Wednesday, August 30, 2006

an inconvenient outlet

As a native Southern-Californian, I am often reminded of our good fortune weather-wise.
Most recently in this Slate.com article exposé on air-conditioning by William Saletan. I love his irony:

"We saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Walking out of the air-conditioned theater, we agonized over what we could do to fight global warming. The conversation ended when we realized that our most useful contribution would be to cancel the renovation."


Claire's nursery does have a small window-unit air-conditioner I must admit. She came home in July when temperatures were in the 90's, so A/C in that room was a treat for a week or two. I've mentioned my proclivity for gadgets before, so here is a rundown of the various devices plugged into Claire's room:
North Wall:
  • air-conditioner
  • boom box
  • reading light
  • breast pump
  • extension cord leading to...
    East wall:
  • bedside light
  • laptop charger
    South wall:
  • cordless phone charger
  • nightlight
  • baby-wipes warmer
    West wall:
  • fan
  • clock
  • air-purifier

    You'll notice that averages over 3 items plugged into it each outlet, therefore requiring those ugly power-splitter hanging out of them. I shudder to remember that this room only had one outlet in it when we first moved into the house 3 years ago.

    The one consolation to my eco-ego is that I figure living in Southern California with the nice weather makes me a lower net consumer of energy than my Oklahoma relatives who run air-conditioning several months out of the year, and heating the remainder.

  • 1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    Mark and Jem

    Thank you for posting the pics and bloggs.

    love Grannpa Hudson