Counting Watts and Technology Literacy

I wasn't surprised to read that many people have some difficulty appreciating the impact of their daily lives on the amount of electrical power they use. I my experience, not many people have an intuitive feel for this sort of thing. It was why, for example, in my article on solar insolation I avoided units like watts per square meter, choosing instead a more arbitrary unit, zenith-hours, that I hoped would resonate with the majority.

From the content of this blog you should not be surprised that I do not have this difficulty. With a strong technology background and a post-graduate science degree I have no trouble understanding machines, software and how many of the now-common and sophisticated devices work. There are also a great many things I don't understand, especially outside of technology; one person can't, or even want to know everything. I take care never to criticize another person's lack of understanding or their lack of interest in understanding.

Instead I have a curiosity about what most people actually do understand, or believe, about science and technology. I am often surprised by what I hear. It is also why I wrote an article about signal strength indicators on mobile phones after the iPhone "antennagate" issue went mainstream because of all the people I encountered that didn't understand the relationship between the indicator and phone performance yet wanted to know if or even why it mattered. That article continues to show up in my web stats as one of my most popular articles, which I'll take as a positive indication that there are people out there who do want to understand more about what makes modern technology tick.

As a side note, another misconception I have encountered, and may be widespread, is how GPS navigation devices work. Everyone seems to get that there is some sort of triangulation going on with one or more satellites that allows the device to determine its position. However there are people who believe that the satellites also download the maps and navigation information to the device. This is despite the fact that these units are clearly advertised with the world region modules and functions that they support. Then I discovered Google's mapping app on Android that does download the maps in real-time, except that it download over conventional terrestrial wireless networks, and is therefore pretty useless on many roads away from cities and major thoroughfares.

Getting back to the subject of counting watts, I have noticed a correlation between the perceived energy consumption of an electrical appliance and the appliance's position on dominance in the home or office. Apart from electrical heating -- which pretty well everyone understands is a major consumer of electrical power -- my non-scientific survey of people informs me that the big-screen television is the major electrical power expense in the home. I suppose it's because it's so present in most people's lives, it's big and it radiates a lot of light and sound. However that's just a supposition on my part because, when I do ask, I don't get any clear reason why they believe this.

Another blind spot is all appliances that produce heat: kettles, coffee makers, microwave ovens, ranges, refrigerators, and even clothes dryers, which are significant power consumers. Of course the totality of the energy they consume is limited by their non-continuous usage. The same goes for devices with large motors, including lawn mowers and washing machines. These are far from universal beliefs, it's just a pattern in what people tell me.

While this is a challenge for the government and the utilities it is perhaps less severe because of our cold climate. The reason is that all the waste heat from our appliance-filled homes heats our homes, in effect lowering the load on the furnace. Electrical heating often costs more than fossil fuel heating, but the differential isn't too large and therefore isn't a great concern most of the time, in my opinion. That is, between the months of October and April; summer is another matter since the additional heat is not only an unrecoverable cost but will, in homes with air conditioning, increase the electrical consumption even more in order to remove that heat.

Although the net impact is perhaps not exceptional, it does have an impact on public policy and electrical power generation. Summertime air conditioning is almost entirely done with electricity (there is no fossil fuel alternative as there is for home heating) which contributes to maximum power consumption occurring at that time of year. Lowering the heat from other appliances (even televisions!), including lighting, is particularly important in the summer in order to both reduce the load on power plants. While the fuel for the power generators can be reduced at off-peak periods, the generating plants themselves must be designed for peak usage, including additional capacity to deal with any temporary failures and downtime for maintenance. We pay for those capital costs since they are amortized over time with increased consumption-based rates.