5 ms·

If you're wondering how much energy is consumed by your electronics, a base model kill-a-watt for about $30 will show you watts and cumulative watt-hours. It's

by Panino 4y ago

If you're wondering how much energy is consumed by your electronics, a base model kill-a-watt for about $30 will show you watts and cumulative watt-hours. It's a fantastic tool that pays for itself besides giving an eye-opening, interesting experience. You'd be surprised at the things in your house consuming electricity 24/7. Almost everything in my house is either on power strip surge protectors or just unplugged.

eisa01 4y ago
I’d actually recommend a wifi smart plug with energy monitoring Easier to read the display on your phone ;)
- sassy_quat 4y ago
  (: guestimates are good enough, everything pales in comparison to the freezer, turn that off and the power bill goes down
  - kadoban 4y ago
    Are freezers really that bad? Does it depend if they're chest or standup? I don't remember my bill going up when I added a freezer, I didn't really measure though.
    - gumby 4y ago
      A chest is much better. The reason is intuitive: if you open it the cold air remains inside except for a little turbulence at the top and, of course, the new air that pours in to replace whatever you’ve just removed. Whereas, when you open an upright one, cold air immediately starts pouring out the bottom of the opening, with warmer air coming in at the top to replace it.
      - closewith 4y ago
        The thermal mass of the air is tiny - cooling it is negligible. Chest freezers have better insulation and door seals, which is why they're more efficient.
        throwawaylinux 4y ago
        > The thermal mass of the air is tiny > Chest freezers have better [...] door seals Hmm. Is it outlandish to think that a modern standing freezer with working seals will let less air out the seals than is exchanged by opening the door even a couple of times a week? Modern standing freezers are starting to get drawers with sides in them now, presumably for reducing air loss while it's open. And seals are practically air-tight (if you've lived in a place with high humidity, even tiny gaps or holes in the seal causes noticeable condensation and water build up. So I'm skeptical about the seal claim. Better insulation may be true.
        a1369209993 4y ago
        > a modern standing freezer with working seals will let less air out the seals than is exchanged by opening the door I think the idea is that the seals can conduct heat, and do so much better than whatever abitrarily-sophisticated thermal isolation is in the walls of the freezer, not that the airflow through the seals is carrying any significant amount of heat.
        throwawaylinux 4y ago
        The chest freezers I've seen have very similar seals to standing freezers, are you saying they're significantly better? In ether case modern doors build out an insulating section around the seal, and the seal itself creates a second seal against that so it's air gapped inside the freezer as well. The seal itself of course is a hollow tube which is somewhat of an air gap with the outside too. They're pretty good, I would be surprised for their small surface area if they caused a huge conductive loss.
        a1369209993 4y ago
      - akira2501 4y ago
        Your energy use is going to be much more impacted by how full you keep your freezer. For the same reason.. the more product you have in there, the less air you have in there. Your chest freezer will typically use about the same about of yearly kWh as a standing freezer would, but the chest freezer will typically have about 30% more capacity. So.. it's "better," but if you're not going to keep it full, you may not actually be saving any total energy.
    - briHass 4y ago
      Modern freezers really aren't that bad. Chest freezers being better than standing, because less of the cold air escapes when it is opened. The US requires all consumer appliances to have an Energy Guide sticker (the yellow and black thing) which estimates an annual KWh use and cost at average electric prices. My cheapo 4cuft chest freezer uses about 200 KWh annually, or about $25. Not nothing, but $2 a month isn't going to register compared to most things.
