.5 kW. In comparison, the kitchen light and the bedroom both use 0.1 kW.

Additionally, I noticed my house’s baseline averages at about 1.0 kW during the day, and 2.0 kW at night with the basic lights running (kitchen, living room and the outside patio). When the central air conditioner kicks in, it then shoots up to 5.1 kW (day) and 6.1 kW (night), but since it’s been cooler these days, it hasn’t kicked on that often. To my surprise, the washer (0.8 kW) uses more power than the dryer (0.6 kW) - neither are Energy Star since they’re a little older.

The bottom line is the PowerCost Monitor is a cheap, effective and fun way to help you know what your home is doing. Last week it was even named one of EcoHome Magazine’s Top 20 Reader-Requested Green Products for 2009.

You can find it at Smarthome.com for $99.93 (free shipping on orders more than $200) or Amazon.com for $109.99 (free shipping).

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lick Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Dragon Dictation
Nuance Communications’ Dragon Dictation app allows you to speak e-mails and text messages to your iPhone instead of typing them. When you need to type something, all you do is open the app and it takes you to a screen that says “Tap here and dictate.” Here you tap the button and start talking, hit “Done,” your voice is processed for a few seconds, then you see your text appear.

After this, you have the option to e-mail the text, send it as a text message or copy it to your clipboard. If you send the text to your clipboard, you can conveniently use it to paste it into just about anything, including your Facebook or Twitter updates. I found the recognition to be fairly accurate with short phrases, and if there are any wrong words, they’re easy to correct by replacing them with the iPhone’s word suggestions or your own words. With the longer paragraphs, it might need a little work.

The Dragon Dictation app is available free for a limited time from the iTunes App Store. Grab it quick before they put a price on it!

Barnes & Noble's Nook

Back in October, Barnes & Noble announced the Nook, its wireless eBook reader. Clearly this is meant to compete with Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s E-Reader. Unless you were able to pre-order a Nook back in October, this product is a little too late to make Christmas this year since it actually became “available” last week. But in reality, if you order one now, you’ll most likely see it some time in January or maybe even later.

“We asked our customers what they wanted in an eBook reader, and specifically designed Nook to be the most full-featured, fun, stylish and easy-to-use eBook reader on the market,” says William J. Lynch, president of BarnesandNoble.com. “With our nationwide footprint, Barnes & Noble customers can see, touch and hold Nook. Our 40,000 booksellers are ready to help customers discover how easy it is to download and read eBooks on Nook, and what a pleasure it is to have access to their favorite eBooks, magazines and newspapers anytime and anywhere.”

At first glance, the Nook looks strikingly close to its Kindle rival. The noticeable difference is the color touchscreen at the bottom. Yes, it’s only at the bottom. The whole nook display is not a color screen as the ads lead you to believe, but only a color strip at the bottom that is exclusively for navigation and controls. The touchscreen is not very responsive and seems a little awkward against the big gray screen above. When you click on something, there is no indication that your Nook “heard” you, as there is no hourglass or progress bar.

A great feature concept the Nook has is the ability to loan your eBooks to other Nook-owning friends for 14 days. The drawback is that you can only loan it out once, and when it is loaned out, it disappears from your library and you can’t access it. The other thing is that you can’t lend a book out unless its publisher approves it. You’ll see a “LendMe” icon next to it if it is lendable.

As with the Kindle, the Nook has built-in free wireless 3G service to access the Barnes and Noble online bookstore when you’re on the road. The Nook also added on Wi-Fi, but you have to configure your hotspot manually since you don’t see any notifications when you enter into one. I wasn’t able to actually walk into a Barnes & Noble yet, but supposedly your Nook will auto-connect to AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in all Barnes & Noble stores. In addition, the Nook is boasted as the first eBook reader that can run the Android operating system. I don’t see it doing much now with Android, but it opens the door for many future possibilities.

Overall, the Nook is cool, but I’m not so sure it’s worth it at this early stage for the price in comparison to its competitor (same $259 price tag). Perhaps it could be later when it’s more refined. I think it may have been rushed out onto the market too quickly. Visit Barnes & Noble’s Web site for more information or if you do decide to purchase it (barnesandnoble.com).

