Weekly Electricity Analysis

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OneWorld111
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Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by OneWorld111 »

Hello:

We get weekly email about our electricity consumption. We live in townhome built in 2004 and we moved about a year ago.

Breakdown of electricty for past week:
Base usage- 10%, Usage- 20 kWh
Refrigerator- 6%, Usage- 11.5 kWh
Heating & Colling- 20%, Usage- 42 kWh

Other- 65%, Usage- 136 kWh

So, total is 100%.

What I dont understand is what is considered Other as it is major chunk of the electricity usage even higher than heating and cooling + Refrigerator combined?

If I want to control my costs during summer, I need to figure this out...

Thanks in advance,
energy2338
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SteveNet
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by SteveNet »

How do you heat water? an electric HW heater 50 gal will use aprox $500 per yr. or about 94 kwh per week with 'average use'.
A modern average refrigerator uses about $35 per yr.
Heating and cooling, depends on usage, location and time of year and equipment.
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livesoft
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by livesoft »

I'm looking at our April 2013 electric bill. For that month we averaged 13.5 kWh per day or under 95 kWh/week. This is for a 3000+ sq ft McMansion.

Maybe "Other" is your neighbor tapped into your meter?

Electric oven, stove, toaster?
Last edited by livesoft on Wed May 08, 2013 1:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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HornedToad
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by HornedToad »

Do you have a central fan that you run? We recently released that the fan uses TONS of electricity and was giving us a very high bill. Adding heat or air conditioner to the fan was only incrementally more than the fan itself.

I would start experimenting with your appliances daily and see what has an effect.
Mudpuppy
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Mudpuppy »

Just curious, how does this weekly email determine the electrical usage of the appliances listed? If they are not smart appliances (and likely they are not), then the base usage and appliance usage is probably the "typical" usage for your area, which I have found to be anything but typical when PG&E sends me similar monthly reports. It's almost like they use statewide numbers when CA is really a patchwork of micro-climates, each with different heating and cooling needs.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by pjstack »

An astonishing amount of electricity is from "vampire" drains. Your TV isn't really "off" when you turn it off because there is a tiny trickle going to it so that you get "instant on" when you hit the remote "on" button.

The same with computers and accessories, all those little transformer plugs you have plugged in to your power strip(s). I bought one of those "KillaWatt" gizmos that plug into the outlet (and then you plug your power strip into it) and my computer (plus printer, etc.) was pulling about 18 watts even when everything was "off". All those little transformer plugs add up.
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Oilburner
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Oilburner »

Most of the "Other" is probably resistance heating: Do you have an electric stove, clothes drier, and/or hot water heater? If so, that is where probably 80 % of the "other" use is. The hot water heater will be the biggest consumer of the three.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by sunnyday »

Lighting takes up a lot of energy. Have you switched to energy efficient bulbs?

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/lighting.html
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mike143
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by mike143 »

I am curious how they are getting this break out. Call the provider, I am intrigued.
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Sidney
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Sidney »

I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump. I asked around the neighborhood. Everyone got the same letter.

Round file.
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mike143
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by mike143 »

Sidney wrote:I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump.
I have that with FPL (Florida Power and Light). I get at $9 a month credit on cooling months. I have never noticed it going into effect.

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OneWorld111
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by OneWorld111 »

Have you switched to energy efficient bulbs?
Yes, this is the first thing we did.. Other than restrooms everywhere we have EE bulbs.
Do you have an electric stove, clothes drier, and/or hot water heater?
Gas stove, electric clothes drier and hot water heater, this ones runs on gas
Do you have a central fan that you run?
No central fan
I'm looking at our April 2013 electric bill. For that month we averaged 13.5 kWh per day or under 95 kWh/week. This is for a 3000+ sq ft McMansion.
Ours is only 2200 sq ft (townhome) and average consumption was 210 kWh/week!! Nothing to be proud of..
How do you heat water?
It seems to be run on gas

One more thing the email also says, efficient neighbor uses 92, average neighbor uses 170 and I ! used 210 kW/h in last week. :oops:

Will check with electricity provider on the break-up and follow-up.