  - NotYourLawyer 4y ago
    Actually a freezer only averages like 25-50 watts. It pulls a lot of power when the compressor is running, but the compressor usually isn’t running.
    - Scoundreller 4y ago
      Newer ones are going the way of inverter/variable drive and “always on”, but varying their duty cycle. It’s the future! A nice bonus is they soft-start (lower breaker trip risk) and no start capacitor to go bad. But more other electronics to fail.
  - akira2501 4y ago
    Yea, but it keeps my food cool and thus edible for several days longer than it otherwise would. Power usage of a device isn't the problem, power used not doing useful work for me is.
  - maccard 4y ago
    Nah they're really not. My freezer is basically nothing because it only gets opened once every few days. You might need a new freezer.
- sally_glance 4y ago
  Yes, get a cheap IoT plug supported by Tasmota and enjoy monitoring, toggling and time-based schedules without "phone home" features :-)
- lostmsu 4y ago
  I got a bunch of TP-Link Kasa devices of that sort. Awesome.
- smileybarry 4y ago
  I recommend Eve Energy, a bit pricey but works with HomeKit/Matter and 100% cloud-less. (No accounts, no remote access unless you have a HomeKit hub device, etc.) Also generates some nice detailed graphs and exports to CSV.
denysonique 4y ago
A generic plug consumption meter is around $10 on eBay
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  I have a close spiritual cousin of one of those, and despite even touting a power factor display it tends to get confused by low standby loads and show nonsensically high power usage instead.
pcdoodle 4y ago
For sure! I found a pioneer amp that sucked 200W sitting there doing nothing. No increase when volume was turned up either. I compared to an older 1970s model that started at 3w and went up from there with the volume.
- HailTheGreenOne 4y ago
  That's a difference between class A and B amplifiers. The former draw the same power all the time but are very linear, the latter don't consume much power at idle in exchange for small harmonic distortion.
Rebelgecko 4y ago
You can also get power strips that toggle power based on how much juice the "control" plug is pulling. I have mine set up with the TV- when the TV is off, all the other plugs are disabled. But when I turn on the TV, it turns on power for the Xbox, Steam Link, etc
dpkirchner 4y ago
Some libraries have meters you can check out.
- clintonb 4y ago
  Good suggestion! I just learned Oakland Public Library lends many types of tools: https://oaklandlibrary.org/otll/tool-list/ https://oaklandlibrary.org/otll/tool-list/.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
stefan_ 4y ago
My one misgiving with hard switching all devices daily is that they all have some kind of AC to DC power conversion with the cheapest capacitors imaginable that are subjected to high inrush currents every time I toggle them on.
harry8 4y ago
I highly recommend the Athom smart home plugs preflashed with tasmota. No flipping cloud. None. Pick them up a fair bit cheaper than $30. And of course can turn them on and off over you local wifi - set timers over your wifi, or via mqtt for the whole smart home thing etc. Point is they just work too if you don't want to do any of that. Plug them in, connect to their builtin wifi ap, read the power usage stats. Good button on the side that turns the power on and off too. https://athom.aliexpress.com/store/group/Tasmota/5790427_517820063.html https://athom.aliexpress.com/store/group/Tasmota/5790427_517... Esp8266 and a relay. Simple. Effective. Cheap. And just better than anything else I've seen in the space. Anyone has other recommendations I'm all ears.
- Lorin 4y ago
  How many watts does the smart plug use? :)
Semaphor 4y ago
> You'd be surprised at the things in your house consuming electricity 24/7. I was ready for that. But it turned out that besides an idling rPI, modem, router and APs, nothing actually does. I have a bunch of zigbee connected smart plugs, and when I got those, I checked all my devices. Turned out regulations really do help, because all the standby usage was miniscule.

