Keeping appliances unplugged

[Joethemechanic]

That is exactly what heat reclaimers do for larger refrigeration systems.

Wired a dairy barn many years ago. They put the compressor/condenser for the milk tank in a doghouse on side of building. Doghouse had both doors on the exterior side and on the building side. Summer the exterior doors were open to let heat out, winter the doors were open to the building to keep heat within the building. Free heat for the most part - the milk needed cooled no matter what. Technically not really free - it came from the cows which had to be fed to be healthy.

Or you can store it in large underground thermal mass. Like some heat pump systems do.

 

[hurk27]

Double posted

 

[hurk27]

Back in the late 70's I worked at an 250ksf automated egg processing plant, in Sanford, Fl. where the whole plant was refrigerated to 55?F we must of had 40-20 ton condensers on the roof, which we changed to all water cooled condensers.
We used the hot water from these to feed the water heaters that provided wash water for cleaning the eggs in the wash cycle, just changing the condensers to water cooled was a savings but when we needed a new roof, I showed the owner of the company a product that I had done to my roof at home, it was a spray on foam (which was new back then) that was applied to about 12" thick then applied this spray on silicone over the top which was put on till it was about a 3/8" thick, and it was white to reflect the hot sun in Florida,
We had bids to have the roof replaced with tar and gravel which is what it was before,
the cheapest was $125k but since the roofer was trying to start a new line into a commercial use for this new product so he did the spray on roof for $46,000 which saved our company allot, after it was done our cycle recorders on the AC units showed that they were barely running, so we shut down every other unit, and the electric bill dropped to almost half the energy usage as cooling this plant was our biggest part of our energy cost.

For the suggestion of using this method I got a very nice bonus, I was able to start building a very nice new house with it, and the company also paid for my classes at Mid Florida Tech, and University Of Florida at Gainesville, and was promoted to head of Maintenance and gave me a very hefty raise, a year and a half later they got bought out and moved to south Georgia, I had already built my house and didn't want to move. 4 years later wife left and went back to Indiana, and so I sold everything after finishing my classes and moved up here to be close to my kids.

 

[Joethemechanic]

Back in the late 70's I worked at an 250ksf automated egg processing plant, in Sanford, Fl. where the whole plant was refrigerated to 55?F we must of had 40-20 ton condensers on the roof, which we changed to all water cooled condensers, we used the hot water from these to feed the water heaters that provided wash water for cleaning the eggs in the wash cycle, just changing the condensers to water cooled was a big savings and when we needed a new roof, I showed the owner of the company a product that I had done to my roof at home, it was a spray on foam (which was new back then) that was applied to about 12" thick then applied this spray on silicone over the top which was put on till it was about a 3/8" thick, and it was white to reflect the hot sun in Florida, we had bids to have the roof replaced with tar and gravel which is what it was before, the cheapest was $125k but since the roofer was trying to start a new line into a commercial use for this new product so he did the spray on roof for $46,000 which saved our company allot, after it was done our cycle recorders on the AC units showed that they were barely running, so we shut down every other unit, and the electric bill dropped to almost half the energy usage as cooling this plant was our biggest part of our energy cost, for the suggestion of using this method I got a very nice bonus, I was able to start building a very nice new house with it, and the company also paid for my classes at Mid Florida Tech, and University Of Florida at Gainesville, and was promoted to head of Maintenance and gave me a very hefty raise, a year and a half later they got bought out and moved to south Georgia, I had already built my house and didn't want to move. 4 years later wife left and went back to Indiana, and so I sold everything after finishing my classes and moved up here to be close to my kids.

That's a really good savings for a plant like that. Sorry to hear about the wife thing. Mine is gone now too. Not even worth looking for a new one at this stage of the game. So much change, companies selling out, wives leaving, kids moving, houses we have already bought and paid for depreciating. This isn't the world of the future I signed up for when I was a kid.

Hey, so egg processing huh? Did you by any chance produce hard boiled eggs. When I use to volunteer in a kitchen for the homeless and we got hard boiled eggs by the five gallon pail. I always wondered how they got the shells off.

 

[hurk27]

That's a really good savings for a plant like that. Sorry to hear about the wife thing. Mine is gone now too. Not even worth looking for a new one at this stage of the game. So much change, companies selling out, wives leaving, kids moving, houses we have already bought and paid for depreciating. This isn't the world of the future I signed up for when I was a kid.