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: B&N eReader
You don’t necessarily need a Nook to enjoy Barnes & Noble’s eBooks. Similar to Amazon’s Kindle app, the B&N eReader app for your iPhone/iPod touch allows you to read your eBooks from your device. It gives you the basic features of the Nook, including the eReader, a free copy of Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, adjustable text size, multiple font choices, choice of tap or swipe to turn the pages, background and text color options for easy reading, and more.

Additionally, you’ll never lose your place with the “Reading Now” virtual bookmark, which remembers where you were reading on your Nook or iPhone. Download the B&N eReader for free at the iTunes App Store.

Cool Techie Stocking Stuffers

Christmas seems to have come upon me quickly this year, and I didn’t even bother waking up early for any of the Black Friday sales. It was just easier and less time-consuming to do all my shopping online. If you still need to shop, here are a few cool last-minute stocking stuffers that should be able to make it to your front door before Christmas:


Flip UltraHD
You may remember the original Flip Mino compact video camera I wrote about last year. Since then, Flip has come out with many other cameras, my favorite being the Flip UltraHD. This is one of the cheapest portable HD cameras out there, perfect to capture your holiday moments. The video quality is good, and much better than the iPod nano’s quality. As with other Flip cameras, the UltraHD is extremely user-friendly. Find it online for $150 at Amazon.com.


MovieWedge
A practical, inexpensive stocking stuffer, the MovieWedge is a $10 media stand for your iPhone, iPod touch, PSP or just about any one of your hand-sized devices. Constructed out of micro-suede (basically a mini pillow), it’s designed to prop up your device on just about any surface without sliding around. With its material, MovieWedge also can double as a fingerprint cleaner, and it’s perfect to use on an airplane tray or on your lap while you’re traveling. Its small size and easel-like front edge make it easy to prop your device at different angles.


WowWee’s Lightstar
For the robot lover in your life, the WowWee FlyTech Lightstar is the perfect flying gadget to pass the time during New Year’s Eve or whenever you’re bored in general. It has a propulsion-based design and built-in LED lights to create a cool glow and halo-effect when it flies. These lights create interesting light patterns that are just as cool as fireworks (and won’t cause any fires!). Unfortunately you can’t steer the chopper, but you can vary the acceleration and bounce it off walls to compensate. At first glance, and for the $20 pricetag, you would-n’t expect much by looking at it, but it’s quite a delight to play with. It comes in blue, orange or green. Find one at your nearest Target, Sears, Kmart, Radio Shack or Toys ‘R’ Us (call store(s) first for availability) or online at Amazon.com.


YoGen Charger
Introduced earlier this year, this pocket-sized green mobile charger only recently became available for purchase this month. YoGen is a compact, easy to use and uniquely efficient hand-powered charger to use with small electronic devices such as your cell phone (including iPhone), mp3 player, game player or a digital camera.

You might think this is another solar charger, but it’s not. YoGen solely relies on your hand’s power from repeatedly pulling a ripcord (similar to starting a lawnmower). Its alternator interfaces with an energy-efficient electronic stabilizer and transmission to transfer linear kinetic energy through a patch cord from the unit to your favorite gadget. It gives an electrical output through its built-in mini USB. There’s an LED indicator that shows the charging for your electronic device its connected to. The maximum power output is typically five watts (but possibly up to six watts if you’re lucky).

This is a perfect gift for your on-the-go gadget junkie. Purchase it for $40 online at www.yogenstore.com (available in black and clear).

The New Wave In Communication

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. Simply speaking, it’s a live chatroom that you can use to share documents, photos or videos with your fellow Google Wavers. You can collaborate on your projects (perfect for students), and it’s a great service for people who love to multitask.

To start using it, you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use formatted text, photos, videos and maps to communicate and work together. It’s all shared so your participants can reply live anywhere in the message. Some of the other great practical things you can do with Google Wave are event organization, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming or, for fun, interactive games. For event planning, you can add in everything from an itinerary, menu, RSVPs, maps and even the weather rather than using different tools/Web sites as people typically do these days.

Google Wave’s photo sharing is pretty smooth: Just drag and drop pictures from your desktop into a wave to share with others. Everyone else can now see your pics, and they can add their own. When all your collaborative pictures are in there, it’s easy to make a group photo album. Other aspects mentioned above are fairly self-explanatory.

