living like a king on a low budget

[Pat]

Excuse my previous mediocre attempt at humor.

A smart move in my opinion is to buy a Kill-o-watt plug-in totalizing watt-hour meter and flip a bunch of breakers to determine which circuits are responsible for what consumption. Then with your refrigerator and any separate freezers temporarily unplugged and all the lights in the house turned off you can see which which breakers are supporting circuits with consumption. Once you ID the circuits with loads you can look for what the loads are.

Current popular phrasing is "vampire" loads. A non energy star computer not sleeping or hibernating when unused (or turned off) can take 200-400 Watts or so plus the standby consumption of printers and other peripherals. Instant on TVs and on and on. It all adds up.

I have a 65 inch (16:9 diagonal measurement) TV. One of the set up options is to conserve power 24-7 but you need several seconds (less than a minute) after turning it on before it even begins to have a picture and several more before it is a nice proper picture (less than a minute.) No big deal for me if it takes a couple minutes to get its terrific picture quality. Especially considering the wasted energy of having it ready for instant on 24-7.

Pat

[bobkrack]

Pat,
I took no offense and did not think you meant any. I respect your presence here.

How would one go about a comprehensive study of energy savings devices and appliances? (In addition to your suggestion about "kill-a-watt" as a diagnostic tool) You're durned tootin' right about "vampire" or "phantom" loads!

We own 4 tvs (including quest room and rec room)-none have the setup feature you describe, as a matter of fact, one of them - if turned off at the power source - spends about 4 or 5 minutes reprogramming itself searching for available channel signals! NOT my favorite machine!

The durned VCRs, CD/DVD players, microwave, coffee pot, even the propane stove has electronics with phantom loads.

In our case, as each appliance is replaced, we vigorously investigate the energy usage including the phantom load and how to defeat the wastage. We have been using CFLs as our primary (90%+) lighting source for over ten years.

Bob

[Pat]

Bob, We have no worries mate. I just blew a humor attempt (not a surprise.)

I was an early adopter of CFL (started about 1984), retrofitting oodles of them at SUBASE San Diego when I was the energy conservation officer. A local company made retrofit kits with a male medium base so you could convert an architectural ceiling can into a surface mount circuline by just screwing it in. I redesigned all the ball field lighting, the enlisted dining facility lighting, mark 48 torpedo rework facility and on and on. My first efforts were to find all the no-brainers that would have a short break even time and then with the CO's confidence massaged I could work on larger more complicated and expensive projects like cogen and such.

I recall when a medium base CFL to replace a 60 Watt tungsten bulb cost over $20 retail and was still a good deal. Now they are just a few bucks each when bought in econopaks.

I have three chandeliers for our great room. a pair of smaller ones with 16 bulbs each and the larger version with 25 bulbs. I populated them with the egg shaped 4 Watt CFL. Lots of light for cheap, looks good, and it doesn't cost so much to run the AC to pump the heat out. Just one of the chandeliers illuminates the great room and the loft sufficiently for good navigation and TV viewing (a big 64 Watts.) The only tungsten bulbs are those on IR motion detectors, in closets, and other super low use applications.

I don't have a check list per se for doing an energy audit but HF has the Kill-O-Watt devices at a good price (usually better on-line but our retail stores honor the on-line prices.) Once you have unplugged refrigerators, ice makers, and freezers and any plugged in room fans and such you can use it to find vampire loads. If you feel confident in your DIY electrician skills you can cobble the Kill-a-Watt between the breaker and its load and by plugging and unplugging things you can see which consumes how much. This goes way better with two people and a pair of handy talkies but alternatively you can just do a lot of leg work.

Some little loads are really just too small to worry about. For example, I have several electroluminescent night lights that run 24-7 as it would cost way more to control them with a photocell or put them on a timer than the energy saved. They literally run on pennies a year. The little timers use energy, much more than one of the electroluminescent night lights (like the Indiglow type)

By mutual consent I turned off the hydronics to the shower walls and floor yesterday. It feels terrific in winter and the heat is not wasted as it is inside the house but now that it is warming up the luxury effect that is sooooo nice in winter just is no big deal. Even though the shower heat does not impact the AC since the bathroom is last stop before the air is exhausted through a balanced ventilator with heat exchangers (ERV) and no bathroom air or humidity can get out of the bathroom except through the exhaust ports, the geothermal heat pump is a heat priority system and it will switch off the AC mode to heat water if any zone is calling and I'd just as soon skip that when we don't need to heat the house.

Pat

[egon]

Will the LED lights become a player in the lighting systems? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

They have made an impact on bicycle lights/headlamps and other such items. I can no longer find bulbs for my once cutting edge lighting systems. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, LED lamps (tungsten bulb replacements) are already on the market now for a few years. Prices have been falling. LED's are an efficient light source but still a bit pricey.

There is some research underway on a new incandescent filament technology that offers tremendous potential. Prototypes in the lab show terrific efficiencies but as is often the case the devil is in the details and in this case it is the details of an economical manufacturing processes with acceptable yields.

If this is worked out and becomes mainstream we will have come full circle back to incandescent filaments.

I like electroluminescent panels but they too are a tad pricey.

Pat

[jml755]

Got a good laugh today while configuring a DELL server purchase for our company. One of the "check-box" options (usually hard disk upgrade, memory upgrade, etc.) was "Plant a tree to offset a workstation. $13" Another one was for $25 to have Dell send you a box to "recycle" a computer. Neither option is very cost-effective, in my opinion, but I'm sure there will be some folks who feel all warm and fuzzy about it and cough up the (real) green stuff. Then they'll jump in their SUV and drive over to Starbucks and pay for a latte instead of brewing a cup themselves [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Thanks Pat! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

The magic behind all these lights is quite beyond me on a technical basis. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

I'm still upset with my obsolescent Pretzel gear! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I mean I just got it about 10/12 years ago [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Or was it 15 years?? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

I am converting over time to LED flashlights. The little light I carry on my belt was left on overnight by accident and still gave months of service after that in intermittent use. You can get LED based replacements for bulbs for some of the standard flashlight types. Not cheap but they same on batteries a lot.

I think LEDs for light bulb replacement in domestic grid connected service is not so attractive as to start a stampede for LEDs. Now for a solar electric situation, that is different. reducing power requirements reduces solar panel and battery costs. LEDs are good in campers when no AC is available. I have solar panels on my camper and fluorescent lamps inside. LEDs would extend my power considerably and reduce my battery capacity needed. I have about 320 AH at 12 VDC capacity.

Pat

[egon]

I have LED flashlights also. Even some of the kind the are shaken to recharge the battery. My headlight has also been replaced by Led but the bicycle now sits light less. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[SLOBuds]

When I was planning our new home I had an 'ah ha' experience relative to energy cost reduction schemes. It is sort of daunting to figure out the best route to go in terms of invested dollar versus investment return. Like figuring out whether it is best now to install dual-pane windows, or install a hot water solar collector. Insulation (of MANY different types) versus solar collector or windows. Radiant heat versus heat pump.

On and on and on. I mean that most of us are with limited financial resources, so we want to get the most for our outlay. Right???

At the very end of the day, those who want you to have the full picture will tell you that your biggest positive impact to the planet, and your wallet, is to use less. Conserve. Wear a sweater in the winter. Shorts in the summer. Turn off the light. Etc.

I got so tied up into the technologies of energy reduction that I missed out on the real savings of switching off the light. And THAT's where the money is.