Lime bikes have a considerably small footprint on our earth. With these bikes, you can scan a QR code, unlocking a bike for you to use as transportation. With this tool, we are eliminating the use of cars or busses which leaves a substantial carbon footprint, as one passenger car uses about 89 pounds of CO2 per 100 passenger miles, while busses use 14 per 100 passenger miles lime bikes don’t produce any. More recently I have read that Lime bikes are partnering with native energy “a firm that provides carbon offset and renewable energy credit services. Lime said it will help fund climate-friendly projects to displace the emissions from company operations, including the fossil fuels used by fleet management vehicles”.
The image below was interesting as it shows the different solutions which can help us reduce driving and emitting CO2. The different distances of traveling all have different solutions that are efficient for each trip.
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/disrupting-cars-car-sharing-scooters-ebikes/
Energy-efficient machines are much more profitable and energy-saving then we think. Although these are looked down upon due to the smart features, devices such as smart washing machines are much more energy-efficient than old machines. Although these machines are much more expensive an the initial purchase, they save money in the long run as they conserve the amount of water use. The number of water gallons used has dropped drastically. A big piece with a lot of these machines is that they are set to shut off completely when they aren’t being used, which saves lots of electricity. A large piece of our in-home appliances that uses up most of our energy is the heating and cooling systems. A smart appliance built to help make this more efficient is a programmable thermostat. This allows you to set different levels at set times, with this feature the average amount of money saved can reach up to $150.00. Another appliance that helps us save energy is the INSTEON button this allows the user to hit a single button before they walk outside, it shuts off all appliances and lights in the home. These different tools are making it much more efficient when trying to save and use less energy in our homes.
Although desktop computers have been around for such a long amount of time, we forget about the different aspects that use so much energy. The keyboard, mouse, computer and monitor all take energy and cost us money. On average a desktop uses around 200 W/hour. This means that A computer that is on for eight hours a day uses almost 600 kWh and emits 175 kg of CO2 per year, While a laptop uses 20-50 W/hour which can also be trimmed down with the different energy and power-saving aspects.
Alexa itself takes much less energy than I thought. The older version of Alexa uses about 2.4-3.4 watts of electricity, while there are becoming more and more generations the amount of watts increases. With the next version, it grew to around 3.6-4.0 watts. The biggest issue that comes with Alexa is that it is constantly plugged in so that it is constantly using energy. Without it being plugged in, it won’t work and every time its plugged in it needs to be re-loaded and programed which also takes lots of energy.
The image below shows the different watts used for some of the features, these features are just on the first generation of Alexa, where “she” isn’t able to control different appliances, which takes much more wattage.
https://www.esource.com/es-blog-2-17-17-voice-control/ok-google-how-much-energy-does-alexa-consume
After researching these different technologies, I believe that the biggest issue is with the use of an overload of energy, the CO2 is being put out into our earth. With this overload of CO2 comes the issue of global warming. Energy contributes to one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas, while ⅔ of global greenhouse gasses can be linked to burning fossil fuels and different energy uses such as transportation, heating, and electricity. We take advantage of the resources we have, we use all the energy we need and sometimes it’s without realizing the impacts it can have on us. The issues that come from these different technologies can affect much more than just our small community.
These decisions should be made by the community and those that would be affected by the downfalls. This should be a vote with all the information provided to inform the community of the negative aspects these products can produce into our earth. It also should include the cost of these products. Although this should be a communal vote, there should be mediators that can help regulate and bring different ethics and safety concepts into the discussion. I don’t think that just one person or a few people should be able to make the decision as it affects the community as a whole.
https://www.li.me/en-us/home
https://www.howtogeek.com/348219/how-much-electricity-does-the-amazon-echo-use/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/squeezing-more-life-out-of-your-notebook,review-583-12.html
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001399.htm
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