How much is your electric bill? Mine in my one-bedroom apartment in New York is about $55 a month. I'd love for it to be lower, but the cost doesn't bother me enough to motivate me to turn out lights when I leave rooms and unplug kitchen appliances until I actually need to use them. But what if I had to pay for my energy usage in a more significant way? British designer Mike Thompson raises that question with the new
blood-powered lamp. Yes, blood. Would you turn on three lamps to watch TV if it would cost you half a pint?
Photos: miket.co.uk
The project, detailed on
Thompson's website and currently on display in Amsterdam, asks, "What if power came at a cost to the individual?" To activate the single-use blood lamp, the user breaks off the top, dissolves a chemical tablet inside and then puts in his or her blood. The idea is that a single-use light will make people rethink when they need light the most.
Thompson says that the average American consumes enough energy annually to leave lights on in four rooms for an entire year. All he's asking is that people stop and think--and you did, didn't you?
Use the EPA's Household Emissions Calculator to estimate your home's usage and learn ways to cut back.
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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
How come all you see on the comments is people posting how body cleansing and aging creams,etc? If these products are so fantastic then how come you can't afford OTHER advertising??
ReplyJust report the bastards that are advertising. I report each and everyone of them.
That is the stupidest invention I've ever seen. Ok, so they are trying to make a point but what happens after they use this item? Are the chemicals recycled? What do you do with it after your done? Stupid.
ReplyI agree. So, a one time glass lamp is worth the pollution of the glass? He must invest in recycling companies.
i think people are making too much of all this saving energy stuff. saving the environment? the environment will always be here. it's on the earth. the earth ain't goin' nowhere for a very long while. should we die tomorrow, the earth will be fine. the environment will go back to being the pristine thing it once was. saving water? nonsense. the same water has been on this planet for billions of years. the water used today will be re used tomorrow, and was used yesterday. build more efficient water filtration sysems. and i believe people should be allowed to use as much hot water as they want. water can NOT be "wasted". water evaporates and comes down as rain... it does NOT "disappear" or go floating off into space, never to be seen again. i can't stand this low flow garbage. i cannot get as clean as i used to. i always have soap on my skin and shampoo in my hair no matter how long i stand under this ridiculous "low flow" garbage shower head. stop pollution, yes. clean up the water, yes. clean up the air, yes. the land, yes, the dirt, yes. give the animals we eat less chemicals and more un-chemically-tainted food, yes. pure milk, WITH the fat, yes. untainted eggs, yes. but i resent my water being taken away and rationed to me, and energy could be a bit more effiecient. maybe they should rebuild the machines the energy comes from to make it more efficient... but energy cannot be "wasted"... it doesn't "disappear". it is just unused. waste this, waste that... nonsense. just another way for the government to tighten its death grip on the people...that's my opinion.
ReplyFeelings aren't right or wrong, they just are..but all I'm asking you is to reconsider.. Haven't you heard of animals becoming extinct? Don't you know why? The environment may still be here when you die, but it doesn't mean it will ALWAYS be here.. Think about it.. Do you ever see a plot of land up for sale and next thing you know..they cut down all the trees to make a parking lot for a business? No more grass, no more trees? Don't you see animals once lived in that plot of land? Birds, bugs, mammals? Animals have homes, just like we do.. the don't go around just wandering from place to place roaming the entire earth.. maybe they go out to get food but then come back to their den or their nest.. I rescue and rehabilitate wildlife and I've had baby animals brought to me from trees that got chopped down.. woodpeckers, raccoons, foxes.. We are ALL connected. People that think like you and don't realise this and take the land for granted WILL INDEED DESTROY THE PLANET.. then people get mad when there is a bear in their yard or a wild cat or alligator.. We are taking all the land and plastering it with concrete.. Where else are they to go? Don't you see them dead on the road? Let's say even the animals at that plot of land were part of the food chain for other animals.. now they're dead and what do the other animals eat? So they start showing up in people's yards etc.. and then we get scared and kill them or get upset when they attack..and kill them. Just think about it.. where else can they go? Do you have pets? People in the Amazon have pets that we consider wild and exotic.. but they are just like cats and dogs.. all animals are.. Do you throw an empty can or cigarrette butt or trash on your living room floor? The earth outside your door is no different from your living room.. we live ON it.. just think about it please; and recycle AT LEAST.. Imagine if every person on earth recycled just ONE can.. just think about it.. that's all I'm saying.. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE peace and love xox
You really have no idea what you are saying about water. you really need to wake up & look around, there are county out there that do not get any rain, their land has been so dry that animal are dying. They just showed on the new where one county was so dry they had a dust storm. So yes water is very important & should be taken care of. not everyone even in the US gets rain all the time. Here in CA we need rain everything is so dry. So I guess you are the one that needs to wake up & really look around this planet. If we dont start taking care of this planet it will not be here forever our grandkids will have nothin
someone will kill themselves over the tv if this comes to frutition now im thinking if the common person was forced to buy these and after what 4 pints of blood?, he or she will invite a neighbor over and suck them dry just to use anything that will turn vampiric, the hairdryer or microwave its a good idea makes us think but soon we will kill each over blood we will become the vampires
ReplyMine is all out..... sht!
ReplySO should i just kill my sister? or piss in it?
...... Got to admit even this one's got me , cause what's next ... blood ovens , blood mircowaves , Blood mp3.....
ReplyUgh, great- now that I am menopausal they come out with such invention.
ReplyOMG This is funny... but hey at least this invention should give women free electricity one week out of every month!
its a piece of art protesting energy consumption duh
ReplyThen they should not have used energy to create it...goes against the idea...
ALL THIS NONSENSE! WE NEED A LESS HYSTERICAL APPRROACH TO ENERGY! VAMPIRE LIGHTS! BALDERDASH SEE GLOBAL ENERGY INDEPENDENCE DAY A DAY FOR CLEAN GREEN POWER.NOT NONSENSE LIKE THE RADICAL LOONS WANT!
ReplyHey, that sounds great. Now us women have a use for the once a month crap that life puts us through. We could power the house!!! (Betcha didn't think about that! All I'm asking is a use for it..got you thinking about it didn't I?? (Good lord people ..just turn a light out once in a while, its not Little Shop of Horrors..its just a light)
ReplyAs a guy who gets a lot of nosebleeds, this seems pretty handy to me. Sign me up for one!
ReplyWhy dont you go crawl back under the garbage bin you came from....What a Loser you cant even spell right!!!!
ReplyHEY Transylvania yo darcula red cross come get LIGHT up your LIFE hun? HA HA ha ha ha ha ha ha aha ha aha DAR teens' you can see the diffrnace HA
ReplySeems like another foreign artists anti-american propaganda repackaged, as usual. Get a new angle, it is getting old, you think we are wasteful, we get it.
Reply