美国国家公共电台 NPR Energy Savings Can Be Fun, But No Need To Turn Off All The Lights

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's say you were asked to monitor how much electricity you used. You would be thinking, like I really have time for that. Then again, I know some of you count your steps each day. You also track how many hours you sleep. Ingrid Lobet reports on a company that noticed your interest in keeping tabs on things and saw an opportunity to save energy.

INGRID LOBET, BYLINE²: At his home in San Diego, Steve Reed explains what happened when he signed up free with the company OhmConnect. He was eager to see how much his family could cut back electricity at times when the grid¹ was stressed. Soon, he got a text prompting him to lower use from 5 to 6 p.m. the next day.

STEVE REED: The easiest thing in the beginning is to just avoid big power usage. The big item, for most people, is actually the air conditioner or their heater, a stove or an oven or a microwave - the big big-ticket items.

LOBET: Reed was drawn³ to the idea because he knows that on days when there's high demand for electricity, extra power plants have to turn on, and they tend to be more polluting.

REED: Any individual person couldn't really do much about this. This is something you can do that's very easy, and it helps.

LOBET: If enough people take similar action, he figures, maybe you could even keep a dirtier power plant from turning on.

REED: They don't even fire them up. That's perfect. I mean, that's the ideal scenario⁴.

LOBET: The service includes an interactive⁵ map of where your electricity is coming from. Curtis Tongue is one of OhmConnect's co-founders. He says it makes ideas like climate change and pollution less remote and gives people a way to do something.

CURTIS TONGUE: There's a peaker plant turning on just a mile, two miles, five miles away. It's turning on right now.

LOBET: After the designated hour is over, the company compares how much you used with how much you usually use and credits you for it. It's all thanks to detailed⁶ data from smart meters.

TONGUE: When our users save energy, they earn points. We have a dashboard that we built out that's kind of gamified energy saving.

LOBET: On that web dashboard, you can see your accumulating points and cash them out via PayPal. Or play in teams and pool the points to donate, for example, to the PTA. Average savings⁷ are around $100 a year.

Your electric company probably has a similar program. But at GTM Research, analyst⁸ Elta Kolo says she watches OhmConnect because although it's young, it's caught on with some 100,000 users.

ELTA KOLO: It's attracting, I would say, more of the younger customers that are into having more data analyzed⁹ in their daily lives, you know, where you need an app for everything.

LOBET: So how does the company make its money? Well, think of electricity like a market. OhmConnect can promise the market that not as much power will be needed. And that promise is worth money. One time, they were able to get the power equivalent of 11,000 homes off the grid.

Back at his home in San Diego, Steve Reed has advice for new users - don't go crazy.

REED: I've heard of people literally¹⁰ unplugging their refrigerators for the hour and just sitting in the dark and all this crazy stuff. And there's really no reason to do that.

LOBET: Just focus on the easy things, like the thermostat¹¹. Because just like with 10,000 steps or eight hours of sleep, small changes add up. For NPR News, I'm Ingrid Lobet in San Diego.

(SOUNDBITE OF DELICATE STEVE'S "TOMORROW")

GREENE: And Ingrid's story came to us through the nonprofit journalism¹² organization inewsource.

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

4 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

5 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

6 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

9 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 thermostat   

n.恒温器

参考例句：

• The thermostat is connected by a link to the carburetor.恒温控制器是由一根连杆与汽化器相连的。
• The temperature is controlled by electronic thermostat with high accuracy.电子恒温器，准确性高。

12 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。