Google Wave was initially demonstrated at the Google I/O conference held earlier this year. Called “e-mail of the future,” it’s the result of a multiyear project by Google to re-invent the inbox and blend e-mail, instant messaging, photo sharing and social networking together.

Creators of the technology behind Google Maps brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen headed up the Google Wave project to help stir up this reinvention of Internet communication. The result: It’s a little bit of Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed bundled into one service. And the bottom line: With Google Wave you can have faster conversations, edits and interact in real-time.

To learn more about Google Wave or request a free invite, go to wave.google.com. If you really want to dive into it, there’s an hour-and-a-half-long video you can watch there. For the invite, click on the “I want Google Wave” link on the left.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: eBay Deals
I saw the eBay Deals app on the App Store last week, but didn’t think to download it and try it out until MidWeek graphic artist Russ Kaya started using it and raved about it. Thanks, Russ! This new app from eBay is awesome, but at the same time dangerous since you can see great deals that span the entire ebay.com listings. eBay Deals allows you to see a constantly changing view of deals from various “must-have” popular categories such as apparel, electronics, photography, sports, collectibles, etc. All these listings have less than four hours remaining, zero bids, no reserve price and free or fixed shipping included in the total cost.

You can customize your searches and place your favorite icon in the start menu for quick access. To see a new group of deals, you just need to shake your iPhone/iPod touch. These deals also have built-in integration with Facebook and Twitter, making it easier for you to share with your family/friends. It’s very easy to use and will make my Christmas shopping a bit easier this year. Download the eBay Deals app for free at the iTunes App Store, and happy (but responsible) shopping!

Roku Channel Store Opens

The Roku player has come a long way since its initial launch with Netflix last year. When the latest Roku player, the HD-XR box, was released last month, many new features were promised, and now the Roku Channel Store has its first 10 free channels. The channels include Pandora, Facebook Photos, Revision3, Mediafly, TWiT, blip.tv, Flickr, FrameChannel, Motionbox and MobileTribe. These are in addition to the already existing Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and MLB.com.

“The Roku Channel Store turns the Roku player into the world’s first open platform designed specifically for the TV,” says Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku Inc. “Now content producers and distributors - from single person shops to billion-dollar corporations - can deliver their content directly to consumers without having to go exclusively through cable operators, satellite networks or TV affiliates.”

From Internet radio, video podcasts to professional Web content and photo sharing, this Roku Channel Store provides an open platform for delivering quality content to your TV. The first 10 channels are just the beginning for Roku as many other developers are working on additional Roku Channels. I’m a little disappointed that Hulu wasn’t a part of these first channels, but there are rumors that it could become available soon.

The Roku Channel Store is an automatic and free upgrade for you existing Roku customers. All three Roku players (Roku SD, Roku HD and Roku HDXR) are available at roku.com, starting at $79.99 (free shipping). Check out http://www.roku.com/roku-channel-store for complete details on the channels.

On a different but slightly similar note, you can now watch Netflix movies/TV shows off your PlayStation 3 (PS3) at no additional cost. This is enabled by an instant streaming Blu-ray disk that is sent to you by Netflix - request one at http://www.netflix.com/ps3. It took two days for mine to arrive.

Although I’ve been waiting for Netflix to come to the PS3 for a long time, I’m not too happy that I need to have that disk in my PS3 whenever I want to watch something. I can watch Netflix just fine off my Xbox 360 (with no disk), including the ability to add things to my queue. I hope this will be refined soon, but at least there are more options to view Netflix now.

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Meter Maid
I admit I received a parking ticket a couple months ago by not feeding the parking meter - oh, come on, it was a weekend in the middle of a quiet parking lot in Kailua. I never thought the meter maids would be working. I was wrong.

When I saw this Meter Maid app, it sort of reminded me of what happened, and I thought this would be perfect for the forgetful meter feeder. This app allows you to set how much time is on your parking meter and receive a push notification before it expires, even if the app isn’t running.

Meter Maid lets you save the GPS location of where you parked so you can always find your car, and a large display shows how much time you have remaining. You can see your current location on a map and obtain directions back to your car, and set your meter time up to eight hours. Find this for 99 cents at the iTunes App Store.