Slog
News & ArtsMonday, June 11, 2012
City / Life Power to the People: Where to Snag Free Electricity for Your Phone, Laptop, and More
Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:50 AM
- Matt Fikse
- At the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial Park at Martin Luther King Way and South Walker.
Our mission to map the city's best spots for power mooching has so far taken us to 6th Avenue, Cal Anderson Park, and Woodland Park. Today, another park: Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park, where, according to power tipper Matt Fikse:
If you check the ends of the big concrete bermy things, where people sit, you can find some outdoor receptacles and fire up your laptop, watch the fountain, sunset and view of the Seattle skyline.... or just recharge your iPhone.
Send your power tips to powertothepeople@thestranger.com and we'll add them to the map.
Power to the people!
1
Lets see if I can do the math in my head (and get some basic assumptions correct along the way).
You damn mooching hippies plug in your laptop for an hour, drawing five watts. At typical city rates... you moochers stole almost a penny's worth of someone's electricity! Goddamn moochers! Now get off my lawn!
You damn mooching hippies plug in your laptop for an hour, drawing five watts. At typical city rates... you moochers stole almost a penny's worth of someone's electricity! Goddamn moochers! Now get off my lawn!
3
Oh, and assuming this 'find the free outlets' thing takes off, why, there could be up to twenty or twenty-five people doing this a day! That twenty-five cents will bankrupt our fair city faster than A. Birch Steen is spinning in his grave!
4
I use city electricity everytime I walk under a street lamp. In order to pay for the outlet power I use, I will. Walk under 5 fewer street lamps each week. And wait - what? A. BIRCH STEEN IS DEAD?!
5
I'm more worried about the mooching hippies all going for these outlets and fighting. A store with a cafe in Seattle in a chain of stores that shall not be named regularly had fights break out because people wanted to plug their laptops.
6
Just use the external outlets on most large buildings, or the ones in hallways and large rooms for cleaning equipment.
7
While Dr Awesome's math seems sound, the reality is that the electrical power in question isn't "free". I highly doubt any of the accessible outlets you are finding were put there for your convenience - they were put there by the properties in question for other reasons.
Basically the electricity you are trumpeting as "free" is in fact "stolen".
I guess it feels good to steal something small now and then, but don't kid yourself about what you're doing.
Basically the electricity you are trumpeting as "free" is in fact "stolen".
I guess it feels good to steal something small now and then, but don't kid yourself about what you're doing.
10
What starts out as a noble gesture to allow people free access to things will eventually become abused to the point that it's ruined for everyone.
The tragedy of the commons.
We, humans, are incapable of restraining our selfishness. We ruin everything we touch.
The tragedy of the commons.
We, humans, are incapable of restraining our selfishness. We ruin everything we touch.
11
If the city can meter parking spots, they can meter an outlet. People seek the free where there is no convenient pay option. Cabs should offer metered 110v as well, they'd make a killing.
14
Enough people start using those things, and the city's response will be to put locks on them, wasting money and ruining an otherwise good thing.
17
@1 - Considering commercial/industrial/institutional "general service" rates in the $.05/kwh ballpark, a typical laptop drawing under 20 watts will "steal" something on the order of $1 per 1,000 hours of plug-in time.
18
@17, thank you.
Dear Mooching Hippies, please begin mailing your dollars to me now.
Dr. Awesome (Ret.)
Lazy Sunday Nursing Home
Ste 304
Seattle, 98104
I will see that they get properly disbursed to the city.
Dear Mooching Hippies, please begin mailing your dollars to me now.
Dr. Awesome (Ret.)
Lazy Sunday Nursing Home
Ste 304
Seattle, 98104
I will see that they get properly disbursed to the city.
20
@6 You never fail.
You may notice that the outlets in the large rooms and hallways have a different kind of plug, specifically for high current equipment. You couldn't & shouldn't plug your laptop or iPhone into one of those. In fact, messing with a 220 socket is great way to end up dead.
You may notice that the outlets in the large rooms and hallways have a different kind of plug, specifically for high current equipment. You couldn't & shouldn't plug your laptop or iPhone into one of those. In fact, messing with a 220 socket is great way to end up dead.
21
@6: Commenter no. 20 is lying. Those special outlets are *safer* than regular outlets. Why, you can even stick a fork or a knife in one and you will not be harmed. Try it!
23
@20/21: While cheerfully stipulating that Will is a tool, I'll add that it is easy to visually confuse NEMA 5-20 (120V/20A) and NEMA 6-20 (240V/20A) receptacles, because they both have sideways-T openings on the left. A 120V/20A device, like a floor buffer, will have a PLUG with a horizontal blade on the right (looking face-on at the plug) that goes into the horizontal part of the sideways-T opening on the left of a 120V/20A receptacle. That receptacle will also accept a "normal" 115V/15A (NEMA 5-15) plug with two vertical blades.
The 240V receptacles like the NEMA 6-20 (and the NEMA 6-15 as well, which has two horizontal slots) will only take a horizontal blade on their right side (left side of the plug looking face-on), so there's no danger of accidentally plugging a 120V device into 240V power.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co…
The 240V receptacles like the NEMA 6-20 (and the NEMA 6-15 as well, which has two horizontal slots) will only take a horizontal blade on their right side (left side of the plug looking face-on), so there's no danger of accidentally plugging a 120V device into 240V power.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co…
25
@11: I doubt the city would do this, because installing/maintaining the equipment and billing/metering would cost more than the meager charges for the electricity. I take it not too many people use these outlets, and it would have to be a lot for it to generate any money. Unless the city were to jack up the rates signficantly to use these outlets. Maybe a permit system?
But now the city will have to waste a ton of money locking up/disabling these sockets so screwballs will not go plug a TV, router, and xbox into them and hang out all day, now that they have been popularized here.
Also, stop calling it "free." Something is not free because YOU don't pay for it, but use it anyway, or if the cost is spread over a lot of people.
But now the city will have to waste a ton of money locking up/disabling these sockets so screwballs will not go plug a TV, router, and xbox into them and hang out all day, now that they have been popularized here.
Also, stop calling it "free." Something is not free because YOU don't pay for it, but use it anyway, or if the cost is spread over a lot of people.
26
somone should grab all the strangers from their 'free' news boxes and throw them in the recycling. hey, its free afterall.
i like the stranger, but this post is stoooopid. doesnt the blog have an editor?
i like the stranger, but this post is stoooopid. doesnt the blog have an editor?
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