Simple Energy Conservation

Awhile ago I was talking to my dad and the topic of energy bills came up. We both live in places that are roughly the same size and in the same climate (he's about 7 miles from me). He was surprised at how much lower my bill was than his; mine includes gas and electric and his only electric. We started to figure out the differences. I have gas hot water, his hot water isn't included in his bill (he pays it via his HOA dues). I have a gas range, he has an electric range. I have gas heat; he has electric in wall heaters. Neither of us has air conditioning. Since it is the summer, heat could be ruled out and cooking is pretty minor in terms of overall use.

What were the big differences? We started to think and determined that it is probably the computers. My parents each have an iMac that they leave on all the time whereas my wife and I each have a laptop that we put to sleep. In addition, I turn off power strips when not using them and have other powerstrips with timers on them.

So my father decided to turn off his computers and other equipment at night. The first thing he noticed is that there are days that he doesn't even turn on his computer; he uses his iPhone or iPad to do what he needs to do. When his next bill came, he told me that he saved at least $10. This may not sound like a lot, but that's over a 10% savings. He's still not down to my level (could be the TiVo or his stereo amplifier as we don't have a music system in our house right now), it is encouraging.

We're lucky that we live in a very temperate climate and that our energy bills are so low; I was talking to some people last month that live in the southeast and my <50 a month bill was peanuts compared to their $400-$500/month bill due to have to heat and cool their houses.

What if other people started doing simple conservation things like this? It would not only be a nice cost savings, but it could lead to being able to turn off a power plant. Who knows.

Review: Belkin Conserve Surge Protector with Timer

As I've mentioned here before, I do my part to conserve energy not just to help the environment, but also to try to save a little money. Several years ago, I started turning off surge strips at night and then last year I bought some APC Power Saving SurgeArrest powerstrips that automatically turned on and off.

This, however, didn't solve my needs for my desk where I come in every morning, turn on the powerstrip work all day and then turn off the strip. While this is a simple task, when we moved, the strip that I attached under my desk was no longer a good fit, so I placed it on the floor. For the last 4 months, I've been getting on the floor and turning the strip on each morning and repeating at night, except for the nights that I forget. I had seen some of Belkin's new surge protectors and due to my laziness, I decided to pick up a Belkin Conserve Surge Protector with Timer.

The Belkin powerstrip is pretty much like every other powerstrip in that it has some outlets and a few spots for bulky power adapters. However, it had a wired button that I could put on my desk. Turning on the powerstrip became as simple as pressing the button; same goes for turning it off. If I forgot to turn it off, there was a timer that automatically turned it off after 11 hours which turns out works well for me. I turn it on in the morning and it goes off at night.

There isn't a whole lot more to say about this except that it makes shutting off vampire power supplies a bit easier than having to press the switch on the strip.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Timer helps the forgetful.
• Has 2 outlets for always on devices.
• Has 2 outlets for bulky power adapters.

Cons

• A little pricey.
• Timer isn't configurable.

Summary

While it isn't going to pay for itself anytime soon, I'm pretty pleased with the product. It makes it so much easier for me to turn things on and when I walk away from my computer, I can easily turn things off to save even more energy. I'd love to see more people using products like these (or just shutting off powers trips when not using them) as we could cut a lot of energy usage that is simply wasted.

Making a first impression

When applying for a job, the standard thing to do is to submit a resumé and that becomes the first impression that a potential employer has of a candidate. Many years ago I came up with a basic, clean format for my resumé and periodically have updated it (luckily not lately), just in case I needed it. While I'm not sure a resumé ever helped me get a job (I was referred by a friend to the one job that I landed where I submitted a resumé), I've been in the position that I've had to read resumés of potential candidates. I look for a number of things on resumés to see if the candidate is worth pursuing. These include the basics like:

• Does each job tell me what the candidate did?
• How much experience does the candidate have in a particular field? Lately, it has been iOS and Objective-C.
• Has the candidate worked on a team? What was the candidate's role on the team?
• Has the candidate switched jobs a lot?

And the not so basics:

• Is the resumé clean and professional looking? I like to see PDF resumés as I don't use Word and formatting gets messed up with Pages.
• Are there spelling errors?
• Is proper grammar used? While no one is perfect, I know that I spend a lot of time on the 1-2 pages of a resumé; I expect others to do the same if if grammar isn't a strong trait, then the candidate should ask for help in reviewing it.

Some people will say that I'm too nitpicky, but I'm in a field where attention to detail really matters. I recently saw "Got familiar with xxx" as a bullet item on a resumé. That strikes me as someone that didn't spend enough time wordsmithing or didn't have a good grasp of the language.

There are also some things you should leave off a resumé. In the current era where everyone has an app or two, I see people list how many apps they have. One went as far as to say he worked on 50 apps. Going back to my list above, I looked for how long this person worked at a company and then did a rough calculation that he put out 1 app every 9 days of employment. While the candidate might have thought that the quantity of apps was important, it turns out to be a negative in my book as 9 days isn't enough time to write a quality app (granted some apps were probably cookie cutter and different content put in).

I remember in the past my father making sure he put his resumé on the right paper stock just to make a good impression. He put so much effort into his resumé that when it came time for me to do a resumé, I tried my hardest to make it my best work. In modern days, people rarely send in paper resumés, so they have to do different things to make a good first impression. I wish more people would spend time polishing their first impressions.

Jumping on the upgrade treadmill

Now that Apple has announced the iPhone 5, it's time for me to upgrade! Yes, I did just get an iPhone 4S last year, but luckily for me, staying on top of iPhone technology is part of my job. Now that my wife has an iPhone, it's easier for me to justify upgrading as I can give her my old one and get the discounted pricing. Would I pay full price for one? That's a tough question that luckily I don't have to answer.

I don't think I've been so enamored with devices as I have been with the iPhone. Initially I was pretty ho-hum about it because I felt I had to be against it due to all my work centering around competing devices. While the improvements of each iPhone seem pretty minor, I can imagine them being quite useful to me. It isn't cheap to keep upgrading devices, but as my wife puts it, I deserve it as I work hard.

Will I be first in line to get one? I won't go out of my way to get one, but I'll order when I can.