Tag Archives: energy

Switching to an energy-efficient desktop computer

February 12, 2011

Since 1990, I’ve had IBM-compatible desktop computers in my life. Before that, I had Tandy computers beginning at age 2. At first, they were the only computers I had, so I did everything with them – gaming, BBS surfing and eventually the internet, word processing, etc. In college, I got really into video encoding and I played all the newest games, which required quite a bit of PC hardware. Since then, I’ve done less and less encoding and gaming, and [...]

Is it time for the Electric Car?

April 29, 2009

A reader asked about the Chevy Volt in comparison to the Honda Civic, which is a wonderful question. The Volt people claim that it can go 40 miles on just batteries, which is perfect for most people’s commutes provided they can plug in at work (or not for the really lucky ones). So, it’s obvious that there is no fuel consumed by the vehicle in these first few miles of driving, but I’m going to look at how much fuel [...]

Buying a fuel-efficient used car versus a new Prius

April 28, 2009

Update: I just found this article, which has the same point as mine, and assumes domestic production. It also pre-dates mine – that will teach me not to use google! As one who drives a 2000 Honda Civic, which in many real-world driving tests gets almost exactly 30 MPG consistently (I keep pump logs), I wonder if I would actually create a net reduction in gas consumption by buying a Prius or other car. Now, I’m assuming a new Prius, [...]