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.
EcoSnoop, now getting more hits than in the last few years, maybe that was the plan?
New name, EcoDetective or EcoDick for short?
Bad news, ecopoop.com is taken.
Anthony.
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.
Question.
What is the difference between a halogen light bulb and an electric heater.
Answer.
Not much.
So you use low energy lighting and if you save 500w of power, you lose 500w of heating. Result is, the heating stays on longer to make up the 500w of lost heat input. Therefore you only save money when the lighting is on but the heating is off. But of course the time you need the lighting is when the sun has gone to bed and it’s getting cold. Of course if you live in a really hot country you will save the most but most do not.
How about a simple experiment comparing a halogen bulb and an LED bulb in a glass dome with an electric heater to maintain the temperature for the led. Most of the savings are illusary with the saved electricity cost going onto the gas bill.
Unless you spend most of the year keeping the house cool.
I’ve started using LED bulbs in my office. They are Philips bulbs (AmbientLED Indoor Flood MR16 model number 4GU5.3MR16. They are 12V, 3LED Warm White Light) available from Home Depot. Up to this point, I’ve been unimpressed with LED technology, but these are spectacular in comparison.
The light output is comparable to the halogen replacement, about 50% down on the light output but hardly noticeable. Heat output is way down, plus the fixtures themselves stay a lot cooler and the friction direction gimbal doesn’t need frequent tightening.
I think 2010 will be the year of the LED if these bulbs are anything to go by. The cheap LED flashlight light is satisfactory in an emergency (I still prefer the Surefire Halogen) but space lighting LED lights are improving dramatically.
(Which means I can leave all the lights on 24/7 and still not consume as much evil electricity…)
Henry chance (14:47:19) :
Galen Haugh (13:56:32) :
(repeat)
China is a massive producer of CO2 from rice paddies. Massive. They also still have heating and cooking for 75% of their people from wood, charcoal, trash and coal fires. No where will china allow a real audit. They are adding a lot of coal fired electric and are doing excellent PR. In reality, they are putting on a show
——————
Exactly! And more power to them, since CO2 has little or nothing to do with the slight warming trend we’ve seen since the Little Ice Age.
Now, if we can just help them clean up their real mess by installing smoke scrubbers and the like. But CO2? It makes the desert blossom as the rose.
Here’s my email to the snoops at ecosnoop:
Should rename it [snip – just a bit harsh language, sorry]
Willis,
Great sentiments and reason. Alas I fear they will fall on deaf ears.
A thing that most people forget is that nuclear power stations cannot be switched on & off like a light and nor can coal power stations. Only gas power stations (basically a jet engine) and hydro-electric power can come online in about 30 seconds. So the nuclear and coal power stations need to be kept running on the equivalent of “tick over” (idle?) on a car. This is what happens a lot at night and sometimes in the day at holiday times when they coincide with clement weather i.e. no air conditioning or heating being used. This “tick over” supplies the “baseload” which is an amount of electricity produced that it is unsafe to go below or the electricity system would fail when unexpected demands were placed on it. It is easier to cut off comsumers temporarily sometimes than it is to bring a power station up to speed to satisfy demand.
This “baseload” is what powers street lighting.
Maybe the question to ask of your local power supplier, before condemming businesses with security lights on, is how much they are above baseload on the average summer and winter night? That would give an idea as to how much energy is being used that could possibly be decreased.
I look forward to pictures of Gore et al and their excessive energy use.
Enjoy.
Stacey/Stasi and the Brownshirt look are far too obvious to be a coincidence. Either somebody is deliberately yanking somebody’s chain … or they are unconsciously flying their true colors.
I couldn’t watch the video. The Soviet National Anthem just kept erupting into my head.
Just turned on our Christmas lights. I suppose I’ll have to check ecosnoop in a few hours to see if I got turned in…
Maybe someone said this already.
This concept is really distasteful, but it can work in reverse as well.
We need to report eco fraud. I am sick and tied of “green” promises from companies telling us their wrenches, electric lawn mowers and fences are “green.” Bloody nonsense.
There is a local restaurant here in town that claims to be the FIRST “certified green” restaurant in Canada. I mean really WHAT is that anyway? They still heat and cook with gas and wash dishes (one hopes), have a paved parking lot and their customers ALL drive there. Nonsense.
So anyway, we need to report false claims about green. We can only hope the marketplace will soon tire if the green BS as it did the low-carb diet.
Bah humbug. ☺
Why stop with reporting energy wasting???
Just report everything that you see anyone doing that you disagree with.
Everyone can watch everyone else. We can create a great all seeing, networked, global eye, to watch all, to see all, to report all.
Exciting isn’t it!
I must get some shares in Apple.
OMG, I got soooo fascinated by this entry I let the tea I made for the family stew. I have to chuck it, make new tea and report myself.
The wife left the lights on in the laundry too. I guess I’ll have to report her.
Where can I buy an iPhone then…..?
Jim Snoop (14:26:41) : EcoSnoop is aimed at helping Government building owners understand when they are wasting energy.
Kidding aside, there may be some utility to this thinking. The dirtiest building in the Willamette Valley is the EPA building on the OSU campus. The sewer system is cross-connected to the storm drain system, and when it rains the sewage goes directly into Oak Creek on the west side of campus. All manner of chems get flushed down the drains in the EPA building, not to mention the human waste.