Thanks,
energy2338
Sidney
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Sidney »

Your provider may be running the same "scam". It isn't likely that my neighborhood is a reverse Pleasantville where all the people are worse than average.
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magellan
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by magellan »

mike143 wrote:
Sidney wrote:I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump.
I have that with FPL (Florida Power and Light). I get at $9 a month credit on cooling months. I have never noticed it going into effect.
These arrangements are really smart because the power grid has to be sized to serve the peak demand on the hottest summer day. The cost of supplying the last 5-10% of demand during peak load is 5-10x the low-demand cost. When you consider just the capital cost for a new power plant or transmission line that's only needed 5% of the time, you can get an idea of scope of the inefficiency.

Within the last few years, grid planners realized that as much as 20% of the load during peak times was not time-critical and customers would be ok if some loads were shut down for an hour or two. The key was to get the incentives right.

At first, utilities installed real-time demand management equipment at large industrial and commercial customer locations. The results were better than predicted and now utilities are moving down the chain to high draw residential loads.

Obviously, the complexity of demand-managing millions of small loads will ultimately result in diminishing returns. I do worry about some crazy-complex smart grid proposals to control every TV, refrigerator, and wine cooler in every home. OTOH, for large loads like AC, heating, and maybe even electric dryers, it makes sense. I think this combined with mandatory time-of-use pricing should capture the bulk of the savings that's available.

Jim
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BolderBoy
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by BolderBoy »

HornedToad wrote:Do you have a central fan that you run? We recently released that the fan uses TONS of electricity and was giving us a very high bill. Adding heat or air conditioner to the fan was only incrementally more than the fan itself.
What do you mean by "central fan"? Is that a "whole house fan", what most folks [incorrectly] call an "attic fan"?

An A/C compressor sucks up gobs of power - way more than a whole house fan. My WHF has slow and fast settings. Slow pulls 175 watts, fast = 325 watts. I had a noticeable decrease in my Summer elec bills after its installation.

My HVAC system has a fan which I run on "low" 24/7/365.
THY4373
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by THY4373 »

mike143 wrote:
Sidney wrote:I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump.
I have that with FPL (Florida Power and Light). I get at $9 a month credit on cooling months. I have never noticed it going into effect.
I live in VA and briefly had this installed on my AC units (I have one upstairs and downstairs) and I will say it had a major impact on the ability to keep my house cool. Both wife and I work at home so that is probably part of our problem because we are home almost all the time. But the temperature of my house rose very noticeably when the electric company had disabled the condenser units outside (we keep it around 76 and upstairs it would rise to 82-84 on warm days in the late afternoon which was not comfortable to us). I had them pull it out after two weeks totally not worth it to me. Also it only disables the condenser so the internal fan keeps blowing. If your ducts run in non-conditioned space (e.g., the attic) and the are poorly insulated or leak (and if you haven't sealed them, the almost certainly leak) then the internal fan is actually distributing warmer air into your house. I don't believe this was my problem because I have sealed all my duct work and, in the attic insulated the ductwork quite a bit more than what is standard. Bottom line is it doesn't cost you anything to try but it certainly did not work for us.
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wilpat
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by wilpat »

pjstack wrote:An astonishing amount of electricity is from "vampire" drains. Your TV isn't really "off" when you turn it off because there is a tiny trickle going to it so that you get "instant on" when you hit the remote "on" button.

The same with computers and accessories, all those little transformer plugs you have plugged in to your power strip(s). I bought one of those "KillaWatt" gizmos that plug into the outlet (and then you plug your power strip into it) and my computer (plus printer, etc.) was pulling about 18 watts even when everything was "off". All those little transformer plugs add up.
The 18 watts @ $0.10 per Kwh will cost about $1.30 per month.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by jebmke »

In many cases an astonishing amount of electricity is drained out due to inefficient construction and 2-3 major "appliances."

