Electrical Consumption - Measuring my stuff

[mikester]

So, I am in Socal and Socal Edison (SCE) has a pretty nifty website that shows you fairly detailed statistics of your electrical consumption. It gets down to hourly usage and they store a pretty good amount of back data. Having been an ISP capacity planner in the past I can appreciate what they are doing.

Our consumption seems way high though so I have started measuring. I purchased a 'kill-a-watt' a while back because I was concerned about how much electricity I needed for my lab. So I had the thing and I started with my forced air heating unit yesterday. I measured for 24 hours and it use 2.53 kW hours. The total for yesterday's usage based on SCE's site was about 30 kW hours (which seems astronomical to me). I expected the air unit to be a larger percentage than it was, especially since it needs the air filter replaced badly (had to order it on line cause it is an odd size). Once I replace the filter I'm going to measure again just to see what the difference is in those states.

Today I put the meter on my entertainment devices - mainly the TIVO which I suspect will have a pretty decent consumption. It has spinning disks and everything and doesn't really 'sleep' even when the TV is off. It's always going - it'll be sad if it is the one of the worst offenders because I do love that thing. I expect that it will be...

I have a small freezer, a large refrigerator/freezer, a washer/dryer combo and the dish washer from a large appliance perspective. I have a few computers around the house but they are lower consumption types and not on 100% of the time.

The Tivo I suspect I could upgrade to an SSD internal drive pretty easily enough but it'll cost a bunch to do that and maintain the capacity I like.

Anyone else do this sort of thing? My new year's resolution was to make the house more energy efficient. Now I have to hunt vampires.

[RWebb]

I've done it - our library has the clamp around meters and you can check them out.

How many dozens of wall warts do you have?

[ckelly78z]

Everything that has a memory is a ghost load. I think the only way to eliminate these ghost loads that constantly use a small bit of power is to unplug them.

Upgrade gradually from incandescent bulbs to compact floresent bulbs in all your fixtures and only use lights in the room where you are. I have seen so many houses that are lit up like Christmas trees at all hours of the night, I would hate to see the electrical bill.

[pen15]

I am working on the same thing, hot water is my biggest culprit that I didn't think about. I tested the dvr, keurig, and garage refrigerator hoping to find a big usage but all were very low like only a few dollars a month. I average just over 100 kwh per day in Washington with a 2500 sq ft house with a heat pump. I spent $1000 on led lighting with no noticeable drop in consumption. We bought a toaster oven to bake small things in and I hope that helps. I think heat pump, hot water, and clothes dryer are the biggest users.

[Scott Douglas]

Got a link to that web site?
I'd like to know what our new last year hvac system is using.

[mikester]

SCE - Home

[MBAtarga]

If you want to get fully absorbed in determining your energy consumption - check out this thread over on Garage Journal:

Energy Monitoring - The Garage Journal Board

[red-beard]

Mike, using 100kWh/hr seems very low for a heating unit. Are you sure you are measuring all of the energy used? Sounds more like the energy used for the fans.

30 kWh per day would be about 1200 watts per hour on average. 900 kWh per month would cost me about $80/per month. My winter bill runs about 180! Of course we still run some air conditioning even in the winter.

You have an electric oven, dishwasher, microwave oven, coffee maker, electric lights, TV(s), computers and of course heating and cooling. You will be surprised what power some of these things use!

[mikester]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Mike, using 100kWh/hr seems very low for a heating unit. Are you sure you are measuring all of the energy used? Sounds more like the energy used for the fans.

30 kWh per day would be about 1200 watts per hour on average. 900 kWh per month would cost me about $80/per month. My winter bill runs about 180! Of course we still run some air conditioning even in the winter.

You have an electric oven, dishwasher, microwave oven, coffee maker, electric lights, TV(s), computers and of course heating and cooling. You will be surprised what power some of these things use!

It's a gas unit so all the electricity is used for is the fans and the control unit and what not.