So if you really have a bug to bust a polluting perp, the EPA is a prime target. Imagine 1,000 lawsuits directed against the EPA for in-house fouling of air and water. Why, their budget would be eaten up in attorney fees and super fines. Their vulnerability in that fashion is huge.
So be nice to Eco-Snoop. Maybe we can use them to mount a legal blitzkrieg against the EPA. Hit ’em where it hurts.
Awesome “manbearpig app”
If the iPhone could take infra-red pictures, I suppose it would be more useful at finding inefficiencies, as most wasted energy is not readily detectable at visible wavelengths. However, as this (http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20091229/NEWS01/912290322/Upset-sister-put-Montgomery-woman-in-mental-institution) link shows, the potential for abuse is uncontrollable. I also remember a program on the Ge sta po (a German acronym for Secret State Police) where someone was supposed to be on a midnight curfew and was 15 minutes late one night. A neighbor reported him and he was subsequently sent to a concentration camp and then to the gas chamber. Until it happens personally, one has no idea what the consequences of false or misunderstood accusations can be. I would suggest you take whatever money you are investing in this idea, cancel it and offer to sell businesses and individuals an energy audit using an infrared camera. Not only will it be useful in reducing the risk of (mostly electrical) fires and finding hotspots that the consumer can remedy, but the customer will be very happy with the service as it serves to reduce risk and save the customer money.
Jim (15:04:28) :
Please; you know not why ‘lights are on in a building’ after so-called work hours!
“Your” reasons may be legitimate – I know about that from personal experience. But have you ever wandered through a city (ANY major city) after midnite? Or ANY government installation?
Building after building with lights blaring on many, if not most, floors. And the most egregious of these is Washington, DC, where the government (“our” government) pays lip service to environmentalism while ignoring it in practice. And they want “us” to produce less CO2 and use less energy.
Somehow I find it hard to take da gubmint seriously.
I do, however, take ecosnoop seriously – but not in the way they’d like. I agree with Willis, that this is a “technique” – a “tactic” – that has many more negative aspects than the originators imagine. It is, specifically, a tactic used by the worlds most despicable governments. And Willis has only barely scratched the surface of the downsides to it.
OceanTwo (15:14:05) :
You’re right, the cheap LED flashlights are not very impressive. Much more expensive, but worth every dollar, is the Brinkman 3 Watt LED. Mine uses 3 bundled (rather than end-to-end) AAA batteries and is very compact and convenient. It only has one high output bulb rather than a cluster, but will easily outdo any of the halogen flashlights that I’ve ever tried. The 2-D variety however, has had mixed reviews.
Getting a bit OT …
Galen Haugh (15:14:35) : “They also still have heating and cooking for 75% of their people from wood, charcoal, trash and coal fires. ”
I’ve traveled extensively in northern China and IMAR where it gets bitterly cold in winter. Most of the heat/cooking on the north is derived from corn stalks and soy straw, with coal prevalent as well. In IMAR, villagers use a lot of dried cattle manure as well. The worst part is the majority of rural farm people (some 700 million in China in all) live in single-family brick houses that are not insulated. The use of dirty C02-emitting fuels is unreal.
I just gave a one-hour talk to my university’s local alum association on life in northern rural China. Surprised a lot of folks.
If you want a closer look at the villages, open Google Earth and go to (for example) 45°50′ N and 127°0″ E (just east of Harbin) and zoom in on villages. This is a hi-rez area. Then go east into the greener, low-rez area and look at all of those villages!! These farm folks ALL live in villages and travel to their small farm fields to work.
I have pictures from these villages on cool mornings..the smoke is unreal. I can’t imagine them when it is -30°C. If anyone wants to see pictures of these villages and house, just let me know.
Clive
Future Nova; Removing The Lens Cap
http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&blog=Astronomy&pgurl=/mtweb/content/Astronomy/archives/2009/12/future_nova_removing_the_lens_cap_1.asp
I may be wrong but I’ve always understood a `1500MW coal fired power station is just that, it produces `1500MW come what may – at times at night the load becomes so low they need to shunt the excess power to ground because you can’t turn them down.
Same thing with Anthony’s solar panels – it has no effect on the power output of the power plant so nothing is actually saved.
I kept waiting for The Onion’s logo to pop up during the YouTube clip. Alas . . . life imitates satire.
EcoSnoopers, your naive expectation of a community consensus about etiquette and ethical use of this app shows that you have a VERY long way to evolve.
crosspatch (13:21:05) :
Our idiocracy at work.
…
Trees clean the air of heat-trapping gases better than farming does.
While this is true initially when you first plant trees, as time goes by they become less and less of a carbon sink and when the forest is fully mature, it becomes carbon neutral. At full maturity, the amount of carbon taken out of the atmosphere to produce new biomass is balanced by decaying biomass that is releasing CO2.
I cannot agree more. I have often postulated that wood-chip production is very eco-friendly if CO2 is supposedly bad. You get that a lot here in Oz where entire forests seem to be grown to chip and lay on flowerbeds to prevent weeds growing (as they do so well, it being warmer here). So the most eco-friendly occupation is growing trees fast and chopping them down as soon as possible.
And you have greenies trying to prevent this to preserve forests! There is no logic, it is all made up to promote either an ideal view of nature or a political agenda.