Saving electricity

[3930dave]

To "celebrate" our province slamming us with ANOTHER round of electricity rate increases today (latest excuse - "Gee, this smart meter system is expensive to put in" :confused2, decided to start this...

I just checked the freezer on our kitchen fridge to make sure that the switch for the door heaters (for condensation in humid weather) was switched OFF.

Other than throwing the main disconnect, and going off grid, what are your tips for saving electricity ?

Rgds, D.

 

[brin]

My wife keeps her washer and dryer unplugged when not in use...as well as other appliances not being used..She read that they draw electricity even when idle if they are plugged in...Our electric bill is always very low.

Also and electrician friend of mine tightened all the screw on the connections in our panel power ..he said any loose ones drain electricity...

 

[3930dave]

Good points Brin.

Phantom power loads (idle appliances) - people will use power bars to switch them off, but you'd need a big one for the dryer ! Unplugging always works.

My panel had a few slightly loose screws (or was that me ? ), a buddy of mine had the one for his kitchen stove about ready to fall out of his panel. It's a good thing to have this panel checked, by a qualified electrician.

Rgds, D.

 

[creekbend]

We use the microwave when possible and not the stove. If we decide to bake a cake or brownies, we include it when we are cooking in the stove. We wash and dry full loads of clothes. We make sure that the filters stay clean for the central heat and air unit. We had the local electric Co-Op send a representative out for a free evaluation to detect leaks in regards to windows and doors; etc.

 

[KTurner]

Find out what you use on a more detailed level. The one big number that covers everything for an entire month doesn't tell you what your low hanging fruit is. You can get a meter that plugs into your wall, then your appliance plugs into it, and it will tell you how much energy your device is using either at that instant, or over time. This only works for things that plug into a standard 120v wall outlet, so it won't help for your electric dryer, electric water heater, climate control, etc. Leave your TV plugged into it for a week, then, with just a bit of math, you should have a good idea what percentage of your bill is due to your TV.

You can guesstimate energy consumption of those bigger devices by using a stopwatch and reading your electric meter.How to Measure Home Wattage. Just measure a baseline, then go turn on the big device, take another reading and then subtract your first reading from your second.

I've used both of these approaches and entered the data into a spreadsheet. I can tell you that my fridge accounts for about 13% of my power bill (during months when heat/AC are off). Coffee maker is about 4.5%. And so on. This also showed me that our home 'server' (desktop PC) is consuming 7% of our power. I'm replacing it with a external hard drive that plugs directly into our home network. This one thing should drop our power bill by about 5%. The savings on the power bill will pay for the external hard drive in roughly a year.

The one thing I'm not sure about is my water heater. I'm taking this to a bit of an extreme and have purchased a meter base and a meter off ebay to install on my water heater. The information provided by this meter will help me decide if I want to pursue solar water heating (which is more cost effective than solar electricity).

The information you gather will help guide you so that you don't go out and spend $600 to replace all your light bulbs with new nifty LED bulbs, only to find out that your power bill hardly changed (as the lights were only 1% of your usage).

Though, there are some things that are obvious without collecting all the data. Like, I need to string up a clothesline so we can stop using the electric clothes dryer.

Keith

 

[KTurner]

By the way, this is more of a long term approach for me. The local power company has pretty much had their plans for a new plant shutdown, two other coal plants are being forced offline and they're going to have to run new transmission lines to a plant a few counties over. And they're projecting increased usage. This is all taking place over the next 5-10 years. I'm expecting substantial increases in my energy costs due to this. I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before this stuff starts rolling down hill. It's bad enough already.

Keith

 

[jonyyuma]

If you have electric hot water, look into a timer for non use time, or when asleep. Clean the coils on the refrigerator and the small fan underneth too..Power is going to climb at the rate of expenses. It is not much of a secret that the power grid in some areas is in sad shape..Clothes dryers and dishwashers were already mentioned..

 

[The kid]

To "celebrate" our province slamming us with ANOTHER round of electricity rate increases today (latest excuse - "Gee, this smart meter system is expensive to put in" :confused2, decided to start this...

I just checked the freezer on our kitchen fridge to make sure that the switch for the door heaters (for condensation in humid weather) was switched OFF.

Other than throwing the main disconnect, and going off grid, what are your tips for saving electricity ?

Rgds, D.

As a retired Electric Service employee there quite a few things you can do and will add up to quite a bit of money in savings.

First off, is your home ALL elelctric? Our utility dabbled in serveral pilot programs to manage the home energy use. I'm not sure what your speaking of when saying "smart meter". Is your utility using what is referred to as "Time of Use" rate. This is simply rates set for different times of each day. There are peak power use times. If the utility can get customers to adjust thier usage to these off peak times it reduces there overhead cost when buying power off the "Grid".

The first think I'd do is adjust my water heater if electric to a lower temp. You also can install a timer which allows to heater to only heat only when you regularly use it. Water Heaters are well insulated, but extra is better by adding a WH blanket. Also insulate the hot water lines.

Look into the new tankless water heaters. They are pricy, but provide instant hot water and mounted usually one per water source. They are small enough to be mounted inside a cabinet.

Is your house tight? As in windows, ceiling insulation. Some utilities will provide a home energy audit that will point out areas needing improvement. Tell me a little more about your home and how it's heated and cooled.

-Robert

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

Also an electrician friend of mine tightened all the screws on the connections in our panel power ..he said any loose ones drain electricity...

Anyone else wonder if maybe the power panel wasn't the only thing with loose screws :confused2:??? No dis-respect intended.

Loose connections can/will cause overheating, and perhaps a fire, particularly where there's a heavier current draw... and perhaps cause what-ever is on that circuit to run in-efficiently.

for sure, loose screws are a safety issue. (no pun intended)

Pete

 

[The kid]

Here's some good info about your electric meter as to what all the information displayed on the front of it means and some tips on conservation.

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/measure.html