This little beauty has appeared in the First Floor of Old Kenyon this year. It appears to be a part of Kenyon. Energy. You. (I still maintain there are better names for the program, but that’s not relevant). When first discovering the iPad, a few thoughts came to mind:
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Well of course they should put an iPad in Old Kenyon. It’s not like it’s a dorm that people party in or anything. And college students never destroy anything. Especially when “anything” includes a $500 piece of technology mounted on the wall of their dorm by nothing more than a little metal and some screws.
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It makes complete sense to spend $500+ on this. Obviously, every student will stop by on their way back from class to check their energy usage.
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The giant screen in Peirce is just so great and heavily used that there is no other choice but get another one!
Seriously though, we aren’t too sure what the College was thinking when they decided to put this in. Personally, I give it until the end of the month before they either remove it or someone vandalizes it. Also, I tried using it: it barely works. Only half of the buttons do what they say they’re for, and none of the pictures fully load. And we all know there are better uses for our tuition dollars.
This is all that keeps the iPad connected to the wall.
The Kenyon Thrill 
not to mention that both the iPad and the big ass screen in Peirce both use unnecessary energy…
lots of it…
The screen really doesn’t though. I’m not sure about the iPad (it probably uses more), but there are TVs now that use no more energy than a light bulb (plenty of examples can be found via google). Plus, standard HD TVs now only use around $6-7 worth of electricity in a straight month of usage.
The idea is to show you how much energy you’re using in real time. If that feedback makes you use less energy–thereby reducing overall energy usage and money spent–would you say that makes the touch screens worth their initial investment in terms of both money and energy?
Well, there’s an answer to this. If the energy saved would have cost more than ~$500, good job Kenyon! If not, well, we can debate how much of a premium to pay because we like polar bears and coastal cities existing, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say any amount less is worth $500.
I’d bet they bought it so they can advertise it. The $500 investment will likely become part of their whole green campaign.
seriously, someone is going to vandalize this this weekend.. the school should take it down. it is somewhat ironic that it’s showing us our energy usage but this ipad is wasting energy in old k
“The analysis shows that each model of the iPad consumes less than 12 kWh of elelctricity over the course of a year, based on a full charge every other day. By comparison, a plasma 42” television consumes 358 kWh of electricity a year.” – several sources, google it and pick one
the whole thing’s a little silly – but still, i’m hoping no one vandalizes it…
Well it does make energy use statistics more visible and accessible. Is there a webpage where I can look at the same information using a web browser?
yes, it is a mobile site… http://kenyonkey.com/