We had our attic sealed and extra insulation put in and all the HVAC ducts sealed. When our 30 year old heat pump died, we replaced with a 2-stage compressor/ variable-speed air handler. Our electric bill is down about 20% and the house is a lot more comfortable.
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nitpar
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by nitpar »

In NE region with well-water and electric hot water heater (90 gl capacity), around 2800 sq ft house. Avg 50 kwh per day. Whole house has CFL bulbs and none of the unusually high demand appliances other than hot water heater (avg 15 kwh per day), water-radon mitigation pump and the well-water pump. Not sure if this is what others in my region have. Any advise on how to reduce consumption. Genertaion rate (7 cents/kwh) and distribution rate (7.5 cents/kwh).
Valuethinker
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Valuethinker »

energy2025 wrote:Hello:

We get weekly email about our electricity consumption. We live in townhome built in 2004 and we moved about a year ago.

Breakdown of electricty for past week:
Base usage- 10%, Usage- 20 kWh
Refrigerator- 6%, Usage- 11.5 kWh
Heating & Colling- 20%, Usage- 42 kWh

Other- 65%, Usage- 136 kWh

So, total is 100%.

What I dont understand is what is considered Other as it is major chunk of the electricity usage even higher than heating and cooling + Refrigerator combined?

If I want to control my costs during summer, I need to figure this out...

Thanks in advance,
energy2338
Without a plug in 'Kill o Watt' meter it's hard to tell what is going on.

A modern fridge would used about 550 kwhr pa ie something like 1.5 kwhr per day, so around 11 a week.

You say you heat with gas? Ditto hot water?

So it comes down to Air Conditioning plus other electronics like lights, TV etc. Plasma screen TVs really burn juice (something like 1 kwhr for 4 hours on).

I do wonder if you have a significant air leak in attack or in HVAC system.

We have a 300 watt halogen light, we use it a couple of hours a day. Washing and drying 4 loads laundry is about 14 kwhr per week.
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C8H18Engineer
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by C8H18Engineer »

Our local library allows you to "check out" a kill-a-watt meter just like a book. I found them in the Finance section. You might check your library system and see if you can get one and find out which appliance is drawing the power.

I was surprised how much power my laptop was taking by just being on but idle. I put it to "sleep" now every day - probably saves $16 per month.

BTW those claims that the wall-warts left plugged in are drawing lots of power might not be as big a deal as people make it out to be. I tested my Nokia charger with the kill-a-watt and found a nominal draw during charge, then when charge was complete - it went to zero on the meter. YRMV
BH13
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by BH13 »

Also how many computers and DVR's do you have running 24/7? These add up as well especially if they're always on.
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magellan
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by magellan »

C8H18Engineer wrote:BTW those claims that the wall-warts left plugged in are drawing lots of power might not be as big a deal as people make it out to be. I tested my Nokia charger with the kill-a-watt and found a nominal draw during charge, then when charge was complete - it went to zero on the meter. YRMV
I saw this too. In my case, 90% of the warts pulled almost nothing. OTOH, there were a few that pulled a watt or two even without a load. Apparently, there's a cost vs efficiency tradeoff that transformer designers have to make. The worst offenders are likely to be older units or cheaply made no name products. My guess is the big brands are likely to spend the few extra pennies for more efficient transformers, but who knows.

Another thing the kill-a-watt showed up was that my all-in-one laser printer draws 15 watts in 'deep sleep' standby mode. I'm not sure what's powered off in this state, but it can't be much in terms of electronics. My i7 laptop draws just over 15 watts when the whole thing is powered on (as long as it's idling).

Jim
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ryuns
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by ryuns »

magellan wrote:
mike143 wrote:
Sidney wrote:I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump.
I have that with FPL (Florida Power and Light). I get at $9 a month credit on cooling months. I have never noticed it going into effect.
These arrangements are really smart because the power grid has to be sized to serve the peak demand on the hottest summer day. The cost of supplying the last 5-10% of demand during peak load is 5-10x the low-demand cost. When you consider just the capital cost for a new power plant or transmission line that's only needed 5% of the time, you can get an idea of scope of the inefficiency.

Within the last few years, grid planners realized that as much as 20% of the load during peak times was not time-critical and customers would be ok if some loads were shut down for an hour or two. The key was to get the incentives right.

