Power Vampires

[arneson]

It's an interesting new way to look at everything that needlessly draws current wether your using it or not.
There is an interesting new mandate comming that will require power bricks to manage thier stand by power better.
I have a lot of power bricks in every room.
I remember this discusion has been brought up previously but I have a new twist on it.
We recently left the house for vacation.
I shut things off, first the water, then some breakers.
The house seemed oddly quiet, and dark.
My question here is:
What if I were to every night turn off, the fridge, the water heater, and all unused rooms.
Leaving on only the Air and a clock.
I retire at about one in the morning and the wife gets up at six, so it would only be for a short time.
To go further I suppose I could work out a full house power management system that would automate the devices and times.
But for now, what's the down side of switching my house off at night?

[kikkoman]

Re: Power Vampires

good idea, basically.
one problem might be the fact that some devices will lose their settings. (VCRs etc... even our microwave and oven at home have clocks).
you'll have to try out how long your fridge keeps things cold without power. won't be very long during the summer, but maybe over night is okay.

[arneson]

Re: Power Vampires

Maybe not such a great idea afterall.
Self inflickted power failure every night would cause problems.
I'm just really pissed off about Florida power and lights rate hike of 16% they just announced.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Power Vampires

Rate Hike! I live in Baltimore City, Maryland. BG&E hit us with a 75% rate hike last year! Being that as a Millwright I have worked in most of the local power Plants, and I know that they are Coal fired. Whats up with this crap? Does coal now cost $147.00 a barrel like crude oil? We do have a few Jet powered Peaking Plants in the City. Most of the time these Peaking Plant only fire for 20 minutes to and hour at a time. They come online to boost the grid in brown out situations. Does it cost that much to fill their JP5 tanks now? I think not! If it were legal I would disconnect from the grid and run my own gererator. Hell it can't cost anymore than what BG&E is charging me now.

[arneson]

Re: Power Vampires

Just like not being able to jump in the car and go any time any where,
people are cutting back.
I always keep a couple spare propane tanks and we will be cooking outside more and using the electric range less.
I'm determined to knock my KWH down, so I'll be litening my load one way or another.
The water heater is already timed to not turn on at night.
Unfortunately my left on computers will have to turn off,
meaning my folding team days are over, sorry guys.

[andrew77]

Re: Power Vampires

What is your price per KWH?

The bill here was $150 a couple months ago and they said the average was $0.14 per KWH. Last months bill was like $400 and still it said the average was $0.14 per KWH.

I don't quite understand what could be using so much power. I have one of those Kill A Watt meters and I've checked up on some stuff around the house. My PC uses 150 watts idling and 280 watts while I'm playing games. It's an AMD X2 6000 and my video card is a 3870. So I know it uses a little bit of power. But at $0.14 per KWH that comes out to 16 hours a day, 30 days a month, and if it's idling the whole time 72 KWH. That's only $10 a month. If it were running full blast the price would be about double. I put my machine in standby every night when I go to bed and it only uses like 3 watts. I think it's worth it to me to be able to turn on my computer and not have to wait like 3 minutes for Windows Xp to load.

There's a freezer here that uses 80 watts and doesn't run all the time. Our refrigerator uses 350 watts and runs every single second of every day. I've noticed all the little wall warts always use power even if nothing is plugged into them. Only the ones that have switching power supplies don't use any power when not powering another device.

My UPS uses 23 watts when everything is off, probably uses that much charging the batteries.

I can only imagine that the air conditioner is what is using all the power, but I have no idea how much it's using. Would 3000 watts be right? It runs about every 20 minutes or so and the thermostat is set for 81F.

For some reason the amount of power that we're being billed for doesn't seem to add up to the rate that they are charging. This especially doesn't make sense since I really don't think there was a difference in the amount of power used between the two bills.

[dood]

Re: Power Vampires

hmm... your fridge runs 24/7? Mine sure doesn't...

When the a/c is on, I keep my house at 70... I can't imagine putting up with 81 and calling it "air conditioned"

Now, what size is your house? Mine's only a little over 1000sqft.

[andrew77]

Re: Power Vampires

The fridge was made like 20 years ago and needs to be replaced, but it's still working so my Dad isn't going to get rid of it yet.

