Cell phones nowadays are truly incredible things — it seems like they can do more every month through new apps. Many of these apps can help their users benefit the environment, even if they don’t realize it. The best thing about these apps is that they’re usually dirt cheap, and may even help you make or save money. The following are a few ways that today’s cell phones can help you save both your money and the environment.
Keep Your A/C Reasonable
Image via Flickr by cnewtoncom
Air conditioning and heating are great ways to stay comfortable, but they can be handled in a lot of ways. Most people aren’t handling their household A/C as efficiently as they could. But when you engage your phone, you can activate your A/C or heat when you’re about to leave for home and come home to comfort without having to keep everything running when the place is empty. You could even program your phone to turn on your A/C when you get within a certain distance of your home. You will want to discuss how this can be done with an Electrician Ashburton service or your local electrician, so you can get this installed onto your system making it easier for you to manage.
Small changes to the temperature in your home can actually make significant changes in your monthly electricity bill. The U.S. Department of energy even states that using a programmable thermostat can help you save up to 30%! A family with an average electric bill of $200 per month could save $60 per month. That’s over $700 per year. There’s no reason to keep your entire house perfectly cooled or heated all day when you are at work.
Better Weather Forecasting
Image via Flickr by State Farm
Weather forecasts inform a lot of your choices, including whether you decide to drive or take more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. With better forms of weather reporting such as crowdsourcing and even the potential availability of instruments such as a cellular weather station along with more localized weather watching, you can get the best and most accurate weather and make the best-informed decisions instead of having to resort to guesswork. This can keep you from carrying an umbrella on a sunny day or wearing a heavy coat that’s soaked in sweat when it’s high summer. This could even have you walking some places instead of driving.
Smartphone users are also capturing awesome pics like the one above on an almost daily basis. This shared information can eventually help us learn more about how and why weather events occur. Local news outlets are encouraging more input from their viewers because no satellite image can ever provide as much value as a first-hand account of a weather event. They are realizing that every minute of advanced notice can save the lives of those in the path of the storm.
Environmentally Friendly Cell Towers
Cell towers use a lot of electricity, just like all electronic devices. However, while many devices are powered by fossil fuels, cell towers can now be powered by solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydrogen cell technology. Cell phone towers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and frequently large numbers of these towers are in many cities. Since cell phones are becoming the most widely used form of technology on the planet, switching to greener forms of power is going to save a lot of fossil fuels and other less renewable forms of energy.
Many municipalities are also requiring cell companies to use more creative cell tower designs to fit in with the natural surroundings. Companies have disguised their towers as trees, rocks, and various other inconspicuous items to prevent the glaring sore thumb of traditional tower designs from sticking out against the natural landscape. Sometimes they do such a good job that local residents never even knew that a cell tower was located in their neighborhood.
Easy Reference For Additional Ideas
The idea factory is great when a single person is brainstorming, but when a lot of people get together and share ideas they can quickly build on each other into some truly epic things. The nature of the Internet and how phones can network with one another is that you can share ideas on how to become more green with others through forums at any time. If you get a great idea, you can post it within seconds, potentially helping thousands of other people make positive changes.
The “social” aspect of social media can really shine through when working with complex issues such as the environment. Whenever a company or organization steps out of line and damages the environment, vocal opponents can let the world know in just a few minutes. Companies are aware of this risk now, and are being forced into more transparency. Many companies are developing comprehensive PR plans to curtail the backlash caused by these viral social media events.
Keeping You Up to Date On Traffic
Image via Flickr by epSos.de
Traffic can be a real drag on the environment and your free time. Thankfully cell phone technology is helping many drivers dodge the backups. One of the great benefits of BBM for Android is that you can easily send and receive information in real-time. As everybody knows, hanging around in traffic is a bad way to be energy-efficient. But when people share traffic info, you and others can dodge the worst of it all.
Smartphones often times perform better than stand-alone GPS devices. Their access to the always-on network gives them more accurate traffic information. Free services like Google Now actually learn your routes and give you updated traffic information before you even leave. For instance, if you leave work at 5pm every day, the program will start to analyze your route home as 5 draws near. You may receive a notification that says something like, “27 minutes to home(4 minutes longer than usual),” with an accompanying traffic map so you know where to expect the congestion.
Today’s cell phone technology can do a lot to share information, automate existing systems and make new ones that much greener. Which of these do you think has the largest effect on the environment today? List other ways cell phones can make an impact on the environment in the comments.