At first, utilities installed real-time demand management equipment at large industrial and commercial customer locations. The results were better than predicted and now utilities are moving down the chain to high draw residential loads.

Obviously, the complexity of demand-managing millions of small loads will ultimately result in diminishing returns. I do worry about some crazy-complex smart grid proposals to control every TV, refrigerator, and wine cooler in every home. OTOH, for large loads like AC, heating, and maybe even electric dryers, it makes sense. I think this combined with mandatory time-of-use pricing should capture the bulk of the savings that's available.

Jim
Great post. The step of asking for control of A/C and large pumps was pretty brilliant. Conceivably, they could centrally manage other appliances, but like you said, diminishing returns. And considering all the people who flipped out about installing smart meters, anything but voluntary steps will be a harder sell. What seems likely is that utilities will continue to move people to time-of-use metering, with day-ahead and real-time pricing. People may begin demanding those appliances that they can control via smartphone or set on a timer. I just realized last night that it was a little silly that I couldn't ask my dishwasher to kick on at 3 am, when I should be paying about half price for electricity. Our local utility actually just announced that they plan to move 100% of customer to TOU pricing by 2018, which is pretty aggressive considering the amount of work it will take and the 2 years or so it will take to teach people about how it will affect their bills without actually charging them just yet.
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ryuns
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by ryuns »

THY4373 wrote:
mike143 wrote:
Sidney wrote:I recently received a letter from my power company that had a graph showing that our electricity use was above the average for my neighbors and offered a savings opportunity involving them controlling my heat pump.
I have that with FPL (Florida Power and Light). I get at $9 a month credit on cooling months. I have never noticed it going into effect.
I live in VA and briefly had this installed on my AC units (I have one upstairs and downstairs) and I will say it had a major impact on the ability to keep my house cool. Both wife and I work at home so that is probably part of our problem because we are home almost all the time. But the temperature of my house rose very noticeably when the electric company had disabled the condenser units outside (we keep it around 76 and upstairs it would rise to 82-84 on warm days in the late afternoon which was not comfortable to us). I had them pull it out after two weeks totally not worth it to me. Also it only disables the condenser so the internal fan keeps blowing. If your ducts run in non-conditioned space (e.g., the attic) and the are poorly insulated or leak (and if you haven't sealed them, the almost certainly leak) then the internal fan is actually distributing warmer air into your house. I don't believe this was my problem because I have sealed all my duct work and, in the attic insulated the ductwork quite a bit more than what is standard. Bottom line is it doesn't cost you anything to try but it certainly did not work for us.
Yeah, I don't understand why they don't just kill the fan too. By the way, I feel like they should have offered a few options. My mom's utility in California had three "stages" and at the lower stage, the AC shutoff was extremely rare--something like 10 times or fewer for the entire year for under an hour. She signed up for the "highest stage" one but admitted that it got pretty uncomfortable sometimes, which she solved by getting in the pool, but she also saved a ton of money.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. -- GK Chesterton
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by pjstack »

This thread caused me to dig out my Killawatt device. I previously said that my computer and peripherals drew 18 watts when off, but I was mistaken.

The present reading is 30 watts when off and about 80 to 90 watts when on.
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C8H18Engineer
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by C8H18Engineer »

Yes, some unexpected drains when you actually measure them. You would not consciously leave a 90W bulb burning all night. 30w is still high for when the laptop is off - maybe time to 86 that power supply and get a new one.

My measurements:
Device Running Sleep Off
Laptop 30w 1.7w 1.6w
Workstation 28w 1.4w
Monitor 32w 1.1w
Flat TV 76w 0.1w

Remarkable how the standby mode of the TV is a mere 0.1w... barely registers.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Clearly_Irrational »

sunnyday wrote:Lighting takes up a lot of energy.
Since when? I'm all about efficiency but the big power draws are anything that has to do with heating and cooling not lighting. (Stove, Water Heater, Dryer, Refrigerator, A/C, etc.)
Sidney
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Sidney »

pjstack wrote:This thread caused me to dig out my Killawatt device. I previously said that my computer and peripherals drew 18 watts when off, but I was mistaken.

