I found out that a friend of mine has a blaugh as well. I’m a sucker for technology, as I’ve said previously. I like innovation, it’s one of the things that makes me optimistic in what seems like unprecedented world crisis. Every time humanity has come up against a crisis, we’ve prevailed.

This guy is hitting me right in the optimism centre of my brain.

This might seem like a good thing. It’s not. Because energy is invisible, we have no idea how much we are using at any given moment. At least not in terms that are meaningful to us. Sure, there are beautiful, visual calculators like this one. But — crucially — these are missing the “at-any-given-moment” part. And actually…they might even be missing the meaningful part.

Southern California Edison had it right when they installed something called an Ambient Orb in their customers’ homes. When the ball glows red, it means you’re using too much electricity; green reassures you that you’re consuming responsibly. The result: a 40% reduction in energy use during peak periods!

Go check the site out, and jump up and down on his head to post more frequently.

Rrrrread it!