Electricity consumption tips?

Dylan Sorr

Hey guys, any tips on saving on my electricity bill/to bring down my electricity consumption? Also, which are better; CFL or LED lightbulbs? I've also heard LED lightbulbs are extremely hot and much more expensive. Yes, I'm already in the habit of unplugging unused light fixtures and devices (and I've replaced nearly all of the incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs), and I'm thinking of getting some solar panels maybe.
At Spotty: If your going to save money, you have to consider solar panels, CFLs, etc... have high return investments when it comes to buying them.

Answer
Here's something that'll blow your mind: lights just don't use up that much electricity and don't cost very much. In particular the difference between CFLs and comparable LEDs is almost immeasurable. (Obviously LEDs cost a lot more up front but should last much longer -- those are the criteria to judge. Forget about electricity.) Nothing you do with lights will save you any significant amount of money.

You know what consumes most of your electricity? Air conditioning (#1), then probably the refrigerator, TV if you watch it a lot, maybe your computer if you use if hard and often, washer and dryer. Blow dryer if you use it much. For me, by far-far-far and away the primary determinant of my electric bill has always been AC in summer and heater in winter.

Not long ago I got a Kill-a-watt watt meter and invested a good deal of time measuring usage and crunching the numbers.

Things people talk about as "tips" but that simply don't make much of an impact on your bill: lights (unless you operate a football stadium); leaving electronics plugged in when off; leaving chargers plugged in, ceiling fans. Sorry to tell you, unplugging things consumes a lot of effort and saves you essentially nothing.

If you are looking to SAVE money then you certainly don't want to spend any on solar panels.

P.S. don;t believe me? Then by all means get a Kill-a-Watt and check it yourself.

*** Dylan, my point is that those things you are considering do NOT save significant amounts of money and do not pay for themselves. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Solar is a very very costly way to generate electricity. You will never save enough money on your electric bill to pay the cost of a solar panel. It's a losing proposition. CFLs probably do pay for themselves over time, but we're talking a small amount of money, spread out over years to pay for themselves. Next time you buy lunch at McDonalds or Taco Bell you'll spend more money in one lunch hour than you'll save over years of diligently using CFLs. If your goal overall is to save money, than keep your incandescent light bulbs, but eat beans instead of going to McDonalds.

What's the best HDTV brand for customer support/warranty?

California

I am researching HDTV's and have come across some reviews of brands that have bad customer support and broke on the customers after 4 or 5 years. I don't want to put $1,000 into a TV to have it break a year after the warranty ends. I'm wondering what brand would be best to go with since I'm concerned about things like that. I had initially wanted to buy a Vizio but that is one I've read bad things about. I heard good things about Sony's service but not sure about what they do after warranty. Thanks for any input!

Answer
I have a Samsung TV that is absolutely amazing. I have had it for a year with no issues, and whenever I had questions about features, or programming, Samsung's customer support was excellent. The live online chat was especially helpful, and unless you enjoy sitting on hold for hours, was much better and timelier than phone support.

I can't say I know much about my warranty, but all my previous TV's have been Samsung, and they have always lasted long. I have never had a TV "break" per say, but have had them become obsolete. I would recommend the new LED TV. My friend bought one, and besides the higher picture quality, his electricity usage from the TV is much lower than mine. Also, we accidentally dropped it while mounting it on the wall, and because it was so light it barely even left a mark on the TV.

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Useing less electricity, please let me know what else can cut.?

Xdatinelia

We live 6 to a single family house, 3 generations. I am the daughter in law. In any room we use to ourselves I have everything on power strips, all but 2 desk lamps with dimmers are cfl, I turn off fans, power strips to tv's, and all lights as much as I can. I use my computer during the day, so it stays on, but I make sure the strip is off before I go to sleep. We had an extra microwave & dorm sized fridge in our living room, I disconnected those & put in the garage because we didn't expressly NEED them. We have 2 reptiles I have limited to 8 hours a day on incandescent bulb heat (40w) & put their under the tank heaters on a timer for the rest of the time. I just feel like I could do more, but i don;t know what is left to cut, I even got rid of our led nightlight because It wasn't 100% necessity.

