UPDATE: EcoSnoop responds – see below.
Now, you can rat on your neighbors, your company, even your friends and family. Thanks to EcoSnoop, there’s an app for that.
This can also be useful for catching those who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. This might just backfire on more than a few people. But since the green movement started this Stasi-esque information gathering campaign on “eco-offenders” [their word], that makes it OK to snap photos of green activists too, right? I could see some examples. Bill McKibben leaves lights on after leaving a room? Joe Romm takes his car instead of the bus? Monbiot lets his car idle at a stoplight? Jim Hansen uses electricity generated by coal? William Connolley leaves his computer on after a frenzied all-nighter of Wikipedia editing? Gore uses the elevator to his penthouse suite in SFO rather than take the stairs? Lots of opportunity there.
Now before the usual suspects get up in arms about my satire, let me say that I’m a fan of energy conservation. As many readers know, I walk the walk with my own energy saving measures. In fact just last week I upgraded part of my office to LED lighting, and I’m so impressed with it I’m going to showcase the product here. I’m not, however, going to turn in my neighbor because he left his porch light on one night or forgot to turn off his sprinkler when it rains. Yet you’ll find examples like that on the EcoSnoop web page. [Update: EcoSnoop has now removed those, saying they were “demo images” – see their note below -A]
Here’s what they say about the iPhone app campaign:
EcoSnoop for iPhone is an activism tool that allows green-aware users to assist and encourage corporate green initiatives.
What’s the big deal?
It has been estimated that as much as 30% of the energy consumed in office buildings is wasted.
This suggests a significant opportunity for energy use reduction, cost savings, and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.
To help identify the best opportunities, both from the perspective of the building owner and the utility, it is important to examine how, where, and when energy is used and the savings are likely to occur. (Excerpt taken from the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency Sector Collaborative on Energy Efficiency Office Building Energy Use Profile)
Q: How can I help using my iPhone?
A: Users locate and report on eco-offenders by submitting pictures and descriptions of blatant abuse and misuse issues.
Q: What happens with my pictures?
A:The EcoSnoop website and iPhone applications are a centralized repository of environmental awareness and a tool for actively promoting energy conservancy and green awareness. By using the EcoSnoop iPhone application, the user becomes an important link in the chain of helping to report and mediate green waste (energy, pollution, etc.). Additionally, by going yourself and encouraging friends to utilize the website to add as much information as possible about the picture (address information, responsible party information, etc.) you are giving the EcoSnoop community the tools to encourage positive change!
EcoSnoop: We need your help saving the world…1 picture at a time.
Online: EcoSnoop.com
Twitter: @EcoSnoop
*An Appency Press Video Promo Reel – www.theappencypress.com*
h/t to WUWT reader Steve Keohane
UPDATE: A response from EcoSnoop who called me personally via telephone. Since their message seems to have missed the mark, I offered to elevate their message here. I believe this to be a sincere and reasonable response, and certainly nobody among us likes to see government or corporations waste energy. But the implementation here invites abuse. They ask for suggestions, let’s offer them some. – Anthony
{Anthony, for a posting to all users}
All,
Thank you for very much for the spirited conversation. We clearly have a lot of work to do to get EcoSnoop tuned into a constructive tool.
EcoSnoop is aimed at helping Government building owners understand when they are wasting energy. Energy efficiency hopefully is a non controversial solution in that it saves money, emissions and enhances national security. Our current policy is to prevent the posting of any information about ones residence. Unfortunately some old demo pictures are on the site, and they will be removed.
Our objective is to educate people on energy waste, not call them out. Our newer version which is still in work masks the location to all but the person who submits and the person who owns the building.
EcoSnoop is an evolving social community. As community, we need to maintain a certain decorum to assure everyone benefits from the “networks” observations to eliminate waste. As such, we ask that everyone follow some basic rules:
•Respect the Views of Others – EcoSnoop is not a political platform. EcoSnoop is about using technology and social networking to help people, companies and communities understand how awareness can eliminate waste, reduced CO2 output, and save money.
