Energy use -> LED lights on outlets $$?

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there is this "in" thing where you unplug all your appliances that are not in use
saves power, helps environment, wins elections, that kind of stuff
 
robbietan said:
there is this "in" thing where you unplug all your appliances that are not in use
saves power, helps environment, wins elections, that kind of stuff
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I'm only interested in reducing my electric bill. Actually all "fixed" monthly bills are a target of mine. This is money I *must* pay out each month and can't use to have fun. So if I can reduce any of these bills, then more money goes into the "fun" column.

I showed my $30 electric bill to a friend who has a $400 electric bill and I can't repeat what he said as this is a family forum! Anyway he installed remote controlled switches to turn things off when not in use. These of course use electricity. He does not get it...
 
Billy_Bob said:
I showed my $30 electric bill to a friend who has a $400 electric bill and I can't repeat what he said as this is a family forum! Anyway he installed remote controlled switches to turn things off when not in use. These of course use electricity. He does not get it...
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$400 a month? Amazing.
I checked recently, and average US domesting energy was 11c a unit so $400at that rate is about 3,600 units. Put otherwise, it is an average daily consumption of around 5kW, 24/7. What on earth does he do with it all?
 
hillbilly1 said:
The contactors, unless latching would eat up any savings that you gained by killing all power to the other appliances, there is a fine line between saving energy and getting ridiculous, The things that you previously did, like adding more insulation are doing far more to save energy than unplugging clocks and microwaves. Turn off the a/c one day a year and you have done 10 times more than what you did removing parasitic loads. Turning off the playstation when not in use is good, as well as shutting down computers while not in use. Don't sweat the little stuff unless you have nothing better to do. It's just like global warming will flood the planet, it is mathematically impossible.
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Totally agree. You might want to consider spending some money on a therapist!! lol. At this point it goes beyond saving a buck. OCB.
 
If your electric bill is 30 dollars I would really hate to live in your house. 30 bucks? my delevery charge alone is 30 dollars. I can just imagine what it must be like living in your house. Get up a 4 am cut some wood or go cut some tree down (needlessly depleting natural recources to save a buck) than maybe hand crank a water pump to take a shower... dude get a gripe. The day that I have to start unplugging everything in my house to save a buck ......
I installed cfls, insulation, energy star appliances and left it at that. I bet you unplug your clocks in your kids room telling them "you dont need to tell time in your sleep"
 
081121-1418 EST

Billy_Bob:

Remote controlled switches do not need to consume much energy. Look at GE RR series relays these are a mechanically a bi-stable relay, snap blade.

I estimate it takes about 1 joule to switch this relay. One joule = 2.78 * 10^-7 KWH. In other words less than 1/1,000,000 of a KWH.

It is not likely you would use 1 KWH before you would probably destroy the relay snap blade from fatigue.

.
 
Besoeker said:
$400 a month? Amazing.
I checked recently, and average US domesting energy was 11c a unit so $400at that rate is about 3,600 units. Put otherwise, it is an average daily consumption of around 5kW, 24/7. What on earth does he do with it all?
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He has all electric heat and is an electronic gadget freak. He even has a robot vacuum cleaner which is self docking to recharge itself. Even though he makes big bucks, he wants to reduce his bill. He recently installed CFL's everywhere.

But his $400 dollar electric bill is nothing compared to a friend of a friend who I heard had a $1200 electric bill recently! She lives somewhere in California, apparently large house, hot tub, pool, etc. Anyway she is looking for solutions to reduce her electric bill - Solar water heater for pool, etc.
 
Billy_Bob said:
He has all electric heat and is an electronic gadget freak. He even has a robot vacuum cleaner which is self docking to recharge itself. Even though he makes big bucks, he wants to reduce his bill. He recently installed CFL's everywhere.

But his $400 dollar electric bill is nothing compared to a friend of a friend who I heard had a $1200 electric bill recently! She lives somewhere in California, apparently large house, hot tub, pool, etc. Anyway she is looking for solutions to reduce her electric bill - Solar water heater for pool, etc.
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The last time I did the math in CA/PG&E territory, electric
heat was >3X the $ of gas, so heat, dryer and cooking
would be good places to start. Solar water heater is
generally much more efficient than PV. Mostly plumbing.

CA rates are also "stepped", so "baseline" rates are $0.11/kwH,
and go up to > $0.30/kwH at 300% of
baseline -- this would probably make PV very cost-effective
for this lady, as it would shave off the expensive power,
especially since gov't incentives would have someone
else pay for >50% of the cost of installing it for her.
 
Billy_Bob said:
He even has a robot vacuum cleaner which is self docking to recharge itself. Even though he makes big bucks, he wants to reduce his bill. He recently installed CFL's everywhere.
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We have a robot vacuum cleaner too. Brilliant it is.
The charger is 33W and recharge time is maybe 3 hours, so about 0.1kWh.
Or less than one thousandth of your friend's consumption.
And that's if he uses it every day and runs it down to empty.
 
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