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<iframe src=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/movotoblog/2012/10/power/power.html” height=”831px” width=”580px” frameBorder=”0″ scrolling=”no” style=”overflow: hidden;”></iframe><br /><br> </br><a href=”https://www.movoto.com/blog/novelty-real-estate/power-with-pets/”>Animal House: Power Your Home With Pets</a> By <a href=”http://www.movoto.com”>Movoto Real Estate</a>

How much electricity does it take to run your home for a year? The answer depends on a number of different things. Mostly it comes down to how many appliances and gadgets are sapping juice from your electrical sockets.

The vast majority of Americans have their power supplied by utility companies. Nonetheless, there are those who go off the grid, turn to alternative energy, or combine the two.

In fact, finding ways to power your house by alternative means has been done before. A quick Internet search brings up a number of experiments.

Movoto Real Estate’s favorite example comes from across the pond. In 2009, “Bang Goes the Theory,” a Brit television show, filmed an episode centered on how many bicyclists it would take to power a house for a day.

There is also this example: The Green Microgym in Portland. The gym captures energy from cycling and other exercises, which is then channeled into the power outlets.

Nonetheless, the majority of experiments in this realm are centered on using people power to run small electronics such as an oscillating fan. The team at Movoto, however, wanted something more interesting. Our solution: Put our freeloading pets to work.

Power Your Pad With Man’s Best Friend

Recently, we looked at some of the nation’s most popular pets, and then calculated how much energy they would produce. We used this as a basis for figuring out how many pets it would take to power a house for a day.

Before we get to the reveal, we should note a few things. We calculated our pets running (and in one case flying) at a constant speed over a 24-hour period. We know this isn’t possible. If you’re a stickler, assume our no-longer freeloading pets are working in shifts.

So how many pets would it take to power your home for a day?

• Cats: It would take six cats running at full speed to power your house for a day.
• Dogs: It would take one greyhound running at top speed about 17 minutes to power your house.
• Hamsters: It would take 765 hamsters running at a reasonable 2 miles per hour to charge your house.
• Birds: It would take 1,105 canaries flying at a reasonable 15 miles per hour to charge your house.
• Lizards: It would take 31 Bearded Dragon lizards scurrying at about 25 miles per hour to power your house for a day.
• People: (not that we advocate having people for pets) It would take an average-sized male running for about 10 hours and 20 minutes to power a house.

How’d We Do It?

To figure out how to make the most of our freeloading pets, we needed to crack open some old high school physics books and contact some animal enthusiasts. To calculate the numbers, we needed to know three things:

• The weight of the animals, along with their speed
• The average amount of energy a home uses in a year
• How to calculate energy

It’s Electric

When it came time to figure out how much electricity a household uses in a year, we turned to the government. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2010 the average U.S. residential utility consumer uses 11,496-kilowatt hours of electricity a year, which averages out to 958-kilowatt hours per month. From here we were able to make an assumption for how much power a household uses in a given day.

We estimated that a home uses 32 kilowatts of power per 24 hour period. Of course, this number will fluctuate on a given day based on a person’s needs. If it’s the dead of summer or the middle of winter, prices might be higher.

This figure let us know how many pets we’d need to keep the lights on.

Animal Home

To calculate how much energy our usually loafing pets would produce we needed to know both their weight and how fast they could move. Instead of trying to figure out how fast they scurried to their dinner bowls, we turned to encyclopedia and informative websites.

Our find:

• Cats: The naturally spotted Egyptian Mau has been clocked running up to 36 miles per hour. We went with a less daunting 30 miles per hour and a weight of 3.8 pounds.
• Dogs: No dog is faster than a greyhound. We chose to use a 65-pound animal, making it about the average size (perhaps slightly heavier) of an adult male greyhound. These pooch sprinters can reach a speed of 39 miles per hour.
• Hamsters: Round and round they go. At .44 pounds these little critters can run upward of 6 miles an hour in short bursts. We chose to have our hamsters maintain a steady 2 miles per hour.
• Birds: We admit that there’s no feasible way to have your pet bird run on treadmill or exercise wheel. But we’re sure a clever person can find a way to harness the power of a 0.04-pound canary flying at a comfortable 15 miles per hour.
• Lizards: Considering the popularity of reptiles as household pets, we felt the need to include one in our calculations. Unsure of how to capture energy from a snake, we went with a lizard and chose the Bearded Dragon, which can run at an impressive 25 miles per hour.
• People: The average American male weighs about 195 pounds. While not an Olympic event, the record for the fastest mile was set in 1999 by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, who hot-footed to an astonishing 3:43.13. Of course, Morocco’s fast man was an athletic specimen. We cut our human generators down to a more reasonable 15 miles per hour.

How to Calculate Energy

Looking back at our high school physics classes, we wished we would have paid more attention. Thankfully, at least one of Movoto’s staff remembered the necessary steps to calculate how much work our pets (and our exercise-happy jogger) would create in a 24 hour period.

Work is measured in joules. Once we knew how many joules each pet could create we were able to convert these into kilowatts and watts per hour.

So next time you leave the lights on, consider how your dog feels.

The Movoto blog is a service of Movoto Real Estate. If you’re looking for a new home, keep us in mind. We have up-to-date real estate listings and local agents throughout the country. When you want to take a break from browsing homes, you can keep coming back to read awesome blog posts like this one.

The post Animal House: Power Your Home With Pets appeared first on Movoto Real Estate Blog.

Movoto is happy to announce that Mayuko Ikeda (she goes simply by “Mayu”), a Los Angeles based realtor, has joined their real estate team!