•No Personal Attacks – Do not use EcoSnoop to single out and attack people or companies. The best way to help people understand is through better information and cooperation. In taking pictures and making notes on the EcoSnoop site, think about what information will help a person or company understand how energy efficiency and waste reduction can help them improve profitability and community appeal.
•Avoid Mentioning Company Names – It is helpful to identify opportunities and describe ways to improve, but EcoSnoop finds the property owners take action quicker if they are not threatened or attacked. Sometimes when lights are left on at night it might be a simple instance of light night maintenance rather than persistent waste. The EcoSnoop community assumes everyone is well meaning, so given them a chance to take action. If they take no action, assume there is a good reason or work to better educate.
Since we are evolving, we are open to your ideas and suggestions. Please feel free to send your comments to us at snoop@ecosnoop.com.
JUST got back from a long walk ‘around the block’ in here the northern D/FW area … we’re experiencing SNOW again but I digress …
I nearly choked a few times from the smokey fires/fireplaces from some of the homes around here which ALL sport “clean electric heat” in “all electric homes”.
Some (home-owners/renters) are driven to this insanity (and face it, air pollution!) PARTLY because the eco-weenies and the policies they drive/impose which drive utility prices (like electricity) UP.
At this rate I expect coal/coal deliveries to start showing up again (see a circle starting here yet?)
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I have no financial interest in them and do not even know the guy who runs it, but http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/ has been a good source of leds for this guy. I run my kitchen lighting with 4 surface mount led arrays. Total power consumption 30 watts. (7.5 pier “bulb”). I had ordered some of the smaller units with the multiple small leds on them, and the guy told me I was crazy and would ship the ones with the SMB leds on them for the same cost (they are normally 20 bucks extra) When one had an infant mortality, he shipped me another next day. In fiarness I had him do a paypal bill for the split in the cost.
Made in China but are more dependable than others I have seen. Never, ever, ever buy the capsules with small lets in them The 12 led spotlights etc, are ok, but the larger ones with several pc boards of small leds have thermal problems. The heating/cooling or whatever breaks the wiring to the boards. You will get boards dropping out on you at a fast rate.
The spotllight he has on sale now for $32 is fine for indoor use, Outrdoors, is still an open question, Since it is now 11 F in Boston, I am not going to trouble shoot stuff at the moment.
I thought Jimmah Carter (you know, the one for which the ‘misery index’ was created?) had set the precedent for all that? (Besides, for what purpose did Carter create the DOE for? Only for the monitoring and auditing of civilian energy production?)
Seriously, you must be young enough not to have lived through that era (77-81).
At the time, the large company I worked for (an NYSE listed firm and large semiconductor manufactrer and def. contractor) installed “Timed Lighting” devices as one of the ‘best practices’ to save energy during the Carter reign. We also labelled all our test equipment (scope, DMMs, calorimeters, etc) with silly little tags citing “30 minutes to warm up” or “no warm-up required”. Silly. We KNEW the specifications of our gear and the limitiations and the requirements to MEET SPEC (as to warm up). Years later that gear still carried those tags (bought a few pieces from Wally Wallace at the ‘Country surplus equip store’ run in the pipespace of the North Bldg, courtesy of J. Fred Bucy who was TI CEO back then), a remnant of the Carter admin, but I digress ..
As to the lighting, in the mornings, you pushed a button on a small control box that replaced the light switch and ‘rang up’ x.y number of hours … 9.9 being the highest. Cute little box. One button, Two RED 7-segment LED displays.
About 5 or 10 mins before expiration of those hours, the lights would flash twice … next warning came at 1 min (one flash) after which the lights (on that floor) would go OUT.
THIS was during the Carter Administration; and nothing has been developed since? Is his (Carter’s) DOE still around?
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“_Jim (18:22:09) :
[…]
THIS was during the Carter Administration; and nothing has been developed since? Is his (Carter’s) DOE still around?”
