I’m not entirely sure how we managed that, though. In 2007, the place was a bachelor pad, so Justin’s electronics may have accounted for a bit higher usage. Justin moved out in December 2007, and Amy moved in February 2008. The first 3 months of 2008 were higher than those of 2007 and 2009, and I’m not sure how. Sometime around March 2008, our old 1960’s era refrigerator started screaming, so we bought a new refrigerator and instantly saw a drop in our electricity usage. So those new, fancy Energy Star certified appliances really do make a difference!

The strange thing is that we managed to add electronics to our digital collection and still saw significant reductions in 2009 and a little bit in 2008. We have added a receiver, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, TiVo, 2 laptops, and 2 desktop computers to the mix in that time-span, but our consumption went down. Amy has been cooking more often, so even the usage of the kitchen appliances has gone up. AND we now keep the thermostat on a constant 72F year-round whereas it used to be at a mostly constant 70F. Needless to say, I’m still perplexed.

As far as energy-saving measures (they were more side-effects of other projects), we have replaced the storm door with a security storm door (2x panes of glass with plastic in the middle), replaced the door leading into the garage with a fiberglass door (instead of the hollow wood door) that also has a set of blinds in between two panes of glass. That’s about it as far as I can tell. I managed to finally close some storm windows that had been stuck for months (and years), but that was only this past weekend. I can tell a difference with the two new doors, though.

I have come up with a few more ideas that may help cut back for 2010:

• · Install programmable thermostat
• · New stove/oven
• · New washer and dryer
• · New water heater
• · Timers for a couple things in the house (like fans) that run at night but not during the day
• · Blinds for all the windows (even if they are always open, it would still deaden airflow around the windows)
• · Make another pass at eliminating “phantom” power* devices or switching them off more regularly
• · Put unused computers into hibernate/sleep mode and use wake-on-LAN when I want to use them
• · Install window treatment film on the master bedroom windows and the office window (facing east)

That’s about all I can come up with for now. New low-E windows are too cost prohibitive. We have been replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs whenever a bulb burns out. I also need to figure out a way to enclose the laundry room and maybe insulate it a little bit for those cold winter days where the dogs are outside or in the garage with their electric dog bed and heater. I think that even putting a ceiling over the laundry room will help retain heat that would otherwise be lost. It would also give us extra storage space over the laundry room.

Are there any other cost-effective ideas that are feasible and do not sacrifice the quality of life in our home? Is there such thing as a temperature-controlled outlet. Say, for instance, I want a heater to kick on when the ambient air temperature around an outlet (or device plugged into an outlet) goes below 45F. That would drastically help in the winter time when I forget to turn on the heater for the dogs in the morning or forget to turn it off at night.

* I have a tough time swallowing the whole “phantom” power theory. I purchased a Kill-a-watt and confirmed that devices like our cell phone chargers do not, in fact, consume electricity if they are plugged in with a phone attached. I have also tested the standby power of many of our electronics and the energy consumption is negligible there. About the only vampires that I am aware of are battery chargers for our gaming console controllers. I may consider putting them on a timer so that they don’t charge at night.

Here’s a screenshot just in case they archive the post and it goes away.

This past weekend was Chattanooga’s first ever BarCamp. The announcement of the BarCamp was made shortly after I got back from my first ever *Camp (PodCamp Nashville 2009). Upon hearing about it, I immediately volunteered the company I work for, AirNet Group, to sponsor by supplying a wireless network. The venue, Chattanooga State, had a wireless network, but they were not sure if it would handle the load that a conference such as BarCamp might require. They had good bandwidth to the Internet, but the wireless may have just broken down under stress. We decided that a different wireless network would be needed. That’s where I stepped in.

Access points and their usage in the middle of the day. I’m not entirely sure why Outside C30 didn’t report any usage seeing as to how it was the hop to the lobby and two other classrooms.

With room numbers and a single ethernet gateway in mind, I set out placing the access points. I initially brought in 3 access points thinking that such a small area wouldn’t require too many. However, the ethernet connection was in a room that sloped down with the ethernet connection being at the lowest point of the room. From there, I placed the remaining two access points in or close to the two other classrooms were pre-arranged for usage. Unfortunately, they were about 10 feet above the gateway access point and several walls away from it (despite being maybe 20 yards away). A 4th access point was needed and fit the bill nicely. On the day of the event, two more classrooms were added, but I didn’t have any extra access points on-hand to expand the network in their direction. Fortunately, there was only one wall between the classrooms and the gateway access point and that proved to be no problem. Later in the day, my coworker, Rial, came by with a 5th access point (borrowed from our wireless network at work), and I used it to cover those two extra classrooms just a little bit better. It wasn’t needed, but we had it and so why not?

