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Green living, playful parenting and the pursuit of happiness

A Portable Solar Generator for the Internet Addicted

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sunrise on ocean

I’ll tell you what hermits realize.

If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet,
you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.

Alan Watts

I have two seemingly conflicting loves: my love of nature and the great outdoors, and my love of technology and the internet.

I want to share them both with my children, but I have full-time employment online and I write for several websites in my “free” time. About nature, and eco-issues, and parenting, and family fun. The problem is, the more time I dedicate outside my actual job to write about those things, the less time I have to actually do them.

This is an inner conflict that really gets me down, sometimes. When I go quiet here, for a while? It’s because I’m trying to even the scales there, for a while.

Once upon a time my solution would have been to just give up, power down and go back to Luddite living, but I’m in too deep now. Not only do I make a living on the internet, but the connections I’ve found there make me feel like I’m making a difference, in some small way. And I’m inspired, daily, by the stories and images and lives that I see.

Muir said of nature, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” And I feel the same about the internet: it fuels a human connection that is unprecedented and complex and important.

We live in a world so different from the one I grew up in. A vibrant global community I can’t walk away from.

But I don’t that online connection to usurp my connection to my children and the natural world.

So I’m looking for alternative solutions to help create a meaningful balance of online time and outdoor family time, beyond the obvious “spend more time offline.” And I’m eyeing up this portable solar generator that can power a laptop.

solar powered laptopWith this bad boy, I could take the kids camping, unplug during the day,  and still be able to blog about it at night (and, you know. Do work so I don’t get fired). My iPad sips energy when compared to my MacBook; I bet I could nearly double the expected use time. And I wouldn’t spend my time with the kids worried about the work and emails piling up for my return home.

It would also come in super handy during events like yesterday’s hurricane, which knocked out my power for 12 hours (which I considered a lucky break, frankly; I expected a much longer wait for power to be restored). We’d been warned power could go up to two weeks before being restored.

I can’t be without internet for over 48 hours. I just can’t. I’d be put so far behind it makes me panicky just considering it.

Hi. My name is Robin and I’m an eco-freak who loves technology.

I’m really excited about the idea of blogging while hiking or camping for extended periods. A thoroughly modern-day Thoreau in his cabin.

Is that weird?

Are you a tech or internet addict? Tell me I’m not alone.

 

Disclaimer: I am participating in a blog campaign from Bucks2Blog for a portable solar panel company and was compensated. Views, opinions and parenting #fail confessions are my own.

 

Chat about Ways to Save Money & Energy with #EnergizeDE

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DIY clothesline

One of our biggest $$ savers: DIY clothesline

Delawareans can save energy and money and at the same time boost the state’s economy. DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara and Twitter can help.

Delaware’s #EnergizeDE Twitter Chat, hosted by DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara, will take place Wednesday July 13th from 7:00- 8:00pm. Secretary O’Mara will be tweeting from the @YourDNREC account (love the bio: Explore beyond the door with an adventure enthusiast and natural resource advocate at DNREC), answering questions and providing information about energy efficiency solutions offered through the state’s nonprofit Energize Delaware and the Delaware Energy Office.

How it works

To join the discussion, Delawareans just need to use their Twitter account & follow the discussion through the #EnergizeDE hashtag. (If you’re a complete newbie, you’ll need to open an account on Twitter and then enter #EnergizeDE into the search box, periodically refreshing the page for updates.)
Questions can be tweeted @YourDNREC before or during the one-hour online conversation.

To keep the conversation focused, the hour-long chat will be divided into three 20-minute segments devoted to common energy challenges:

First 20 minutes: How much is your monthly energy bill? Tweet your average monthly bill and let’s see what the range is and how it compares to the national average. The highest tweet (with verification) will receive a free energy audit.

Second 20 minutes: Share your most frustrating comfort issues. Tweet about thermostat fights. Tweet about hot and cold guest bedrooms above the garage. Why is one level so much hotter than the other and what can be done? Does your business use a lot of lighting, refrigeration, or other energy-intensive equipment? Possible solutions will be discussed.

Third 20 minutes: Have you had a home energy makeover? Share your experiences and advice and Secretary O’Mara will tweet links to useful resources.