You can tell your Laptop to switch the HD off after 15min.
Thanks guys for the link to the Beck discussion on WUWT. What i liked
best is the CO2 enrichment facility at Uni Giessen. Gotta re-post the link because it’s so good:
http://www.uni-giessen.de/cms/fbz/fb08/biologie/pflanzenoek/forschung/Foeinr/ukl-en/projects/giface/giessen-free-air-co2-enrichment-facility/view?set_language=en
If you see a picture of an aging denim-clad long-haired bespectacled hippie type, please alert me; I’d like to sue the bastards for defamation of character (false light). If one holds another up to ridicule, one best hope a majority of the venire laughs at the other.
I’d have to agree with other people who have already pointed out that EcoSnoop is an absolutely terrible name. The word ‘snoop’ has such negative connotations. Some possible alternatives:
EcoNarc
EcoSnitch
EcoRat
EcoNazi
EcoStasi
EcoBusyBody
Hmmm, on second thought, maybe EcoSnoop isn’t such a bad name afterall.
Only environmental nutjobs could turn spying on people who are not violating any law into a virtue while suggesting that people should violate the law by taking photos in rest rooms for example.
I would suggest taking pictures of inefficient air conditioners. They would be found…let me think now…..I know this……ah ha! On the roof spewing wasted heat next to the global temperature gauge!!!
Let’s all send in pictures of local methane generating cow pats.
EcoSnoop would never advocate anyone invading your privacy, telling you what to do, assuming how you manage your life, or in any way infringing on your privacy. Folks are assuming things about EcoSnoop which may be implied but are not true.
A bad application name, people inappropriately putting residential pictures on the site, or a user invading ones privacy are all serious issues we will address. But lets focus on what is happening rather than what is not.
Originally we wanted to name the product energydective, the notion being to help resolve energy problems, not tattle on ones neighbor. We went through 100s of names, most taken by domain aggregators. I am glad to change the name. Do you have a constructive suggestion?
The next release of EcoSnoop focuses more on energy solutions, using location to help find vendors that can help save energy. The app is filled with 100s of energy tips. Location will be restricted from the general population except perhaps to suggest that certain cities have a bigger problem with a particular thing like incandescent lights. The photo part will be turned to home owners only In the context of saying “I want a solar panel”, click picture of roof, send to local solar installer for a quote. The capability to report waste or problems in public or corporate spaces will remain in a fashion similar to the current version, the extent is evolving though based on conversations we are having with companies and communities.
And to the bigger mission, there is an effort afoot to spend trillions of dollars to address climate change. Few of these solutions of engineering foundation. I find it an invasion of my privacy to fund that when there are better answers.
Large buildings consume 25% of the energy in this country. They waste on average 20-30% of their energy usage because of poor maintenance and operation. 25% of LEED buildings use more energy than a conventional building. Government wastes money and energy in a myriad of ways. There are numerous public missives by government that are left unattended, easy to fix is someone knew about them. These are the things EcoSnoop is after.
If you saw a child wondering the street without a parent, would you not take the child to the authorities?
The mission we are on remains, and that is helping people identify how to be more energy efficient.
And to the larger discourse, my team has no agenda here other than to design a solution that increases understanding about how to use energy efficiency to reduce cost, assure energy security and reduce emissions. I say emissions not because I believe CO2 is or is not a threat, only that as an engineer if I can design a way that reduces emissions and saves money, it seems like a lot of people might be happy. I take seriously the ethical issues of our design and its impact on privacy. We will do more to deal with it. But, as a community I think more could get done if we worked on “What needs to be true” for folks pro and against an issue to align with common purpose. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, but polarization is no virtue.
To Ecosnoop
Cold comfort as far as I am concerned. You are complicit in an effort to monitor our activities. My name and/or pic shows up on your site. I sue!
This site needs to be SPAMMED out of existence.
This is disgusting.