[red-beard]

OK, that would make sense, maybe a 1/8th HP motor for the fan. Again, 30 kWh per day doesn't seems in the ball park. 30kWh per day would be equal to 12 x 100 watt light bulbs left on, all day long.

Put the kill-a-watt unit on the Refrigerator. I bet that, the TV and the computers are your primary energy users. I should replace my plasma. It sucks energy.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by red-beard

OK, that would make sense, maybe a 1/8th HP motor for the fan. Again, 30 kWh per day doesn't seems in the ball park. 30kWh per day would be equal to 12 x 100 watt light bulbs left on, all day long.

Put the kill-a-watt unit on the Refrigerator. I bet that, the TV and the computers are your primary energy users. I should replace my plasma. It sucks energy.

Well, I do have kids who roam aimlessly through the house turning on all the lights as they walk by the switches.

I swear, I spend half my day turning lights off and listening to my wife tell me I left lights on.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by mikester

Well, I do have kids who roam aimlessly through the house turning on all the lights as they walk by the switches.

I swear, I spend half my day turning lights off and listening to my wife tell me I left lights on.

Now you know what your dad felt like...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Is it even possible to recoup the cost of one of those "kill-a-watt" things with savings due to reduced usage of whatever's plugged into them? The cheapest I've seen is about $30 - it'd take a LONG period of time having a light or whatever shut off to save $30, even in higher cost-per-kW states like CA...

Just curious. I like the idea but suspect the pricing makes them ultimately a foolish investment - just unplug anything with a transformer / charger and shut stuff like lights off when not using. Seems to work ok for me...

[KaptKaos]

Mike - we need to talk about this. I am getting hammered on electrical. I am amazed at the cost.

[mikester]

Some of us find value in knowledge. If I can find a more precise answer to our $150-$200 a month electrical bill - I'll take it.

If I can use that knowledge to make things more efficient for a better on going savings that so much the better.

The reality: Lets say I spend $40 on two light switches with timers for my front bathroom. The one that my boys turn on both lights and the fan every time they enter and leave on. How long will $20-$40 in power conserving switches take to actually save me money on the investment? Probably a year or two. Will I feel better immediately? Tes. I'll put one in my garage too, I leave those lights on all the time.

So, you're right of course that the investment in a tool plus the investment in the efficiency devices themselves take a long time to recoup even if they don't really cost that much. Those aren't what I'm looking for though. I'm looking for the gross polluters in my house. I want to find out which devices are the worst, measure, quantify and decide what to do if anything about it.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

Mike - we need to talk about this. I am getting hammered on electrical. I am amazed at the cost.

Yeah, I feel like that too. It seems over the last few years the rates have really been increasing though our actual usage has been fairly consistent I think.

[red-beard]

It is the structure and regulations in California. And it is getting worse. You now have a carbon tax and credit system.

Oh, and it might be time to put in a few solar panels on the roof.

[VincentVega]

30 kWh per day

That's was just about what I used last month. Electric range, water heater, heat pump, hot tub... I'm not sure the exact cutover point but the oil heat kicks on when the temp drops. They just installed 'smart meters' here but it looks like it'll be a few months before the monitoring software is available.

I'm in the process of adding more insulation to the attic but would really like to figure out where the bulk of my usage is. Sure wish we had Tx power rates here.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by mikester

. Those aren't what I'm looking for though. I'm looking for the gross polluters in my house. I want to find out which devices are the worst, measure, quantify and decide what to do if anything about it.

I know what the gross polluters in my house are, I have a 14 year old son, a 19 year old daughter and her 20 year old boyfriend (live-in, bad situation at his own home) that all seem to take an hour long shower with all the lights, and a space heater on every day of the week. I am constantly turning off lights and TVs no one is watching, shutting outside doors, and shaking my head at all the electronics chargers plugged in.

My electric bill will most certainly drop by half with an empty nest.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

Sure wish we had Tx power rates here.

Most of that is the regulations you live under. And it will get worse as the coal fired plants shut down. California is crazy because they subsidize the production of solar and then foist the high costs on everyone not using solar. Anyone in California without at least a dozen panels on the roof is crazy.