I don’t live in Delaware anymore (although I’m literally in stone’s throw distance) but I’ll still keep an eye on the Twitter stream. Delaware takes government-supported energy efficiency and sustainability in general fairly seriously, and I’m interested to see not only what info gets put out there, but who shows up and what level of eco-responsibility they represent. Of course, when you’re talking Twitter you’re already out of the realm of “typical homeowner,” but frankly I have no clue how one would go about having this sort of real-time engaged conversation about local energy for the masses.

Anyway. Recap:

Wednesday July 13th from 7:00- 8:00pm, on Twitter, tweet your questions to @YourDNREC and follow with hashtag #EnergizeDE.

Here’s a list of ways we save money and energy… looks like I need to update with more recent changes.

Have you taken steps towards energy efficiency? For the earth’s sake, for your wallet’s sake, or both?

Let me know the best money-saving or obscure practice you’ve found.

 

nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator): Pretty Dang Awesome

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npower peg

 

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
—William James

Last week I was in NYC for Consumer Electronics Week, attending the Techlicious Moms blogger conference. (Spoiler: I won an iPad 2. Thanks, Target!!)

There were oh so many wondrous toys. Admittedly, I often have a hard time reconciling my love of geeky tech with my need to be eco-conscious, but there were a surprising number of vendors whose products were genuinely green innovations or built on a platform of sustainability.

I’m very pleased that eco-savviness has become a priority in the tech world, that the green consumer is enough of a spending force to be reckoned with that companies are responding, though generally speaking we have a long row yet to hoe.

The nPower® PEG blew me away: simple concept, beautifully executed. One of those things that make you wonder how no one came up with this before.

You know how we shake our heads at our children and say, “I wish I could harness that energy?” Guess what… you can. And you can use it to power your cell phone, iPod, digital camera, GPS…

The nPower® PEG is a backup battery charger that harnesses the kinetic energy you create while walking, running, biking, or, in the case of crazy kids, bouncing off the frickin’ walls. You start with a charged PEG (via USB); then you just need to carry it vertically in your purse or backpack and go about your day. The energy created by your motion continually tops off the internal battery so you have power when your devices run low.

The energy output varies, depending on the physical activity levels of the user and the battery-suckage of the device that needs charging, but—

  • 1 minute of walking provides approximately 1 minute of listening time on an iPod Nano
  • 11 minutes of walking provides approximately 1 minute of talk time on an iPhone 2G
  • 26 minutes of walking provides approximately 1 minute of talk time on an iPhone 3G

I love that the company (Tremont Electric) is committed to sustainability as a defining corporate value: limiting the resources needed to manufacture & market their products; educating employees & customers alike about environmental concerns & actions; closing the cycle by developing a buy-back program (as the plan is to make the PEGs lighter yet more powerful) to ensure proper recycling and repurposing. YES.

This would be not only a “clean and green” tech purchase for me— it would be hugely practical. I attend a lot of events and conferences where it’s a given that participation is virtual (Twitter, mostly) as well as in-real-life. However, I need to first successfully find the things, and as my husband likes to remind me over and over again, I have pathetic navigation skills. I tend to kill my cellphone battery with the GPS before I even walk in the door, and I still need to get home. I’m bloody well afraid to even look at my phone when I’m at the event itself for fear of killing the battery and leaving me stranded. It would be awesome to have that reserve battery power on hand.

A more obvious use for us is for when we go hiking and camping, so that I can blog on location (via phone for now, there isn’t a unit yet that can power a laptop or iPad), and so we have use of our phones in the event of an emergency.

Or, if I were running a marathon (one can dream), I’d know my kinetic energy would continue to power my iPod so I could cross the finish line listening to Eye of the Tiger. These are important issues.

The lovely team I talked to also mentioned uses such as in biomedical devices (like pacemakers) and commercial units at sea to convert wave energy.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Admit it. It’s pretty dang awesome.

It appears that the genius of the nPower® PEG has been recognized, happily enough. They’re totally backordered but you can put your name on the waitlist if you are so inclined.

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Disclosure so everything’s on the up-and-up: I attended CE Week as a guest of Techlicious thanks to sponsors Cohn & Wolfe. The nPower people have no idea who I am and I received no product or compensation for this product, which makes me feel *sad face* for a moment until I remember how fricking awesome the product is.