How to Persuade Strangers to Turn Off Lights and Reduce CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The shared laundry room in my apartment building has a fluorescent ceiling fixture with 2 T8 lamps.

The light is left on in the empty room about half the times I walk past. I turn off the light, but who knows how long it's been on, and how much CO2 has been generated?

Today I set out to find an impressive number to put on a little label I can stick to the wall plate for the light switch.

1. How many Watts does the fixture burn?
   Assuming 2 x 48 in. T8 32W lamps and average electronic ballast:
   A web search turned up typical total fixture wattage of 59W and 65W.
   I'll say 60W.
2. How much CO2 does 1 marginal kWh generate?
   My utility, PG&E, publishes a report, Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors: Guidance for PG&E Customers April 2013 [PDF]. In a footnote, the report notes that "The California Air Resources Board (ARB) uses a marginal emission factor for California of 944 lbs CO2e/MWh."
   So, 0.06 kWh * 0.944 lbs CO2/kWh = 0.05664 lbs CO2. That doesn't look very impressive.
3. How many liters in one pound of CO2?
   One pound of CO2 is 0.2294 cu meters, or 229.4 liters, so 0.05664 lbs CO2 * 229.4 liters / lb = 12.993216 liters.
   Call it 13 liters CO2 / hour! That's pretty impressive.

I'll try posting this number and see what happens.

Watch Movies On Computer With Audio Over Wireless Headphones

Our upstairs neighbors have been complaining when we are watching movies after midnight on Pam's computer.

Part of it is the well known problem of dynamic range in movie audio - quiet dialog passages and very load action sequences. On the West Wing TV series the title music at the beginning and end is way louder than the average episode content.

Part of it is Pam's incredible computer subwoofer. We recently wrapped it in a bath towel, stuffing the horn with a corner of the towel.

What I would like to try: watching the video on Pam's computer monitor, but sending the audio wirelessly to headphones or earphones, so we could both listen silently.

A few years ago, I bought excellent Sennheiser headphones that used Kleer wireless technology. Now it seems that there are few products using Kleer tech.

Bluetooth 4.x with 3rd party AptX compression technology seems like a possibility. For $20 to $60 each, you can buy little bluetooth dongles for each pair of headphones and for the source (PC in our case; could be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, Blu-Ray or CD player, etc.)

We already have a wifi router, so Wifi audio may be another way to go, but there are far fewer wifi receiver dongles.

It's been difficult to find clear info on these options. Amazon is not the place to start for technical info -- sketchy product info and lots of uninformed customer reviews. Youtube has lots of unboxing videos and a few surprisingly informative amateur pieces. Wikipedia is somewhat helpful in understanding the standards but without any practical how-to for our situation. Headfi.org pays scant attention to wireless audio since by definition it is compressed and thus not HiFi.

The problem we are trying to solve seems fairly uncommon. The most common wireless solution is for people who want to watch and listen to internet content on their big screen TVs or home entertainment systems, not our situation at all.

How best to evaluate energy choices

Transportation

Vehicles

Replacing a family (or fleet) vehicle to save on fuel costs

• Why We Should Measure by Gallons per Mile, Not Miles per Gallon
• The MPG Illusion Video

Refuelling Stations

• Cost per Recharged Mile (or km)