The present reading is 30 watts when off and about 80 to 90 watts when on.
I agree with other poster. 30 W off doesn't sound right. My laptop runs 35-40 watts in ON mode (without display, I use external display).
I always wanted to be a procrastinator.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by pjstack »

Sidney wrote:
pjstack wrote:This thread caused me to dig out my Killawatt device. I previously said that my computer and peripherals drew 18 watts when off, but I was mistaken.

The present reading is 30 watts when off and about 80 to 90 watts when on.
I agree with other poster. 30 W off doesn't sound right. My laptop runs 35-40 watts in ON mode (without display, I use external display).
Well, to my chagrin, when I turned off the computer after the last posting the Killawatt went back to reading 18 watts.
(The perversity of inanimate objects!)
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by THY4373 »

ryuns wrote:

Yeah, I don't understand why they don't just kill the fan too. By the way, I feel like they should have offered a few options. My mom's utility in California had three "stages" and at the lower stage, the AC shutoff was extremely rare--something like 10 times or fewer for the entire year for under an hour. She signed up for the "highest stage" one but admitted that it got pretty uncomfortable sometimes, which she solved by getting in the pool, but she also saved a ton of money.
Yeah there were no options with our power company, it was all or nothing and we only got $40 for participating (it was a flat rate no matter how many units you had--we have two). It seemed they cut out the AC during peak demand for 45 mins per each hour between 2 and 5 PM. Not worth it for a fairly modest savings. If it had been more I might have considered grinning and bearing it.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Sidney »

pjstack wrote:Well, to my chagrin, when I turned off the computer after the last posting the Killawatt went back to reading 18 watts.
I just tested 2 laptops which were off but plugged in. Both registered around .5 (point 5) watts. If this is a laptop you are testing, you may have a faulty power supply.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Valuethinker »

Clearly_Irrational wrote:
sunnyday wrote:Lighting takes up a lot of energy.
Since when? I'm all about efficiency but the big power draws are anything that has to do with heating and cooling not lighting. (Stove, Water Heater, Dryer, Refrigerator, A/C, etc.)
Most estimates place domestic lighting consumption as at least 10% of total consumption (commercial over 20%).

For example my house has about 50 bulbs (1300 square foot house, say). If 50 watts each (halogens etc-- I do have a 300w bulb) then

50 bulbs x 50 watts x 1 hr/ day x 365 = 912.5 kwhr pa (c. 20% of my consumption).

In practice I have switched to LEDs for the halogens (except the dimmer switch ones) and with the exception of aforesaid 300w the rest pretty much are CFLs. So it would be a lot less than that. But I *did* notice the drop when I made that switch (but around 8 kwhr per week-- I don't have any other reasonable explanation for the drop).

OP's numbers seem high and it does suggest it's the HVAC (assuming they don't heat electrically, and they seem to have a gas water heater). An old fridge would be another culprit (a pre 1990 one could be burning 40 kwhr per week).
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Valuethinker »

magellan wrote:
C8H18Engineer wrote:BTW those claims that the wall-warts left plugged in are drawing lots of power might not be as big a deal as people make it out to be. I tested my Nokia charger with the kill-a-watt and found a nominal draw during charge, then when charge was complete - it went to zero on the meter. YRMV
I saw this too. In my case, 90% of the warts pulled almost nothing. OTOH, there were a few that pulled a watt or two even without a load. Apparently, there's a cost vs efficiency tradeoff that transformer designers have to make. The worst offenders are likely to be older units or cheaply made no name products. My guess is the big brands are likely to spend the few extra pennies for more efficient transformers, but who knows.
The makers went to the US and European governments and said 'our customers are incredibly price sensitive. No one of us, alone, can improve efficiency-- our price would rise, we would lose sales, customers wouldn't value it. Please set a standard'. Also they were (as the fridge manufacturers before them) trying to head off the anarchy where California set its own (tighter) standards and different states had different standards. And the US government (from memory it was 2007, but yes pre this Administration) set quite a demanding standard. Europe has lagged.