by Panino 4y ago

eisa01 4y ago

I’d actually recommend a wifi smart plug with energy monitoring Easier to read the display on your phone ;)

sassy_quat 4y ago
(: guestimates are good enough, everything pales in comparison to the freezer, turn that off and the power bill goes down
- kadoban 4y ago
  Are freezers really that bad? Does it depend if they're chest or standup? I don't remember my bill going up when I added a freezer, I didn't really measure though.
  - gumby 4y ago
    A chest is much better. The reason is intuitive: if you open it the cold air remains inside except for a little turbulence at the top and, of course, the new air that pours in to replace whatever you’ve just removed. Whereas, when you open an upright one, cold air immediately starts pouring out the bottom of the opening, with warmer air coming in at the top to replace it.
    - closewith 4y ago
      The thermal mass of the air is tiny - cooling it is negligible. Chest freezers have better insulation and door seals, which is why they're more efficient.
      - throwawaylinux 4y ago
        > The thermal mass of the air is tiny > Chest freezers have better [...] door seals Hmm. Is it outlandish to think that a modern standing freezer with working seals will let less air out the seals than is exchanged by opening the door even a couple of times a week? Modern standing freezers are starting to get drawers with sides in them now, presumably for reducing air loss while it's open. And seals are practically air-tight (if you've lived in a place with high humidity, even tiny gaps or holes in the seal causes noticeable condensation and water build up. So I'm skeptical about the seal claim. Better insulation may be true.
        a1369209993 4y ago
        > a modern standing freezer with working seals will let less air out the seals than is exchanged by opening the door I think the idea is that the seals can conduct heat, and do so much better than whatever abitrarily-sophisticated thermal isolation is in the walls of the freezer, not that the airflow through the seals is carrying any significant amount of heat.
        throwawaylinux 4y ago
        The chest freezers I've seen have very similar seals to standing freezers, are you saying they're significantly better? In ether case modern doors build out an insulating section around the seal, and the seal itself creates a second seal against that so it's air gapped inside the freezer as well. The seal itself of course is a hollow tube which is somewhat of an air gap with the outside too. They're pretty good, I would be surprised for their small surface area if they caused a huge conductive loss.
        a1369209993 4y ago
    - akira2501 4y ago
      Your energy use is going to be much more impacted by how full you keep your freezer. For the same reason.. the more product you have in there, the less air you have in there. Your chest freezer will typically use about the same about of yearly kWh as a standing freezer would, but the chest freezer will typically have about 30% more capacity. So.. it's "better," but if you're not going to keep it full, you may not actually be saving any total energy.
  - briHass 4y ago
    Modern freezers really aren't that bad. Chest freezers being better than standing, because less of the cold air escapes when it is opened. The US requires all consumer appliances to have an Energy Guide sticker (the yellow and black thing) which estimates an annual KWh use and cost at average electric prices. My cheapo 4cuft chest freezer uses about 200 KWh annually, or about $25. Not nothing, but $2 a month isn't going to register compared to most things.
- NotYourLawyer 4y ago
  Actually a freezer only averages like 25-50 watts. It pulls a lot of power when the compressor is running, but the compressor usually isn’t running.
  - Scoundreller 4y ago
    Newer ones are going the way of inverter/variable drive and “always on”, but varying their duty cycle. It’s the future! A nice bonus is they soft-start (lower breaker trip risk) and no start capacitor to go bad. But more other electronics to fail.
- akira2501 4y ago
  Yea, but it keeps my food cool and thus edible for several days longer than it otherwise would. Power usage of a device isn't the problem, power used not doing useful work for me is.
- maccard 4y ago
  Nah they're really not. My freezer is basically nothing because it only gets opened once every few days. You might need a new freezer.
sally_glance 4y ago
Yes, get a cheap IoT plug supported by Tasmota and enjoy monitoring, toggling and time-based schedules without "phone home" features :-)
lostmsu 4y ago
I got a bunch of TP-Link Kasa devices of that sort. Awesome.
smileybarry 4y ago
I recommend Eve Energy, a bit pricey but works with HomeKit/Matter and 100% cloud-less. (No accounts, no remote access unless you have a HomeKit hub device, etc.) Also generates some nice detailed graphs and exports to CSV.

denysonique 4y ago

A generic plug consumption meter is around $10 on eBay

iggldiggl 4y ago
I have a close spiritual cousin of one of those, and despite even touting a power factor display it tends to get confused by low standby loads and show nonsensically high power usage instead.

pcdoodle 4y ago

For sure! I found a pioneer amp that sucked 200W sitting there doing nothing. No increase when volume was turned up either. I compared to an older 1970s model that started at 3w and went up from there with the volume.

HailTheGreenOne 4y ago
That's a difference between class A and B amplifiers. The former draw the same power all the time but are very linear, the latter don't consume much power at idle in exchange for small harmonic distortion.

Rebelgecko 4y ago

You can also get power strips that toggle power based on how much juice the "control" plug is pulling. I have mine set up with the TV- when the TV is off, all the other plugs are disabled. But when I turn on the TV, it turns on power for the Xbox, Steam Link, etc

dpkirchner 4y ago

Some libraries have meters you can check out.

clintonb 4y ago
Good suggestion! I just learned Oakland Public Library lends many types of tools: https://oaklandlibrary.org/otll/tool-list/ https://oaklandlibrary.org/otll/tool-list/.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

stefan_ 4y ago

My one misgiving with hard switching all devices daily is that they all have some kind of AC to DC power conversion with the cheapest capacitors imaginable that are subjected to high inrush currents every time I toggle them on.

harry8 4y ago

I highly recommend the Athom smart home plugs preflashed with tasmota. No flipping cloud. None. Pick them up a fair bit cheaper than $30. And of course can turn them on and off over you local wifi - set timers over your wifi, or via mqtt for the whole smart home thing etc. Point is they just work too if you don't want to do any of that. Plug them in, connect to their builtin wifi ap, read the power usage stats. Good button on the side that turns the power on and off too. https://athom.aliexpress.com/store/group/Tasmota/5790427_517820063.html https://athom.aliexpress.com/store/group/Tasmota/5790427_517... Esp8266 and a relay. Simple. Effective. Cheap. And just better than anything else I've seen in the space. Anyone has other recommendations I'm all ears.

Lorin 4y ago
How many watts does the smart plug use? :)

Semaphor 4y ago

> You'd be surprised at the things in your house consuming electricity 24/7. I was ready for that. But it turned out that besides an idling rPI, modem, router and APs, nothing actually does. I have a bunch of zigbee connected smart plugs, and when I got those, I checked all my devices. Turned out regulations really do help, because all the standby usage was miniscule.