Hey, so egg processing huh? Did you by any chance produce hard boiled eggs. When I use to volunteer in a kitchen for the homeless and we got hard boiled eggs by the five gallon pail. I always wondered how they got the shells off.

No, just processed the Eggs that came in off of farms to USDA specs, other products was done off site, breakage would go for pet foods or other non consumables, dirty's would go for powdered eggs and or other products that didn't need the shells, nothing went to waste trust me, I never knew there was so much that you could learn about eggs, but I really got into the control systems, was my first experience in learning TTL logic and spent 6 months at Diamond Automation in Farmington Hills outside of Detroit, Mi.
Amazing machines that most ran on only one DC motor, but did so much via cams limits and other sensors. whole production lines would only require 1 operator, 2 candlers, 1 packer and a lift driver that moved eggs between all the lines from and to storage.

 

[Joethemechanic]

When I was a kid we had a summer home in Tioga County Pa. We had a bunch of family up there and I had a ton of country cousins to run around and play with. Well there was this place up the road from one of my cousin's house that we called "the egg factory" It was really I guess a farm but the chickens were all in little cages with conveyors going all over the place. It really wasn't anything like what your average person pictures as a chicken farm. We would ride our bikes up there and the guy would give us some oversize and double yoke eggs. For some reason we thought the double yokers were something really special. lol

 

[hurk27]

When I was a kid we had a summer home in Tioga County Pa. We had a bunch of family up there and I had a ton of country cousins to run around and play with. Well there was this place up the road from one of my cousin's house that we called "the egg factory" It was really I guess a farm but the chickens were all in little cages with conveyors going all over the place. It really wasn't anything like what your average person pictures as a chicken farm. We would ride our bikes up there and the guy would give us some oversize and double yoke eggs. For some reason we thought the double yokers were something really special. lol

actually Double yokes were special, they come from the youngest flock or freshly melded flock, and are in the nutritional level as the grade small eggs, as the chickens get older they start producing larger more watery eggs with less protein, jumbos are from the oldest flock and have the least nutritional value, but in the store you will find the double yokes in the jumbo cartons as they weigh more and eggs are graded by weight, while today you don't see much other then grade a large in stores or restaurants, they are out there, medium are mostly sold over seas as because of there young flock they have a longer shelf life if kept at 55? When working there I knew how much my dad loved finding double yokes, so once a month I would have the candlers pull me a couple cases (60 dozen) for him with the ok of the owner of the company, and I paid farm price, I think back then was 20 cents a dozen.

Heres a bit of a myth many have, nutritionally a brown egg and a white egg are the same, it only depends upon the age of the layers as to how much protein is in an egg. Browns just come from a different breed of layers.

Oh well I think we need to get back on topic.:thumbsup:

 

[ActionDave]

I wasn't suggesting that you simply pull the plug.

One could save a lot of power that way over the course of say... decades.

 

[Besoeker]

One could save a lot of power that way over the course of say... decades.

Quite.
And energy, rather than power.

 

[ActionDave]

Technical details. You're up early and I am up late.

 

[Besoeker]

Technical details.

It's an important distinction. Your electricity bill is in kWh.

 

[Joethemechanic]

Unplugging stuff that draws low single digit wattage (or fractions of a watt) is absolute ridiculousness.

The wattage they use to just broadcasting their voices so they can spouting these silly ideas is probably 10 times what the reduced load would be. There is a energy cost just in running your mouth over electronic media. (as well as print)

They really need to better educate the public on STEM subjects.

 

[K8MHZ]

I got into energy conservation in August due to a class I was taking on PV. I started treating it like a game, and as soon as I did I saw an instant payback.

Most recently, Dec 2010 elec bill $81. Dec 2011 elec. bill $53. Jan 2011 elec bill $100. Jan 2012 elec bill $55.

I also put it to the gas company.

Dec 2010 gas $111, Dec 2011 gas $68. Jan 2011 gas $155, Jan 2012 gas $69

Total gas and electric bills from Sept 2010 to Jan 2011 $1102. A year later, total gas and electric bills from Sept. 2011 to Jan 2021 $548.

