The POWERs That Be (4): No Pun Intended Consequences
It's been 10 days and TED and I have been hard at work analyzing exactly where my electricity is going. We have a system: I set up the experiment, and TED reads the power usage. We've collected a lot of data, and I can already tell that I'm saving in places I would never have expected.Who knew that ...
...the light bulb inside of my microwave uses 35W?
...the two light bulbs inside the refrigerator use 80W? -- That's more than half what the entire refrigerator uses while cooling!
...the cordless phone uses 5W even when you're not using it?
...a PC and CRT monitor and some peripherals use 10W while turned off?
Or that...
...the water heater uses 5300W when it's running (maybe an hour a day)?
...the HVAC uses 2700W each time it comes on?
...the clothes drier uses 5800W when it's running?
...the refrigerator uses only 125W when it's on? -- When left closed, its cycle is 10 minutes on, and 20 minutes off.
Just as I was surprised by how many light bulbs I have, I was amazed by how many things are plugged in and sucking power. "Idle Power" is the amount of power being used when the house is at rest. Everything is off, but the power meter is still turning. When I first got TED, my idle power was about 170W. Now I'm able to keep it at 90W because I leave things I never use unplugged.
By reducing my idle power, I'm saving 80W a day for 24hrs/day for 30 days/month at ~$0.10 per kWH. Let's use just 90% of that number because every now and then I do actually turn some of that stuff on. That's $5.18 monthly savings, or about 5% of my power bill. Adding that to the 5.5% I saved by switching to CFL bulbs, I've now saved a total of 10.5%. Yeah!
Disclaimer: I'm really not this cheap. In my own strange way, I think this is fun. I enjoy the challenge of crunching the numbers and understanding where my money is going. And, who wouldn't want to reduce their power bill, or any other bill? All winter local TV news has reported on energy customers being upset and complaining to their utilities about how high their bill was. I say, quit complaining and do something about it. You're the one who turned on the light switch. As with everything in life, there are consequences. Understand them and decide accordingly. ...If only Tiger Woods had read this a few years ago. Now there's a man who's had a lesson in consequences!
Posted by Jason Duncan at March 17, 2010 7:41 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: power energy idle power
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: power energy idle power
I never thought about my fridge's light. I always thought that a digital LED clock on every appliance was a waste...even if it was a very minuscule waste at that. Those tiny number obviously add up exponentially over long expanses of time and with the hundreds of millions of people. I try to keep my unused items unplugged for the most part. I switched over to CFL bulbs a few years back...it was not necessary for the environmental footprint, it was for the durability and savings of the bulb.
Cannot see something in the middle of the day, open the blinds. Open windows in the morning to catch the cool air of the morning...etc, etc, etc
I think these ideas need to be more commonplace. I found it ridiculous that the idea of checking tire pressure was scoffed at a few years ago. It is an excellent recommendation, just like making sure your vehicle is running well. Unfortunately we cannot make the assumption of common sense.
I am sure this blog will make a lot of people sit up and realize why their electrical bills are high even though they don't use much power! It was such a eye opener - even I didn't realize we could unknowingly be consume so much power when we keep our gadgets plugged in!! As rightly suggested, it is high time we stopped complaining and do something about bringing down our electricity bill and now we know where to start, thanks to this blog!!
I agree with Mister Quik. All those times that we think turning off lights and electronics will save us energy, we forget about the things that constantly run.