A rough map of the access point placement and the hops it took to get from C54 to the gateway in C30.

But that’s all fine and boring. What’s really interesting were the usage patterns throughout the day. As registration opened at 9 AM, you could see a steady growth up until the 10:00 hour. When everyone dispersed into the first presentations of the day, the spike continued while people were getting settled in and caffeinated to tune into presentations. Then, once the presentations were in full-swing and people put down Twitter, the usage dropped considerably. This was a pattern that repeated all day long for each presentation. As presentations started and people had yet to get their focus fully committed to the presenters, usage went up. About halfway in, people are interested and the usage drops. Then the presentation ended and the usage went back up a little. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The patterns were much more pronounced in the 2-hour graphs, but I didn’t think to screenshot any of those until the day was over.

The usage of the entire day at 5:00 PM plus the top 10 heaviest users (are you one of them?).

Another interesting pattern, though not as accurate, was watching as wireless devices moved from the lobby to the classrooms and back. You could get a sense of which classroom had the most participants during a block just by how the wireless clients moved around. But after every presentation, they moved back to the main lobby. It was a sort of ebb and flow that I found interesting.

And, one final note of interestingness is that Apple devices seemed to make up about 75-80% of the devices on the wireless network. I know my iPhone and MacBook Pro account for at least two of those devices. I’m sure many other attendees also had a similar Apple laptop plus iPhone combination.

In all, we had a grand total of 75 connected devices throughout the day. There were no connectivity issues reported and all seemed to go way better than expected. I think Murphy must have taken the day off. I definitely look forward to another *Camp in Chattanooga that I can set up with a wireless network. I’ll take more notes and screenshots throughout the day to really see how the traffic flows.

You can also check out the pictures I took at BarCamp in my Flickr set.

It’s a celestial blue 2010 Mazda 3 5-door (hatchback) Grand Touring with tech package and audio package. Features include:
– Keyless entry
– Keyless (push-button) start
– Navigation system
– 6-disc changer
– Bose speakers with subwoofer
– 17″ wheels
– Sirius receiver
– Auxiliary stereo connection
– Heated seats
– Leather seats
– Dual climate control
– Xenon headlights (that turn as you turn)
– Automatic transmission with shiftronic
– Blue-tooth connectivity
– 4-cylinder engine (~167 HP)

I think that’s just about it. All it’s lacking is the rear-view mirror with compass and the additional body molding.

Update! It looks like this was announced earlier today. I should check my RSS feeds more often! From MacRumors.com: AT&T Extends iPhone 3G S Upgrade Pricing to Many Customers.

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

On June 17, AT&T announced a change to their upgrade eligibility policy and ‘best upgrade pricing’ for qualifying iPhone 3G owners.

Based on AT&T’s updated qualification criteria, we are pleased to inform you that you are eligible to receive a refund on your recent iPhone 3G S purchase.

Your Order Acknowledgment and Shipment Notification emails will reflect the original purchase price. However, Apple will issue you a refund in the amount of $200.00, which is the difference between your original purchase price and the new qualifying price.

Apple will process your refund in the next 5 days, and will send you an email when this has been completed. We will process your refund based on your original payment method. See below for details.

No additional action is needed on your part for you to receive the refund. These activities will not impact your estimated delivery dates.

You can view the most up-to-date status of your order, including monitoring the details of your refund, at online Order Status .

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

Answers to many Apple Online Store questions can be found at Online Help

Refund Details
-Credit card refunds are sent to the card-issuing bank. Please contact the card-issuing bank with questions about when the credit will be
posted to your account.
-Apple Gift Card payments are refunded in the form of a new Apple Gift Card. Please allow up to five business days to receive your
new Apple Gift Card via United States Postal Service (USPS) after processing.
-Cash payments are refunded in the form of a check from Apple, which will be mailed to your billing address.

Anyone else get this?

