The electric company sends me colorful
reports on my monthly energy habits. A recent one rated me "above
average" in electricity use compared with my supposedly more extravagant
neighbors. I'm usually "average."
I would have basked in such praise were it not for this pertinent fact: I wasn't home that month.
Thus, I had not flicked a single light
switch, touched the microwave or even recharged a cellphone in the
period being monitored. The only things driving up my kilowatt-hours
were the automatic-drive appliances — the refrigerator, the cable box,
the digital clocks. How come I didn't qualify as "well above average"? I
have no idea.
This is an especially primitive example
of computers crunching personal data into faulty conclusions. And seeing
as judgments are being made, shouldn't the utility factor in the number
of people residing in each house? If a family of six lived next door
and used twice as much electricity as I do, I'd consider the neighbors
thriftier than I.