Eco-Snoop [snip] I mean.
Thanks to you guys, EcoSnoop is now getting hits left and right. If this obscure little creation should now balloon into an international movement, give yourselves lots of credit.
CH
To the eco snoop folks. I do believe you are sincere in your interests. I have worked in building maintenance and facilities management for a long period of time and agree that more can be done to make larger facilities more energy efficient. Lighting is one of the biggest energy sucks, but in some regards facilites managers don’t have much choice in the matter. The parking lots have to be lit at night, as well as entries to the buildings. Lawyers are quite expensive when a person trips going down a set of stairs, even when lit, and blames it on the lighting not being sufficient. We do our best to use higher efficiency lighting, 277 volt systems are pretty efficient, and also try to the minimum interior lighting that codes allow.
Heating and cooling are sore spots as well when you have a few thousand people shoved in a building all with different ideas of what hot and cold mean. Most facilities guys just set it at 72 summer and 68 winter and tell people to deal with it. The mean ones set it at 74 summer and 66 winter. Let me tell ya, those guys have more problems with space heaters and fans than the other guys.
So in conclusion to the ecosnoop guys, go interview some facilities managers and ask them what’s going on and I’m sure they could give you some pointers about how things really work in those buildings.
P.S. How about something like WattWatch or WattWatchers. Kind of like the neighborhood watch program that makes it sound more community inclusive.
My suggestion would be to forget about the snooping part and simply offer localised suggestions relating to heating, cooling, appliances and electricity.
Awareness as your advocating makes zero difference in itself. One must want to make a difference, have the means to make a difference and afford the changes necessary.
I live in a moderately hot climate in an old house. I’ve been modifying the house more for my own comfort than for any saving. There are a huge number of products available for various situations.
I believe information is far more valuable than trying to force changes through social pressures. You will be appreciated rather than denigrated by those you’re trying to help.
Ecosnoop AKA Big Brother. What a horrible world these people live in. Nothing better to do?
The Queensland government recently imposed 140litres per person per day on Queenslanders when the water supply in the dams came close to 15% capacity. The State’s population was increasing by 1500 people per week we were informed by our Premier and yet no new dams or water catchment provisions have been made for over 10 years.
A man, in his 70’s was killed because he was watering his lawn with a hose by someone who thought he was not complying with water restrictions.
The biggest offender for wasting water was the local council which had many leaking pipes and the Queensland government themselves. The building housing Parliament House had single flush toilets and non water saving taps/faucets. The government said it was too expensive to replace it’s own single flush toilets and taps with water saving devices.
The State’s own schools’ plumbing had leaking taps and toilets all over the city.
There are many examples of improved efficiency in engineering without the need for Eco Snoop. Cars are far more fuel efficient now than ever before. Washing machines, dryers, ovens and refrigerators are also more energy efficient without the need for Eco Snoop.
Where was the smiley emoticon? Missing?
This is small solace if meant as encouragemant after having lived thru the Carter administration …
BTW, the top-notch security app(s) our company has running on our Lenovos takes care of such mundane ‘housekeeping’ as energy management (re: disk drives) AND logging off the present ‘user’ after a security-department predetermined period of time; you ‘home users’ of PCs and laptops are really left to your own devices, aided only by occasional updates from MS and ‘blind faith’ in McAffe or Norton.
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How about … an app to aid Code Enforcement reporting? Seriously, that could be useful (although not everyone might agree).
A couple years back a certain Popeye’s Chicken (local fast food chain) had a certain parking lot light pole that was _always_ on … one day I popped in asked to speak to the manager, and, she did not know how to get that particular pole turned off. Make a long story short, that situation persisted for – about another year! (Finally, the situation was straighted out … but it took literally several years.)
What would you have done to escalate this issue? I even took a couple photos (justs for my records).