There was no secret or voodoo in how I did it, and also I am not done with the project. I used no magic energy saving devices. Just better effeciency heating and lighting devices, a slight change in lifestyle, and some insulation.

Right now its 9.7 degrees outside and 75 degrees inside and that is costing me 9 cents an hour.

 

[kwired]

I got into energy conservation in August due to a class I was taking on PV. I started treating it like a game, and as soon as I did I saw an instant payback.

Most recently, Dec 2010 elec bill $81. Dec 2011 elec. bill $53. Jan 2011 elec bill $100. Jan 2012 elec bill $55.

I also put it to the gas company.

Dec 2010 gas $111, Dec 2011 gas $68. Jan 2011 gas $155, Jan 2012 gas $69

Total gas and electric bills from Sept 2010 to Jan 2011 $1102. A year later, total gas and electric bills from Sept. 2011 to Jan 2021 $548.

There was no secret or voodoo in how I did it, and also I am not done with the project. I used no magic energy saving devices. Just better effeciency heating and lighting devices, a slight change in lifestyle, and some insulation.

Right now its 9.7 degrees outside and 75 degrees inside and that is costing me 9 cents an hour.

You need to factor in degree days. We have had above average temps most of the winter so far and probably will see similar results without changing a thing all because the heating demand was less so far this year.

 

[sparkcontrol]

unplug your cell phone charger when not in use and camera charger along with you ipod and others alike....they use what is called
"vampire voltage"

 

[Joethemechanic]

unplug your cell phone charger when not in use and camera charger along with you ipod and others alike....they use what is called
"vampire voltage"

It seems to me, that it would be "Vampire Current"

 

[infinity]

I also put it to the gas company.

Dec 2010 gas $111, Dec 2011 gas $68. Jan 2011 gas $155, Jan 2012 gas $69

Total gas and electric bills from Sept 2010 to Jan 2011 $1102. A year later, total gas and electric bills from Sept. 2011 to Jan 2021 $548.

T

Not saying that your plan isn't working but natural gas prices have fallen 40% over the period of January 2011 and January 2012.

 

[gar]

120120-0915 EST

infinity:

In Michigan we have vast underground storage for gas. Thus, much of our gas is bought at least cost times of the year and put into storage. This greatly reduces the variation of cost thru the year. K8MHZ is in a different part of the state from me and buys his electricity and gas from Consumers Power Co, and I buy mine from Detroit Edison (DTE). I believe both will draw gas from these same reservoirs. They also both draw electric power from the co-owned Ludington Pumped Storage.

http://www.consumersenergy.com/content.aspx?id=1830

In Michigan you can buy the gas portion of your gas supply form others sources than your primary energy supplier, but distribution and other costs are all from the distribution company (your primary supplier).

The breakdown of these costs from my 2011 Jan bill per 100 CCF are:
0.232 gas distribution
0.029 UTEM surcharge
0.020 energy optimization
0.639 gas cost recovery
-.060 credit
6% Mich sales tax

The gas component varied as follows thru the year:
0.639 Jan 2011 after credit was something less
0.592 Feb
0.580 Mar
0.589 Apr
0.575 May
0.575 June
0.575 July
0.575 Aug
0.575 Sep
0.575 Oct
0.535 Nov

In January roughly 70% of the bill was for gas, and the other months the gas portion was a smaller percentage.

.

 

[Stephanie S]

The reason why some company's say that is cause it saves energy when your not using it and it also saves you money. if you dont use it you should unplug it cause if there's no current going to it while not in use then you can save money. They even do it to stop accidents from happinging like fires and so on...

 

[K8MHZ]

The reason why some company's say that is cause it saves energy when your not using it and it also saves you money. if you dont use it you should unplug it cause if there's no current going to it while not in use then you can save money. They even do it to stop accidents from happinging like fires and so on...

Good point about the fires.

Not all wall warts and chargers use power while plugged in and not in use. I used a Kill-a-watt on a phone charger and a laptop charger and neither one drew ANY power at all by just being plugged in.

One wall wart I checked that did draw power was a large (1.2A) one used for a battery charger. It drew 3 watts.

Some of the 'unplug everything' is mere hype. Get a meter and check for yourself and then decide if it's worth plugging in and unplugging every time the device you are measuring used.