If you have the old square 'standard' power supplies (ie not device specific) then they are likely to be real juice burners-- warm to the touch.
Another thing the kill-a-watt showed up was that my all-in-one laser printer draws 15 watts in 'deep sleep' standby mode. I'm not sure what's powered off in this state, but it can't be much in terms of electronics. My i7 laptop draws just over 15 watts when the whole thing is powered on (as long as it's idling).

Jim
You can get old laser printers drawing 100w in sleep. Plasma Screen TVs are supposed to be very bad as well. Set Top boxes (give Sky (News Corp) in the UK credit, the Murdoch kids are interested in environmentalism, they drove through a more efficient STB).

Old desktops.
THY4373
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by THY4373 »

Sidney wrote:
pjstack wrote:Well, to my chagrin, when I turned off the computer after the last posting the Killawatt went back to reading 18 watts.
I just tested 2 laptops which were off but plugged in. Both registered around .5 (point 5) watts. If this is a laptop you are testing, you may have a faulty power supply.
He said his readings also included peripherals so it doesn't seem that bad to me. A FIOS Actiontec router pulls 15+ watts by itself. Standby for desktops (I don't think he specified what he had) are frequently 3-8 watts in my experience. Add in a printer and monitor and you could easily get to 18-30 watts and not have anything wrong. Now if a computer by itself was pulling 15+ watts when "off" then I would agree unless it was fairly old that there was something wrong for sure. Also if he does have a laptop and the battery was charging when off the draw would higher than if the battery was full charged.
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by Mudpuppy »

I'm still interested in if the OP's power company ever said how they derived the breakdown for each listed appliance/energy user. If it's just an arbitrary formula applied to an arbitrary concept of "typical", then there's really nothing to get from the report other than the total weekly usage, which might or might not be unusual for the OP's area and weather.
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OneWorld111
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by OneWorld111 »

Sorry been out, will provide answers by tomorrow.
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mike143
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Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis

Post by mike143 »

Our electric company installed a smart meter and now provides daily detail.

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I installed a 1st gen Nest thermostat and it "should" help save us money. There are some people with negative comment but reading reviews they don't have a full understanding how it works. Our (my wife) schedule is varied right now and the auto away works great. *Florida, 2004 home, for a reference.

Our schedule.

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Topic Author
OneWorld111
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:59 am

Re: Weekly Electricity Analysis (answers for electric provid

Post by OneWorld111 »

Interesting conversation. Thanks for all the BH for chimming in.

energy (OP): Hi- I have been receively e-Sense Weekly Summary and had few questions on it.

energy: I dont think I have a Samrt Meter installed at my home so was wondering how are estimating my usage adn breaking it down between refirgerator, heating &colling, etc?

Pam: Good morning. If you are able to receive the weekly summary email, that means you have the smart meter.

energy: really? where is it installed?

Pam: The weekly summary email is a tool used to help you see where your usage is going. Household information is collected from public tax records. So certain categories will be listed for certain customers and when there are only a limited number of groups/classes, it will list all other appliances into the “Other” section, ex. lighting, TVs, computers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, etc

Pam: The meter is located on the side or back of the home

energy: Ok but how do u know how much is going to refirgerator VS heating and cooling?

Pam: There is not a way to know for sure so we provide estimates

energy: so then what is smarmeter used for?

Pam: To provide day by day usage information for your home and in the event of outages, helps get power on faster.

energy: I was curious how you were getting this break out of appliances, etc.. but it is just an estimate.. It doesnot mean that my refigerator is inefficent or Heating&cooling is not good?

Pam: Correct. Each segment on the pie chart is calculated using your actual overall consumption during the time period (week or month). Then, using daily weather, these average consumption segment estimates are adjusted to reflect actual conditions.

energy: ok thanks. and then how do u get the comparison numbers with my neighbors?

Pam: Public tax records

energy: but what about that portion"where u say" neigbhor is eifficient?

Pam: That is again a broad estimate based on public information.

energy: ok thanks. So it seems it is information which is no use to end user

Pam: The Home Energy Usage Profile estimates are strictly for informational and
educational purposes only
. Your bill is still based solely on overall household
consumption.


Regards,
energy 0939
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