Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Wozniak's New Goal is Efficient Housing

Woz: The total formula for saving energy can be quite deceptive. It's not correct to say that you are energy efficient when it's only in one way but your net is negative. For example, an electric car may use only half as much, or a third as much, energy as the same sized car using gasoline. But if it costs $100,000 then you realize that you wouldn't spend that much on gasoline over the life of any car. And even using the car uses some gasoline or coal used to create the electricity, to charge your batteries. If the car is inefficient in some ways it may even use more coal per mile but you'll be telling all your friends that it uses none. The cost of something is a reasonable estimate as to how many resources (of the Earth) you used to build the device. Don't take your instant opinion on energy efficient technologies to be correct. Ask a lot of deep questions and hold off until you are very sure.

1 comment:

  1. Here's a great interview with the man himself
    http://www.ecnmag.com/Wozniaks-New-Goal-is-Efficient-Housing.aspx

    ReplyDelete