I called AT&T from the land line at the office to see what was going on. After entering my number and pressing 0 a couple of times to get a person, I got a hold of a rep. It turns out that Apple dropped my data and text messaging plans. Even better, they also dropped my iPhone from the plan! The brilliant part was the web was still showing I had an iPhone. The rep was able to fix the data and text messaging plans and show that my plan has an iPhone. In all, the call took 13 minutes and 7 seconds. The rep was very friendly and helpful and knew what she was doing. Sure, something got botched in the works, but it was an overall positive experience.

I did pre-order the 3Gs from Apple online on Monday. She said that Apple wasn’t supposed to do anything to the upgrade accounts until the new 3Gs phones were activated on Friday. I think the blame may lay with Apple on this one. As of now, my 3Gs order status is “Prepared for Shipment”. I bet that order status may have something to do with the disruption in service.

WeatherBug – This one has been grandfathered in. It was one of the first (if not the first) weather app that didn’t suck, and I’ve been using it ever since.

Pandora – I use this one quite a bit. Whenever the news isn’t on NPR, I typically open up Pandora and tune in to music I want to hear. I’ve been using Pandora for a couple of years on desktop computers, so I have built up a decent set of stations. I’d recommend doing this first so you don’t have to worry about thumbing up and down songs to build your stations while driving.

Amazon.com – I have an Amazon rewards card and do a majority of my online shopping at Amazon.com. This app is pretty handy when I want to make a quick purchase or look something up. If you’re an Amazon.com addict, this app is not good for you unless you have amazing self-control.

Last.fm – A fallback to Pandora. Pretty good fallback option.

Facebook – The Facebook app. Not bad, but you’re probably better off waiting to get to a computer if you want to do anything on Facebook.

AIM – This does pretty well for AOL Instant Messenger. I also find it fairly useless unless chatting online and sitting inside a single app for an extended period of time (since there’s no background or push notifications at this point) is acceptable.

MySpace – I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I used this app. I couldn’t tell you the last time I logged into MySpace anyways. I should probably delete this one.

Nambu – This is probably my 2nd favorite Twitter app. It also supports a couple of extra services that I don’t use. But it shows you the number of unread messages since you last checked with the app (up to 100). It does pretty well. For a free Twitter app, I recommend this.

myLite – One of the first flashlight apps available. Really, it needs to just turn a bright white. There are a couple of flashy effects and even a lighter effect. I use this app whenever I need to brighten up anything in the dark. This is a recommended one.

eBay – This is pretty handy for buyers and sellers on eBay. If you are an eBayer, use this.

Flixster – This is probably one of the cooler apps out there. It shows movies playing around your location and can view trailers, reviews, showtimes, and theaters.

ScoreMobile – I’m a hockey fan, so this is handy to check scores while I’m out and about. I had this before the NHL had their mobile site, but it works for all sorts of sports.

Brightkite – I’ve been using Brightkite to upload pictures to Twitter for a while, so I thought I’d give their app a try. I rarely use it unless I want to set my location and upload a geo-tagged picture to Twitter. I pretty much use e-mail to Brightkite or TwitPic.com these days, though.

Google Earth – Yeah, it’s neat. But it’s really slow and the image detail kinda sucks. I personally don’t think this app is worth it.

Tweetie – This is the first paid-for app in the list. It cost me $2-3, which isn’t bad. It does all the things you might want a Twitter app to do. I use this more than Nambu these days mostly because I got tired of Nambu’s dark color scheme.

Skype – This is mostly a novelty app for me. I’ve toyed around with it before but don’t have many people I could call on Skype. I’d rather just dial them up from my contacts.

WootWatch – If you want a good Woot app, this is my favorite. It shows all the items from woot.com, shirt.woot.com, sellout.woot.com, and wine.woot.com. If you are a Wooter, I highly recommend this one.

RDP – A remote desktop protocol app for the iPhone. It’s slow and clumsy, but it works well in a bind.

myWireless – AT&T’s app. It lets you check your usage and pay the bill (except I’m on auto-pay). So far, I haven’t been able to retrieve my data usage, though.

IM+ Lite – This is just a free instant messaging app that supports XMPP (Jabber) without having to proxy through someone’s web service.

PhoneFlix – If you have Netflix, get this app. That is all.

