What's "On" At Your House?

Gorillas in the air:

Many of you are probably someplace other than your home as you read this. (No one ever messes around online during their own time). So, you'll have to think. What electrical "thingamadobobs" might still be sucking juice threw the ol' 'lectric meter?

Keep in mind that a single 100-watt bulb left on all night will require 500 lbs of coal be burned to keep it lit. That means a single 100-watt bulb left on all night will release 800 pounds of CO2 released into the air; roughtly the equivalent of having 2 gorillas floating above your head. If one third of the people in the U.S. left a light on nightthat would be 800,000,000 lbs of CO2 , or 1 million gorillas floating over your head.

Did you leave your computer on?

If you have a regular CRT monitor, at 240-watts, that would mean 1,200 pounds of coal, releasing 1,920 pounds of CO2, or the equivalent of four adult gorillas and one adolescent floating over you. The computer itself would require 2,460 pounds of CO2, about the equivalent of 7 gorillas.

If half the population of the U.S. were to leave their computers on all day with a regular monitor, that would mean 288 trillion pounds of CO2 in the air, or the equivalent of 720 million gorillas.

So, what's on?

A 25 watt nightlight that's always on in the bathroom would be the equivalent of five flying chimpanzees of CO2.

The stereo? Another five flying chimps. The DVD player? Another five flying chimps.

How about those nice 15 watt accent lights around the building or garden or along the walk. Nine of them would be the equivelant of ten adult gorillas and a teen gorilla.

So what's "on" at your house? Some sort of Flying Primate Circus?