By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Turn off the lights, or the plant gets it.
A daring new science experiment has a network of potted plants running home appliances across New York.
The plants, distributed to about a dozen homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, are being attached to fans, radios and lamps. Participants are forced to reduce their carbon footprint when using these appliances, or risk killing someone else's plant in the experiment if their emissions are too high.
If a participant uses more energy running the appliance than a plant can absorb, someone else's greenery is randomly selected to receive an injection of vinegar, leading to a sure death.
Usman Haque, a London-based architect who came up with the experiment dubbed Natural Fuse, said the idea was to teach people to be conscientious of more than just their own environment.
"People are fundamentally good when we are confronted with something like climate change," said Haque.
"The reason we don't act upon it is that we don't totally comprehend what effect each of us have on the bigger picture, or what effect we have on our neighbors."
Each participant is given a box with three plants. On the side of the box is a power socket that can be hooked up to small appliances.
The plants' box monitors the electricity used by the appliance. The goal is for the participant to use only the amount of electicity offset by the plant.
For example, the emissions from running a light for a few seconds will likely be aborbed by the plant, and you won't be borrowing energy from others in the network.
Once you surpass "carbon neutrality," and borrow energy excessively from other plants the network, there's a penalty. The network will choose a random plant and kill it.
"The point is to stay carbon neutral," Haque explained. "It's like when there's a 50 watt fuse in your wall socket and if you use 100 watts, you'll blow the fuse. Instead of measuring the power in watts, we look at the carbon footprint of the power and the carbon sinking capacity of the plant."
If a participant uses too much energy once or twice, he or she will receive an e-mail warning. The third time, a lethal injection of vinegar is released into the plant's soil.
"It literally sends a kill switch to someone else's plant," Haque explained.
Mark Shepard, assistant professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo and curator at the Architectural League of New York, set up his plants on the windowsill of his Brooklyn home and hooked them up to a desk lamp.
He used the lamp sparingly. But on Oct. 10, he received an e-mail that his plants were threatened, and provided the offender's e-mail address.
"I sent her an e-mail and told her to 'watch it'," he said. "She wrote back right away, apologizing and promising to be more careful."
Participants can control how much energy they use by switching a dial on the box from "selfless" to "selfish."
When "selfless," your appliance will be powered only when there's enough collective energy. When "selfish," it will be powered for as long as you want, but at the risk of killing someone else's plant.
"Chances are when you want to switch on a lamp there will be four other people not using electricity at that moment." Haque said. "You can offset your carbon footprint by borrowing electricity from other people."