Not real sure what the square footage of this house is. The garage has been converted into two rooms so, maybe about 1600?

The water heater is gas powered, the furnace is gas powered, but it doesn't get used. The dryer and stove is gas powered also. The TV is a 61" JVC and it uses like 200 watts.

[dood]

Re: Power Vampires

my electric bill this past month was under $50... That's for stove, which I rarely use; lights, which are CFL's; and A/C, which is 3 window units in a very inefficient/leaky house. Oh, and my one computer, of course... which I turn off during the day when I'm not here.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Power Vampires

I wish I had a newer house! My place is a four bedroom two story farm house type place. When the wind blows outside it blows inside too! Our Stove, hot water heater, and furnace all use natural gas. All the other junk is electric. A $400.00 plus bill is the norm. Now I think our list of thiing that are on 24/7 is to long. It amounts to 2 TV's, 2 60 watt lights, 2 freezers, 1 fridge, 1 PC, 1 hot water heater, and 3 window A/C units. Oh and there are two racks A/V equipment powered up but on stand by most of the time. I don't know why I leave the A/V stuff plugged in. We almost never use it. I should sell it and get a killer Laptop....

[Logistics]

Re: Power Vampires

In my area, PG&E charges you an average, not your per-month usage. It's calculated over time. Sometimes it is good to call them up and just chat with them about it because you'll often be suffering from an average where billing from the previous tennant is being taken into consideration, and you don't want that if they were using tons of power because it makes your bill higher.

[arneson]

Re: Power Vampires

The power company just offered us some payment averaging program
as a convenience
I prefer they read the meter and charge just what I use.
At least I feel I know whats going on that way.
I'll have to locate the last bill to see what the charge was.
The Germans are going full steam towards solar, I'm hoping they will drop the panel cost and make it affordable.

[starfury1]

Re: Power Vampires

Yeah same here up goes the price...and even more so since Rudd signed that agreement on trading carbon emissions (whatever)
I think the US still hasn't
(defiantly an idea made by "not the sharpest tools in the shed" from what I understand of how it works...greener technologies is were we should be going and ASAP too

OK Rant over

Regardless I think the question is a very valid one

OK can turning things off save power etc, well I suppose it depend on how much is being used really and how much restating something is going to cost.

Like a fridge ok you turn it off...how far is the temp going to rise over night and how
much energy wise is it going to take to re cool down to temp
(also, consider food temp is another aspect)

So I guess for a fridge there is a flywheel effect
if its cold and only trips on to just cool a little then off then I dont think its going to take that much (except maybe the startup)
also over night a fridge remains closed (mostly except for midnight raiders )

So I think it shouldn't take much anyway.

On the other Hand an AC unit is going to chew a lot more power then a fridge
so if you looking to save power that would be one thing to use sparingly

Also now these are quite common were as a few years ago a lot of people (well here anyway) didn't have them

So in a way we have just traded gas guzzling cars for coal power guzzling Aircons LOL

I should mention that (I dont know about now) but my understanding was that in the old days, why you got off peak power rates was really so they could keep a more even load on the Generators.

So everyones Hotwater system turning on at night would go to being towards a peak power usage of the day load and it would be more even over the 24 hr period

Again I dont know how much truth is in that one but thats what I was told a few (many) years ago

Collectively I suppose a zillion wall warts consuming a smidgen of power is going to add a bit, but how much in the over all scheme of things really?
(there has been discussion on this in oz)

So I think really to save anything worth while on a power bill you really need to look at the coal (power) guzzlers in appliances like toasters stoves hotwater system electric heater kettle and AC units.

but sure if not in use turn it off, like don't have you house lit like a Christmas tree has got to save a little bit.

Just my thoughts on it and yeah it is a good question, if not for the environment at lest for our hip pocket...maybe thats the method in the madness...hit us were it hurts so we will use less

Side point
Just here in Aust we have had the same sort of thing with water....prices have gone up a lot so it used sparingly
(not to mention laws on use and restrictions we have been under)
Because we have had very little useful rain for a long time
drought, I guess a lot of USA farmers know that story too and have the own tails to tell


Cheers