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Whistleblowers have a legitimate right (perhaps even an obligation) to report instances of waste or malfeasance. Problem is, a dripping water faucet isn’t worth the effort. Grass-roots efforts of this type might be well-used to track the funds the Federal Government has been shovelling towards various pork barrel projects – and which have disappeared at upper levels of state government. Do those cell phones have an olfactory function?
They could call themselves the Stimulu-Sniffers.
Your claims: A lot like CAGW: Vaporous claims very wide in scope. Claims that are supposed to taken pretty much carte blanche. You are probably the _last_ ‘group’ a building manager/building engineer is going to believe on any subject, except maybe the ‘lightrs are on’ reports. Get real.
Lacking: Any sort of criteria for your untrained ‘hordes’ with which they will use in identifying actual ‘shortcomings’ (like restrictions in HVAC equipment due to say ductwork issues), let alone gaining access to a facility (getting into a building, allowed to do a floor by floor survey, getting a look at the chiller in the basement or the cooling tower within the compound next to the building).
Your goals: You think you will make a difference, you will certainly feel better for it, and that is probably about it. NO REAL CHANGES will be made. And beware the law of ‘unintended consequences’. Surely at some stage the negative, perhaps accumulated reults of some ‘change’ will come back to take its toll in some form or fashion, like substantial shortening of life of equipment, or worse: ‘code’ (building code) violations for illunination or air handling/exchanging or something … and ‘code’ violations can lead to issues that affect the actual health (and safety) of people.
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East Germany all over again. The red wall came down only to be replaced by a green one, the goings on behind the walls are very much the same.
History will judge this age very negatively. It’s a shame, since we have so much to be proud of this age.
Mankind has not wised up one iota. We are still scaremongerring each other, still preaching doom unless we repent our sins (carbon sin in this instance), still being asked to sacrifice to erase our sins. How different are we to the dark ages generations? No different at all.
What a sad indictment on this generation. Shame on the perpetrators, I hope history will deal with you.
Margaret wrote “no new dams or water catchment provisions have been made for over 10 years.”
Not sure about down under, but here it is greens that would block dam construction. Politicians are scared stiff of suggesting any sort of new developments such as new water storage (or hydro) dams and nuclear (although that seems to be easing). The green left has become dangerous to our future standard of living.
The radical (and ignorant) greens want us to use solar and wind instead of hydro, nuclear or coal. Right now it i s-17°C outside and we hit -39.5°C (a record) on December 8.
It is not clear what the green left wants. Makes no sense to me if we are expected to survive and have adequate standards of living. It seems they want use to go back to the caves.
I worry about my grandchildren.
Eco Snoop
Blatant moral equivalence and hyperbole. How about: Have you stopped beating your wife yet?
You don’t think building managers are already doing everything they can to save money on utilities?
Your feel-good holier-than-thou-fingerpointing-stoolie application has no practical benefits except possibly for the case of government buildings where there is no incentive to save money as the profit motive is nonexistent.
In these cases you also will also find your aspirations impotent for a myriad of other reasons known collectively as bureaucracy.
I have a better idea. Stop thinking you are better than others and only wish to point out their flaws and educate them to be better citizens. They are already better citizens than you because they go about their business making things which actually have benefits and enrich people’s lives.
Clive (21:56:26) :
“…The radical (and ignorant) greens want us to use solar and wind instead of hydro, nuclear or coal. Right now it i s-17°C outside and we hit -39.5°C (a record) on December 8…”
To adulterate Ron White “…It’s not that the wind is blowing… it’s what the wind is blowing…” …IF.
Remember this article from WUWT?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/22/the-guardian-appears-ready-to-power-glasgow-100-from-wind-part-2/
“The flaw in The Guardian’s logic is a failure to acknowledge that Glasgow needs a consistent power supply 24×7×365. The fact that Whitelee has a lot of windy days and a high annual energy potential, does no good on the cold, calm days.
…
It would be disastrous for Glasgow if they did not have the ability to obtain 100% of their energy from conventional sources on any given day of the year, when the wind isn’t blowing.”