Tackling Energy Use At Home
When I first moved into the Sh*t Hole, aside from being surprised by things the "realtor"/son-in-law lied about, was that the hot water was incredibly hot and the fridge was incredibly cold. In Hoboken, you pay for your own heat and hot water, and lucky for me I have my giant water heater right in the middle of my kitchen for me to regulate. I quickly jacked down the temperature there and turned the fridge temp up so my Britta wasn't a block of ice.
I moved in in April, three years ago, and the energy bill for March showed up from Hoboken's monopoly provider, PSE&G. It was $400. $400 to maintain an empty apartment with jacked up hot water and freezing, empty fridge. That's madness, and I was anxious to see what my bill would be after I corrected the temperatures. It was around $80. Great improvement.
Eventually, I read about vampire power, and I wanted to take that on (you know, diminish carbon footprint and save the world type thing). Oh, the sweet results.
I moved in in April, three years ago, and the energy bill for March showed up from Hoboken's monopoly provider, PSE&G. It was $400. $400 to maintain an empty apartment with jacked up hot water and freezing, empty fridge. That's madness, and I was anxious to see what my bill would be after I corrected the temperatures. It was around $80. Great improvement.
Eventually, I read about vampire power, and I wanted to take that on (you know, diminish carbon footprint and save the world type thing). Oh, the sweet results.
First, it's important to point out that almost all of the energy produced in the U.S. comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels. Each plant, in other words, is like running a quadrillionmillion SUVs, throwing global warming emissions all up into the atmosphere. (Long live nuclear!) So, in the U.S., there is a high chance when you turn on a light, tv, computer, vacuum, air conditioner, electric car, you are releasing greenhouse gases.
There is a deeper problem than that, though. Electronics constantly sip energy, even when they aren't on. "Standby" mode. Your tv, for example, constantly sips energy just so it can be ready to receive your "On" command from the remote control. Computers stay humming, even when off. Everything sips power when it's off. This is called "Vampire Power."
Believe it or not, vampire power -- also called standby power -- can be responsible for up to 10% of the energy used in the U.S. 10% for nothing! In addition, it's standard scientific belief that up to 67% of the world's power is wasted, mainly heating and cooling poorly-insulated (or unoccupied) buildings.
A recent treehugger post referenced a report by David MacKay, a professor at the University of Cambridge, who put numbers to vampire power. In his report (PDF link), MacKay studies vampire power usage, saying that keeping a cell phone charger plugged in, over a year, will equal driving a car for six minutes or taking a bath. That may not seem like much, but that's just a cell phone charger... and the energy we're talking about is energy wasted because it's not charging anything!
The first time I remember the mention of the impact of vampire power (sometimes referred to as "phantom power") was in 2006 when the British government laid out their energy plan (they actually have one that isn't "drill for more oil and use more oil shale.") The plan requires power companies to cooperate. New construction standards were laid out. Wind power was planned. Every British citizen and company was made to participate. This plan also outlawed "Standby" modes in electronics to kill this vampire power.
So, what came of my attempt to cull vampire power? Let me say that I have a lot of electronics: plasma tv, a few video game consoles, DVR, receiver, four speaker sets, many cameras, two MP3 players, many computers (1 of which is used at any time), two air conditioners, cell phone, keyboard, recording studio, SIRIUS radio, router, home phone with extension, Vonage box, Vornado fan... The garlic I brought to vampire power was power strips.
Everything was plugged into one so I had the option to cut the power entirely to the machine. I did this religiously so that when I went to bed or when I left the apartment, the power strips were switched off. The only thing left on was my DVR and SIRIUS satellite radio (it's a DVR of sorts, too). The results blew me away.
The data I can point to is May, 2007, where my power usage was 251 kWH. This year it was 162 in the same month. (April, 2007, was 567 kWH power, this year 244, but 2007's power was boosted when a Nor'easter Hit My Sh*t Hole and fans and dehumidifiers were running 24/7 for a week.) Looking at that data, I had a 35% savings in power usage between Mays just by shutting things off. I wasn't watching TV less or using the computer less. In fact, I probably used my electronics more because I was working from home this May, but wasn't in 2007. The $41.76 bill was just fantastic to receive for gas and electric. I was just turning things off when they were "off."
I'll update with more data as PSE&G gives me provides it. Power strips might be ugly, but they sure do a great job of saving the world. I'm gonna keep clicking them on and off as if I was playing slot machines. Better chances of getting money back with this energy game than in a casino...
That is some HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].
Join the HAWTaction reader group on Facebook.
There is a deeper problem than that, though. Electronics constantly sip energy, even when they aren't on. "Standby" mode. Your tv, for example, constantly sips energy just so it can be ready to receive your "On" command from the remote control. Computers stay humming, even when off. Everything sips power when it's off. This is called "Vampire Power."Believe it or not, vampire power -- also called standby power -- can be responsible for up to 10% of the energy used in the U.S. 10% for nothing! In addition, it's standard scientific belief that up to 67% of the world's power is wasted, mainly heating and cooling poorly-insulated (or unoccupied) buildings.
A recent treehugger post referenced a report by David MacKay, a professor at the University of Cambridge, who put numbers to vampire power. In his report (PDF link), MacKay studies vampire power usage, saying that keeping a cell phone charger plugged in, over a year, will equal driving a car for six minutes or taking a bath. That may not seem like much, but that's just a cell phone charger... and the energy we're talking about is energy wasted because it's not charging anything!
The first time I remember the mention of the impact of vampire power (sometimes referred to as "phantom power") was in 2006 when the British government laid out their energy plan (they actually have one that isn't "drill for more oil and use more oil shale.") The plan requires power companies to cooperate. New construction standards were laid out. Wind power was planned. Every British citizen and company was made to participate. This plan also outlawed "Standby" modes in electronics to kill this vampire power.
So, what came of my attempt to cull vampire power? Let me say that I have a lot of electronics: plasma tv, a few video game consoles, DVR, receiver, four speaker sets, many cameras, two MP3 players, many computers (1 of which is used at any time), two air conditioners, cell phone, keyboard, recording studio, SIRIUS radio, router, home phone with extension, Vonage box, Vornado fan... The garlic I brought to vampire power was power strips.
Everything was plugged into one so I had the option to cut the power entirely to the machine. I did this religiously so that when I went to bed or when I left the apartment, the power strips were switched off. The only thing left on was my DVR and SIRIUS satellite radio (it's a DVR of sorts, too). The results blew me away.The data I can point to is May, 2007, where my power usage was 251 kWH. This year it was 162 in the same month. (April, 2007, was 567 kWH power, this year 244, but 2007's power was boosted when a Nor'easter Hit My Sh*t Hole and fans and dehumidifiers were running 24/7 for a week.) Looking at that data, I had a 35% savings in power usage between Mays just by shutting things off. I wasn't watching TV less or using the computer less. In fact, I probably used my electronics more because I was working from home this May, but wasn't in 2007. The $41.76 bill was just fantastic to receive for gas and electric. I was just turning things off when they were "off."
I'll update with more data as PSE&G gives me provides it. Power strips might be ugly, but they sure do a great job of saving the world. I'm gonna keep clicking them on and off as if I was playing slot machines. Better chances of getting money back with this energy game than in a casino...
That is some HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].Join the HAWTaction reader group on Facebook.
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