With today marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we’re taking the data visualization toolkit that we’ve recently been applying to our healthymagination initiative and instead focusing it on ecomagination. The simple idea behind data visualization is to take what can often be intimidating amounts of scientific data and turn it into useable information that makes an impact in people’s lives. The new interactive visualization below provides a number of different views on how the appliances in your home consume energy. You can use the tool to measure the average impact of over 50 different electronic devices — from hair dryers and coffee makers to phones and fans — in terms of watts used; the dollars it costs to operate; and the equivalent power consumption in gasoline. The tool even shows what one kilowatt hour yields for each appliance (a toaster produces 36 pieces of toast in one kilowatt hour; a water heater gets just 125 minutes of use). As the visualization team notes, in the United States over 20 percent of our total energy consumption is residential. In fact, the U.S. is the 7th largest per capita consumer of residential energy.
Are you living with a gas guzzler? Click the image to launch the data visualization. Blue stars indicate ENERGY STAR models are available.
In recent data visualizations, we’ve partnered with the team at GOOD and visualization guru Ben Fry. Today’s project is part of a new partnership with designer Lisa Strausfeld and Pentagram, which Fast Company magazine recently cited in its list of the “Top Ten Most Innovative Design Companies.”
Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be Earth Day without Dwight Schrute from “The Office” dressed in green and sporting a third eye as “Recyclops.” Check him out and others in an operatic take on the “Green is Universal” campaign at GE’s NBC Universal in the video below.
Learn more about data visualization in these GE Reports stories:
* “Visualizing health with The Economist Intelligence Unit”
* “Data visualization: A GOOD look at affording care”
* “Ben Fry at SXSW 2010: Visualizing data challenges”
* “A GOOD look at the ‘Cost of Chronic Diseases’”
*See all of our recent healthcare data visualizations in one place
*Learn more about designer Lisa Strausfeld
*Read Fast Company’s “Masters of Design” feature on Lisa Strausfeld