TouchTerm – An SSH client for the iPhone! It’s slow and you have to use the on-screen keyboard, but it’s pretty useful when you need SSH on-the-go.

Mobile Fotos – This is the first app I ever paid for. If you have a Flickr account, it will let you upload full-resolution pictures to your account. Features include geo-tagging, names, descriptions, and tagging.

Slacker – Another backup in case I have run out of skips on Pandora. I don’t use this one often, but it’s a free music streaming service, so why not?

Shazam – As seen on the iPhone commercials. If you hear a song that is playing and what to know the artist and title, this will do the trick…assuming you aren’t in a crowded place and/or are close to a speaker.

MultiCamCT – Another paid app ($2-3). It basically lets you access the TDOT SmartWay cameras around Chattanooga. You can even plot your route and scroll through the pictures to check on traffic for your ride to or from work.

Graffitio – Virtual messaging in the meatspace. You can leave messages on a virtual wall wherever you are in the real world. I use it sometimes for restaurants to recommend a new or favorite meal.

Kindle – I honestly haven’t used this yet. I have a Kindle, but still prefer real books.

WordPress – If you need to update your WordPress blog on-the-go, this is the app to do it. I think I’ve used it once for this site and that’s about it.

Evernote – I have an Evernote account and use it mostly for work. It comes in handy sometimes when I am in a meeting and need to pull up a document that I have saved on Evernote. I also found it useful this past weekend when we went to Ikea. I scanned in kitchen and bathroom dimensions on my desktop and saved them to Evernote. Then I was able to pull them up when we went to Ikea without having to tote around a few pieces of paper (lazy, I know).

feX – Another paid app (don’t remember the cost). This is one of the few must-have apps that I could recommend. That is, assuming you use Facebook. It will sync Facebook contact pictures (and birthdays) to the contacts on your phone. If you have a picture already assigned to that contact that wasn’t assigned through feX, it will let you selectively sync those. Cool app, works well, and is nice to help round out your contacts’ photos.

TiVo Mobile – This is actually just a web shortcut to m.tivo.com. If you own a TiVo, you should probably have this shortcut.

Quicken – If you use Quicken online, this will let you quickly view your finances. It’s not that robust, but it doesn’t hurt. I don’t maintain Quicken Online like I should, so it’s a little off. I just keep a mental note of my finances in my head and use Quicken on my desktop regularly.

Oregon Trail – Fun paid-for game. It’s a time-killer, but can crash every now and then and lose some of your progress. I plan on using this to entertain myself in airports. Just don’t get dysentery!

Zen Bound – Another paid-for game that’s interesting. You basically try to wrap a string around a block and cover as much surface area as possible. It’s very pretty and the music is relaxing.

TapDefense – A free game! If you like the tower defense style games, you’ll like this one (especially since it’s free).

Trace – Another free game. You basically trace lines on the screen and try to get your stick figure to the exit without hitting an object.

Sol Free – A free solitaire game. What more could you ask for?

AFII Lite – Aurora Feint 2 (the free version). This is another time-killer game. You basically try to get 3-(or more)-in-a-row of blocks to earn resources and advance in levels or buy scrolls or spells. Definitely a good one for the price.

Lightsaber – Because you never know when you might encounter another Jedi.

PBJ – It’s peanut butter jelly time!

EpicPetWars – I got this one for Amy. It’s an iPhone client for Pet Wars on Facebook. Meh.

Inotia Lite – I haven’t played this one yet.

Kingdoms – This is basically another Pet Wars or Mafia Wars clone.

My Bute – If you play My Brute, this is the standalone iPhone version. Kinda fun to kill a few minutes. I think it cost around $5-6.

YouMail – This was just announced today. If you use YouMail (and I do), it gives you a client to listen to your voicemail and change the default greeting.

That’s all for now. After writing all this up, I think I may clean out some apps just to reduce clutter. And who knows what new stuff will come out tomorrow with iPhone OS 3.0 or on Friday with the iPhone 3Gs (yes, I pre-ordered mine). I’ll probably make another post in the future!

Before (it’s in the background)

After

It still needs to be painted, but the hard part is over with! If you’re in Chattanooga and need quality handy work, I have a really good guy that I can recommend! He also fixed the flashing and shingles on the roof of the porch at Amy’s house on Alden and put up a gutter with a downspout to help with water runoff onto the porch and flooding into the basement.