Energy Tips & Tricks: Alarm Clocks

Even with all this talk about "green energy," there's not much being said about conserved energy. Problem is, it's not fashionable. It's not fashionable to conserve energy. The buzz is all about being "green." This warm buzz (like the one in the background, emanating from the TV you're not watching) soothes the listener into thinking that homo sapiens can live at a massive population level and continue to consume the same amount of energy, because, hey, it's green.

But it's not the end of the world, okay? (Though, trust me, it's easy to start thinking that way, and I'm guilty of that.) There's definitely a speed bump coming up, and we just need to slow down a few hundred miles per hour. Change is coming. It would be most helpful to preempt it by starting the change on our own.

And it doesn't have to be huge. Start by thinking about how much energy you consume, and figure out where you can cut a corner or two.

Here's my example. I was thinking about how much energy cell phones use. Cell phones are handy little buggers. I can call folks, text short messages, keep to-do lists, write down things on a calendar, and it works as an alarm clock. Most of my dorm-mates in college used their cell phones as alarm clocks.

But it seemed... wrong. Cell phones aren't that energy-efficient. (More on that later.) And leaving the durn thing on all night just so I could get up at 8 AM felt like I was cheating Ma Nature. ("Yo, Ma, I'm just gonna stay up all night so I can't wake up on my own, and I'm gonna use up your energy to get my butt outta bed in the morning. We cool?")

Even an electric clock wouldn't solve the dilemma; in fact, it would be even worse. They might be more efficient than phones, but then you depend upon TWO electrical devices, and the whole consumption bit, etcetera. Surely, I thought, there must be a better way.

It's called a keywound alarm clock. You've probably seen them in the form of clip-art or caricatures of outdated things: that round face clock with the bells on top. Yeah, they still make those things. Mine was given to me as a gift from Matt, because I was complaining to him about it, and I guess he wanted me to shut my darn pie-hole, so there. So, yeah, it's from China. If I get lead poisoning, we all know where to point our fingers.

You just wind up the thing every night before you go to sleep, and it runs for however long it's designed to run fully-wound; mine runs 36 hours. So if I forget to wind it (and I do), it runs until I get back from work. I feel pretty smug, being able to flip off the surge protector at night. I even turn the phone off so no one can disturb my beauty rest.

If you decide to get a keywound, see if you can get one with a loud/soft option. Mine doesn't have one, so it's pretty loud, but I guess I wanted something that would wake me up. Also, as far as setting the alarm -- it displays incriments of hours and half-hours, so setting for anything inbetween is sort of a guessing game, but honestly it's not a huge deal. Again, as long as it wakes me up, do I really care?

So, to summarize:

Keywound alarm clock

Cons:

• Kind of loud (but there are clocks with a "soft" option)
  
• Energy used shipping it halfway around the globe, lead poisoning (get yours from USA if possible... or better yet, a thrift store!)
  
• Constant ticking may annoy some people/make them think you have a bomb in your suitcase
  

Pros: 

• No batteries, no plug, no electricity used to run it (post-production)
  
• Assuming it's of good quality, it'll run for years. Maybe it can even be fixed on the cheap
  
• Wakes me up!
  
• Constant ticking may be soothing to some people (it's not that loud, really, honestly)
  
• Lets me feel smug in the privacy of my own bedroom
  

In my opinion, totally worth it.