New to the industry, Mayu is full of energy and passion for real estate. She has long had an interest in real estate, and now that she’s turned it into a career says, “I feel like I have found a career I will be truly proud of.” Mayu welcomes the challenges that real estate will bring, and looks forward to the satisfaction of helping people find their new homes.

Joining Movoto was an easy decision for Mayu. She says, “Movoto technology seems to be leading the real estate industry in serving the new generation of clients.” She firmly believes in the benefits that technology brings to real estate, as “society is more and more reliant on technology.” Beyond the tech, Movoto agents are knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful to not only clients but their fellow agents, which Mayu felt very welcomed by.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Mayu has lived in Los Angeles since 2001 and is fluent in both English and Japanese. She has two small children and balances being a mother with being a wife and a businesswoman. Mayu has been surfing for almost 20 years, which gives her peace and helps her recharge at the same time. She also enjoys golfing in her spare time, with her husband who is a professional golfer.

The post Mayu Brings Her Passion to Movoto appeared first on Movoto Real Estate Blog.

In order to truly realize our goal of becoming the #1 brokerage in California and Nevada, we need the best agents on our side. That’s why we’re so excited to announce that JC Trujillo, formerly of RE/MAX, has joined our California brokerage team where he will lead a team of over 10 agents.

JC brings with him 15 years of experience in the Inland Empire market as both a mortgage lender and a real estate agent. This means his knowledge of real estate and the buying and selling process goes deeper. “From a business perspective, it has been very helpful to be a loan officer, since it helps me to understand the whole real estate transaction better,” he says.

JC immigrated to the US from Colombia 26 years ago and embarked on a successful marketing and sales career before switching to real estate. A marketer still at heart, he applies those skills to selling homes. “I like the copywriting and storytelling side of marketing, and I try for uniqueness and not being cookie cutter with every transaction.”

Movoto was the perfect fit for JC, who loves to take advantage of the latest in market research and client communication technology to ensure he’s getting his clients the best deal and keeping them informed at every step of the process. He enjoys staying at the cutting edge of the latest technology available to Realtors and utilizing these tools to create a more personal connection with his clients and colleagues.

As part of Movoto, we’re excited to bring our technology platform to JC, but above all, we’re eager to make his history of dedicated service and extensive knowledge of the Inland Empire available to our customers. His passion and know-how even inspired his son Charlie Trujillo to join the business, currently in a marketing and transaction support role, but soon as a Realtor himself. We’re happy to welcome JC and Charlie to the Movoto family!

The post Movoto Is Excited to Welcome JC Trujillo to the Inland Empire Team! appeared first on Movoto Real Estate Blog.

Movoto is happy to announce that Vahe Kirakosyan, a real estate agent based in Glendale, CA, has joined their team.

Vahe has long had a passion for real estate. From a young age, his father taught him the importance of real estate investments and ever since, his goal is to share that knowledge with his clients, help them through the challenging financial decision to buy or sell their home, and achieve their goals. Vahe deeply understands the importance of staying knowledgeable of the current real estate market and has the desire to spread this knowledge to the community.

Vahe specializes in residential properties, always stays on top of every detail of a deal, desires to provide a smooth and easy transaction for every client, and strives to meet their every need. His enthusiastic energy, dedication, creativity, and knowledge is an asset to each of his clients.

Of the different aspects of real estate, Vahe is most passionate about first-time homebuyers. He says “a one-time investment can make one’s entire life change once they become a property owner.” When someone buys a home for the first time, they’re making an important investment in themselves, their family, and their future. No longer are they paying their landlord or someone else’s mortgage, but start to build upon their investment. A family man himself, Vahe says, “that ownership eventually inherits to their children and the cycle is ongoing from generation to generation.”

Vahe first learned of Movoto while he was on a potential buy and met Artin, a fellow Movoto agent. Researching Movoto more, he was impressed by the work ethic, small office environment, and that everyone worked together as a team. “I strongly believe Movoto will enable me to utilize my skills in real estate to grow and make the breakthrough,” Vahe says. He also believes that utilizing today’s technology is a must in real estate, as it is “vital in marketing, meeting new clients, and overall establishing new connections.”

The post Vahe Kirakosyan Joins the Movoto Team appeared first on Movoto Real Estate Blog.

Movoto is happy to announce that it has joined forces with Yesenia Sanchez, a real estate agent based in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

Yesenia is a dedicated agent, with the goals of always providing her clients with the knowledge required to make an educated decision when it comes to home buying. She has over 20 years of experience in the industry, both in lending and real estate. Yesenia understands that for homebuyers, it is not only a monetary investment but an investment for in themselves and their family. With this in mind, she always put the needs, thoughts, and feelings of her clients first and always thinks with their best interest in mind.

Yesenia often thinks back to when her parents bought their first home when she was 12 years old. Although buying a home was a dream come true for them, after the deal was closed issues had started to pop up. They discovered things the realtor failed to disclose and the lender had failed to provide the details of the financing. Neither party was heard from again. Due to this, Yesenia tells her clients “my services to you do no end when the transaction ends, my services are forever”.

Joining Movoto was a perfect fit for Yesenia. After hearing about Movoto from another agent and business partner, she realized that Movoto’s vision and philosophy was one she believed in 100%. With Movoto, Yesenia say “I expect to utilize today’s technology without losing human connections”. She also hopes to build her own team of realtors and open a Movoto office in or near Rancho Cucamonga.

The post Real Estate Agent Yesenia Sanchez Joins the Movoto Team appeared first on Movoto Real Estate Blog.