Electric Power Audit
Definition of a kilowatt hour;
1 100-watt light bulb burning for 10 hours.
The first step to cutting our electricity bill and usage is to get out the previous bills. Keep a little notebook for this purpose and record the "kilowatt hours used" figure and the "billing period" This could be called adjusted kWh Used. In Ontario we receive our electricity billing once every two months. You will of course, notice differences for different times of the year. If you have not saved your bills, don’t worry, we will just start from where we are now, but be careful to keep all the bills from now on. You may be able to get information from the utility company on your past usage, or it may be recorded on your next bill. In Toronto, every bill has a daily usage comparison chart that compares the same month in the previous year with this year. This is a convenient way to gage usage.
At this point, before we get started, let me tell you that you can’t always judge by the charges or total amount owing because they differ dramatically, and also there are other charges, such as delivery fee and taxes. Therefore, we can only do our very best to reduce our kilowatt usage.
If we take reducing our electrical usage seriously, we will see serious savings. My personal kWh saving was:
Usage during the period of Nov 05/07-Jan 08/08 - 1719.303 KWh, and the current usage billed for Mar 06/08-May07/08 is 763.674 kWh, a savings of 955.629 kWh. Considering that 100-watt light burning for 10 hours was only 1 kWh this was quite a feat.
Also, in Ontario, there is a Time of Use plan in which you will see a charge of 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour during peak times, 7.3 cents in medium periods and 2.7 cents in off-peak times which is generally overnight. Wherever you live, investigate this option as there are energy dollars to be saved here.
Now we are ready to begin our personal home audit and our first stop in the process is the basement.
First go into each room and note what, if any, electrical appliances or fixtures are being used.
In Europe there is a switch on every wall plug. So, not only are appliances turned off, but they are switched off at the main plug as well.
* Washer and dryer. Plan on hanging as many clothes to dry as feasible. If using the dryer, time it to stop just before the clothes are completely dry. Heavy items such as bath towels should be hung until they are at least partially dry. The less you use the dryer, the more you will save. 4% of energy is taken up from drying clothes.
* Washer; plan on a shorter wash time, cold water washing saves energy from either electricity or gas.
* Lighting; if using regular light bulbs, replace them with the new energy saving bulbs. Fluorescent lights are energy efficient if you have them is use. Turn off all lights when not being used. If possible, install a motion sensor fixture that comes on when needed.
* Refrigerators; if you have an old refrigerator just keeping some beer cold shut it off and dispose of it. This is a huge energy eater and no matter what you are keeping cold, it is not worth it and not economical. Ditto, any old freezers. Note: If these appliances are the newer, energy efficient models you can keep them, but, make sure that they are being used to their fullest. Freezers should be kept fairly full because they have to work twice as hard if they are not kept at capacity. Imagine paying an extra $10 - $15 per month to keep a container of ice cream cold down there!
* Old stoves with timers and clocks use electricity. If the stove is still in use, make sure that you cook once/cook big. Cook a lot of food ahead in one session. If it’s not being used, unplug it.
Even small items use up your energy.
Do you have night lights plugged in?
Clock Radio?
How about a television downstairs. Even when turned off, that television is using power. Plasma televisions use 5 times the amount of energy a refrigerator uses.
Unplug it.
Turn off the VCR and DVD players.
Telephone outlets-phones only need to be on when you are down there.
Bathroom fixtures-do you have small appliances plugged in such as hair dryer, razors, and toothbrush?
Tools-do you keep them plugged in?
Chargers for various items should not be left plugged in.
Small electrical alarms-consider changing to good battery operated fixtures.
Computers should be turned off when not in use, also the monitor, speakers, printer, modem and any other components. Use a power bar and flip the switch to turn everything off.
Is there an electric blanket in your spare bedroom, or clock? Unplug everything.
To simplify the procedure of unplugging, considering attaching power bars to many of the above listed items and turn off the switch on the power bar when not in use. These can also be mounted on the wall so that you only need to flip a switch to "power up".
Go through each area of your basement and replace the light bulbs with energy saving bulbs and turn off everything that is not in use. You can be as aggressive as possible here. You won’t miss a thing and the only thing you will lose is total energy consumption.
Tip of the day: If you have an electrical meter, turn off everything that you can think of in the house.
Then go and look at the meter. You will be surprised to see that it is still spinning out usage. Electricity Usage can come from places that you haven’t even thought about.
Comedy Corner: Since my wife is trying save on electricity, I have learned to see in the dark. I do miss reading though.
Author: Linda Moon
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Tags: Definition of a kilowatt hour, Electrical audut of home, how to save on electricity, save electricity, save money on electricity
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
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