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I personally think we should have consumption guages on our major energy users. Getting a hybrid woke me up to this and I have since added one to the house ele

by waivej 16y ago

I personally think we should have consumption guages on our major energy users. Getting a hybrid woke me up to this and I have since added one to the house electrical system and built one for our heat. The cool thing is that it gave an intuitive sense of different energy draws. In general it is true. Our intuition is wrong in many cases. For example, I found unhooking our doorbells was more significant than not using the clothes drier. Today our house uses 20% of the energy it did before having the gauge. We don't even try to conserve because the effort to reduce the baseline made such a difference. Why don't they require this sort of device in all new cars? One study indicated that it would add $12.50 per car. Adding the ones to the house was about $200.

kscaldef 16y ago
> For example, I found unhooking our doorbells was more significant than not using the clothes drier. Wait, what? What sort of doorbell do you have? Also, did you figure that out just by trial-and-error of disconnecting things, or did something lead you more directly to them?
- waivej 16y ago
  We had three old transformers that drew 20 watts each. The drier draws around 6000 watts for 40 minutes. Though I usually use a mode that uses less heat. Anyway, I have a gauge by the sink showing the current usage and monthly total. It's cool because I could flip on a light and see the change. Right away I found $50/month (out of $250) but then over the years I kept looking to find the extra draws. I'd shut everything off and flip breakers to narrow it down. Since then it's guided purchases so I avoid things that waste energy. At the peak of my "research" I had no fridge and then something I built that drew 300 watt hours per day. Back then my electric bill was only $7 (plus $15 delivery charge.). Though now I just live like an ordinary person. We use about $25-$45 plus delivery charge (a big chunk is a dehumidifier for our damp basement).

by waivej 16y ago

kscaldef 16y ago

> For example, I found unhooking our doorbells was more significant than not using the clothes drier. Wait, what? What sort of doorbell do you have? Also, did you figure that out just by trial-and-error of disconnecting things, or did something lead you more directly to them?

waivej 16y ago
We had three old transformers that drew 20 watts each. The drier draws around 6000 watts for 40 minutes. Though I usually use a mode that uses less heat. Anyway, I have a gauge by the sink showing the current usage and monthly total. It's cool because I could flip on a light and see the change. Right away I found $50/month (out of $250) but then over the years I kept looking to find the extra draws. I'd shut everything off and flip breakers to narrow it down. Since then it's guided purchases so I avoid things that waste energy. At the peak of my "research" I had no fridge and then something I built that drew 300 watt hours per day. Back then my electric bill was only $7 (plus $15 delivery charge.). Though now I just live like an ordinary person. We use about $25-$45 plus delivery charge (a big chunk is a dehumidifier for our damp basement).