At this year's Greener Gadgets Design Competition in New York, the team of Zach Dwiel and Matt Meshulam walked away with the top prize for the EnerJar - a DIY power meter made from recycled and salvaged parts that accurately measures the power draw of electrical appliances. Sitting between any wall outlet and the appliance, the EnerJar helps users gain an understanding of their daily electricity use. Below, Zach Dwiel offers his insights into the creation of the EnerJar.

AWEARNESS: What was the initial inspiration for the EnerJar?

Zach: I was really curious how much energy all of the various electronics in my house were requiring. I don't like buying new, especially new electronics. I couldn't find any free designs online, so I proposed the idea to Matt, an electrical engineer who got a design up in no time. We wanted to make a few of them to distribute around freecycle so we designed it to be cheap, easy to use, and possible to build from as many salvaged and reused parts as possible. Matt found the Greener Gadgets competition and figured we should submit what we had, so we did.

AWEARNESS: You are making the design (both the schematics and source code) for the EnerJar available for free on the Internet. In what ways do you think "open source" thinking will accelerate the pace of green innovation?

Zach: Open source allows ideas and solutions to travel very quickly. This also means the solutions get refined quickly. I was just reading about how 20 or 30 years ago, you could get the design for the circuits to high quality guitar amplifiers by just giving them a call and asking for it. You are paying for them to put it all together and make it look nice. Embracing this openness is only going to help solve our problems more quickly and more thoroughly: green, sustainable and health problems just as much as any other.

AWEARNESS: In addition to using the EnerJar, what are some other relatively inexpensive and easy ways that people can reduce their environmental footprint?

Zach: Listing only ways that actually save you money: walk or bike more often (or try to live where this is possible next time you have an option); don't buy stuff you don't need; eat less meat (the average American's yearly meat consumption contributes as many greenhouse gases as his yearly vehicle use); turn off lights when you don't need them and use compact fluorescents; buy organic and local food, or better yet, from someone you know; see if your electric company will sell sustainable energy (I just found out that I could get wind power from mine here in Missouri). There are so many more. The important part is to have fun with it. This isn't masochism. It often saves you money.

AWEARNESS: What were some of the other highlights at the Greener Gadgets conference in New York?

Zach: Some of my favorites were the bamboo phone, 'no gadget', and eNutrition. The bamboo phone is cool - I love bamboo and biodegradable electronics would be a huge step forward in dealing with all of our e-waste. 'no gadget' speaks for itself. eNutrition is about distributing information which I love. It would be great to know, at the grocery store, which products on the shelf are the most sustainable or how far they traveled to get here, how much oil was required to build and transport it, or any other of a million different useful pieces of information. Right now, I get a list of the name of the ingredients, and an organic label (that doesn't mean a whole lot).

AWEARNESS: What are some of the other projects you are working on for 2008 and beyond?

Zach: I'm currently working on getting my Computer Science undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis and looking for a summer job. I'd like to work on getting information out to people and make it even easier to share - I've got some website ideas, mostly dealing with 'semantic' and search technologies. I'm also starting a garden this spring and trying to write software for playing music.

[image: EnerJar]