Behaviour Change

[andrewducker]

So, I picked up an Efergy wireless electricity monitor. Which proudly says on the outside of the box "Save up to 20% on your electricity bill through greater awareness!"

And I can see why they say that. Because the first thing I did, after clipping the sensor around the wire between the meter and the fusebox, was wander around the flat turning lights off and trying to get our electricity usage down to zero.

It turns out that the biggest thing I can do is turn off the TV and Amp when I'm not watching TV. That'll save me 1.5p/hour, right there.

The biggest thing I _can't_ do is turn off the fridge-freezer, which seems to gulp down electricity by the bucket load.

It seems that having the internet router/wireless use negligible amounts (the meter goes down to 0.01kW, but it didn't even register the router being turned on and off), so I shall cease worrying about that. Turning off lights as I leave the room is worthwhile though.

And so does replacing the fridge/freezer when we redo the kitchen, which is slated for next year. We'd been semi-planning to anyway, because it's noisy and clunky, but this moves it up the priority list.

I have a score to minimise, so now I am obsessed!

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Lovely. I will pick one up tomorrow! Thanks.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I thought that, and then I thought I could probably save myself a lot of effort simply by generalising from the things Andrew turned off to my flat -- obviously mine are not guaranteed to be the same, but I think they probably are :)

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've seen this exercise done in a friend's flat and it can be completely surprising. For example we found a VCR which did not even work any more and which he'd pretty much forgotten was even plugged in consuming loads. On the other hand, a really vast TV (one of the stupidly heavy ones they produced for people who wanted large TVs before flat panels were invented) and that was using next to nothing on standby. I'm actually pretty lazy at turning things off so I'd like to know about things like my stereo amp, the charger for my wii controller and so on.

Things like phone chargers (which get a lot of publicity as wasting "millions of pounds of electricity a year") were using relatively little -- which made sense actually as "millions of pounds of electricity a year" is only around a quid per person per yet.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'm in agreement. I assumed that the router, for instance, was guzzling power. Turns out not to be. The Apple TV, on the other hand, turns out to be using the same power as when it's running when it's in standby. So I unplugged it.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I drive the Boy mad insisting he turns the modem and router off when he isn't online but I don't think I shall stop - he'd leave everything on if I didn't nag him!

[andrewducker]

Measure the power and see how much it uses. If it's sucking up lots then you have ammo, and if it turns out to use negligible amounts then you can cease worrying about it.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

The blinking green lights would still annoy me even if the power consumption didn't though! (Yes, I'm odd)

[andrewducker]

They drive me crazy at night, because the router is in the bedroom. Nowadays they have a t-shirt draped over them...