Эллочка-людоедка strikes back

[ymarkov]

У Эллочки была нешуточная война с Вандербильдихой. А у меня - нечто похожее с бывшим вицеь-президентом США Альбертом Гором-младшим. Поставив себе солнечные батареи, он обогнал меня в плане принятия мер экономии энергии... и всё-таки я впереди!

Energy Guzzled by Al Gore’s Home in Past Year Could Power 232 U.S. Homes for a Month

Gore’s personal electricity consumption up 10%, despite “energy-efficient” home renovations

NASHVILLE - In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

http://tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=764

Comments

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

Hmm... the "232" number is slightly deceptive, because it compares a yearly figure to a monthly figure. Assuming that the average US home uses roughly 11,200kWh/year, the actual number is 19.333 homes. Not that this is good.

That said, I don't know anything about what he's doing in that house. Is that where he keeps his offices? Does he have staff there? If so, the mixed-use nature of such a property would make such a comparison less useful.

It's quite possible that Gore is a hypocrite; he wouldn't be the only politician to be one, either. However, I think more information would be necessary before such a charge could be credible.

[ymarkov.livejournal.com]

It's a large house. These figures make it look like a data center, with a large server farm and all attendant air conditioning. Which is what it might be, although I wonder why.

(Then there's the heating, which is gas-based and not part of the above use number.)

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

Well, the "large home" will be above-average right there. The per-home figure may also include apartments/condos. I am not running a data center, and I have a small home (about 1100 square feet). Nonetheless, if that average holds (11,200/year, or 933/month), we use approximately 138% of that average based upon last year's average of 1284kWh/month. We use the air conditioning sparingly. Our heat is oil. We use flourescent lights in most of our fixtures. I wonder where that "average American household" figure came from.

A small data center (perhaps 2 1kW servers), coupled with a rather large house, might meet these numbers. Add an office with a staff (now you've got lights, more A/C, and a 450 watt power supply for each desktop computer without the monitor) and I don't know how unreasonable this really is. Additionally, did any of this extra energy go into powering the renovation process itself?

As I said, I'm OK with Gore being labeled a hypocrite, as long as the data bears this out.

[yyi.livejournal.com]

+1.
I too think that the comparison should be with a compatible house (in a similar geographic area preferably) and the month-to-year part actually makes it look like dirty tactics. and this while I tend to agree with the conclusions ;)
On the other hand CBS does claim that Gore uses more in a month than his average neighbors in a year. While an order of magnitude difference, it is not clear that this comparison is completely fair and accurate either, but it is not quite as bad. Of course being such a leader on energy issues he could try to do better (at least as well as his renegade opponent, or better).