It all started way back when I was very young.  My grandfather, who was an inspector with the Department of Standards, brought out an old hydro meter and demonstrated how various appliances consumed more power than others.  Here in southern Ontario, in the early days of electricity, most of the generating was done at Niagara Falls and other hydro-electric generating stations, so we call it hydro.

     It was great fun collecting lamps, toasters, electric heaters, fans, etc. etc. from around the house to see how fast the wheel would spin.  Grandma was having fits because she was sure we would "burn down the house with that thing".  I have the meter now and I know her concerns were valid.  The meter belongs in a museum. I can't imagine a house with a 10 amp service.

     From then on I had the desire to find out how things worked.  I was just twelve years old when I combined two broken toasters into one that was as good as new.  I began looking for things that needed fixing. Unlike my earlier years I was now putting things back together and before long I became known as someone who can fix anything.  I believe that just because something is old doesn't mean it needs replacing, as long as it works and is still useful.  If you haven't done so yet now would be a good time to check out my automobiles page and you will see the result of this philosophy.

     After using laptops and portable computers for many years during the regular routine of work I finally needed one of my own for my studies.  It was a bare-bones 386 in a mini tower case, pretty boring, so I added a cd rom and sound card to liven it up a bit.  Then while creating a colour calendar as a Christmas gift the limitations of the video card began to show.  It also took nearly thirty minutes to print. With the addition of a graphics accelerator card and a bigger hard drive I had one fast 386.  As with other PC users it wasn't long before I upgraded it to a 486.  I now have two 486's networked together running Win 95 and Linux.  Oh yes, from the leftover parts and some good used bits I reassembled my old bare-bones 386.

   Just recently the topic of "How much do you use your computer?" came up. Well I never really thought about it, three perhaps four hours per day maybe, more often than not someone forgets to shut it down. Being the curious sort and having a watthour meter sitting around doing nothing, did I mention it should be in a museum? I decided to put it to good use. Hanging above my desk is the old hydro meter with it's round black metal case with the 60~ H.E.P.C. CONVERSION tag prominently displayed below the glass window and two red cables coming out the bottom looking really out of place. Imagine 1990's computer equipment getting it's power fed through a 1920's era watthour meter. beginning November 30, 1997 at approximately 8:00 pm my computer and everything it needs to run is being measured. The starting reading 0001 and the dials are turning. Coming soon and to be updated monthly:

Power Consumption. Please don't expect this to be a scientific study I don't have that much spare time, and besides the meter hasn't been calibrated in decades. Lets just say that on average my machine is on for about six hours a day and that should make up for the times it just sits filtering the air.

Images and Text Copyright © 1997 Frank Roggeband. Not responsible for the content of other sites linked to from here.