Beautiful

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

-R. Buckminster Fuller

I have been an advocate for energy efficiency as long as I can remember. For me, it just makes sense. The human race is going to eventually run out of oil and gas, and while there is plenty of coal to last for hundreds of years, even with our current population growth rate, there is also plenty of evidence suggesting that the more we burn the warmer the planet is going to get. Regardless as to whether or not you buy-in to Climate Change or your political affiliation, it is hard to argue against being prudent with your resources and simultaneously saving money doing so.

I have had the most energy-efficient house within a mile radius for some time. It isn’t hard. I have compact fluorescent light bulbs in every fixture (even my utility lamps for when I need to crawl around my attic) and I have a programmable thermostat that doesn’t allow the heating and cooling to run unless I’m home. There is no difference in comfort at all, and yet by my own estimates I save several hundred dollars a year on energy costs because my house simply doesn’t heat and cool when nobody is home and because I use light bulbs that put out the same amount of light as regular bulbs, yet use 25% of the energy.

That’s it. The level of effort is really quite minimal.

If everyone in the US followed such practices, we would save so much energy that the nation could put all of the electric plants currently under construction now on hold for the next ten years and we would still have enough power in ten years, even with our current construction rates.

However, as I learned this week, such ideas are boring, dull, not practical and not followed. That was, however, until Tony Fadell, the famed Apple inventor who came up with the concept of the iPod, decided to start his own company and start making… thermostats.

As I read articles from the New York Times and several tech blogs, I learned what I already knew… Only 6% of programmable thermostats in the nation have a program. Most people try to hide their thermostats. Nobody has any idea how their HVAC system works let alone how to make it work more efficiently. Personally, I have found the world ripe with need for education in these matters, and I have tried to help many of my friends and family make their HVAC systems work for them instead of work against them.

Apparently, the reason why these concepts don’t catch on with those I speak with is because I’m not as sexy as an iPod.

Hopefully, the new Nest Thermostat can (finally!) entice some people to conserve their energy because they are interested in hanging something that looks more like a contemporary wall-hanging than a thermostat. I find it almost insulting that this is the case, but the well-polished and well-known iPod guy will attract a following much greater than the engineering community will.

It goes to show you that no matter how much time, effort, passion or pride you put into your work, nobody buys it (and it isn’t done well) unless it is beautiful.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!