Picked a couple of these “Ecowatt” devices up while in Tokyo, from Bic Camera. They monitor power consumption of whatever you’ve plugged into it. Here I had my MacBook Pro plugged in and running (no sleep) for about 24 hours. The device simply runs through four measurements — two I have no idea about because the symbols are in Kanji, and then two more that are kilowatt hours of consumption and estimated CO2 that would be exhausted from, presumably, a power plant that produced CO2 gas.
There’s lots of work to be done around this sort of idea, first of all a more compelling UI. Maybe even the draconian edition that starts to dim your display or attenuate your Internet as you run past your daily quota of energy.
Continue reading Ambient Power Consumption Monitoring