My Father in law is willing to embrace this style of living but my mother in law isn't. I can count 3 incandescent electric night lights she runs 24/7 in the kitchen alone with 2 led ones, these all have daylight sensors, but she has em unter the cabinet & uses for light there. One of thise incandescent bulb touch lamps runs 24/7 in another room for night light too, also a indoor fountain runs 24/7. 3 tv's not turned on all the time but not on power strips & left plugged in, mil's computer runs 24/7 along with the 50 strands if incandescent christmas lights she has running (only for 3 hours a day but still) and 3 outdoor fountains.

I am guilty myself of leaving my husband's shaver plugged in 24/7 cause I can't figure out how to get a timer in the bathroom safetly. I leave one power strip truend on 24/7 that has the baby swing plugged in to it. The entiere house has 4-5 things pulgged into battery chargers like power drills 24/7. Mil/fil's side of the house also has lights on in the garage 24/7

I am stressed because I don;t think we can make out power bill this month even. I have done everything short of go back to handwashing my clothes and turning my mil psycho because I turned off *her* stuff. I just don't know what else I can cut from my side of the house with out hurting us.

Suggestiions are needed & welcome, please help
We go through the second tier of electricity even. There is a new meter on the house, certified electrician installed, but not someone from CPL. We even had then put that thing on our ac that cuts it off for 15 min an hour on high demend days. As it stands I can not cut anything else but laundry & heating bottles for oyr 5 month ol. I will see if fil will call cpl & see what happens there.

Answer
i agree with the above poster, although make sure that they are actually checking your meter. Often times power companies will just estimate your usage rather than actually check (awful right?). Also, if heat is a problem, insulation will always help. Using a little caulk on the windowsills and any open areas will help insulate. Also, replace ALL incandescent bulbs with the new coiled energy saver ones. Turn off the fountain. Fountains outside put on timers. Otherwise you're doing very well, congrats and good luck.

Is buying the latest technology really green?

Charles C

My television is around 10 years old, it still works, and I am fine with it. The original battery hungry remote control sits in a drawer unused, and I use the remote to my cable box to control the volume.

Now I could go out and buy the latest technology in TVs, and get all the frills like energy star compliance and such, but is that really being green?

My TV is already made, though it may use a little more electricity than the new ones, how much power is used to build a new one, package it for shipment, and how much fuel transport it to the store where I buy it? It's a big TV, and if I replace it, it will be with another big one, so it will probably be delivered. How much fuel will that take? In my area most televisions go to a landfill. What's the effects there? If I do find a place to recycle it, what about the fuel used to transport it there? how much energy will be used recycling it? How much of it will be recycled?

I wont be replacing my TV soon, i just want to know would it really environmentally friendly to replace it or other items in my home?

Answer
If it still works and you don't see any need (or major want) for a new TV then from simple economics you're better off keeping it without having to worry about the planet.

LCD and Plasma screens do have higher efficiency but if a screen is big there's no way to not have it draw a lot of power (which goes to heat and so might not be a problem in winter). There is also the question of whether power usage matters, if most of your electricity comes from nuclear or hydro then it won't really matter how much power the thing uses (and leaving all the incandescent heaters on all day will be perfectly fine from a global warming point of view) although I suspect that most of your electricity comes from fossil fuel burning.

In terms of the materials in the TV, LCD TV's contain mercury in their backlights (so don't break them, LED backlights without mercury are mostly showing up in laptops (lower power consumption) and very high end computer monitors (better colour rendition than CCFLs)) while CRT's tend to contain lead (to stop the X-rays generated when the electrons hit the shadow mask) so they really should be recycled (although the lead in CRT's isn't likely to leach out if it were just dumped).

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How much energy is used during a light show?

led tv electricity usage image

blu

I'm doing a project on this but I can't really find much information on the amount of energy that is used up. Does anyone know?
The amount of energy used for lighting up a building at night would be useful too.

Answer
The numbers you seek are all relative....

Let us say that a marque has 500 small light bulbs and that each light bulb is a 25 watt light bulb. This means that each bulb uses 25 watts per hour. Lighting up the marque for one hour then uses (500*25w) or 12,500 watts. If the marque is lit for 10 hours per night, then the amount of energy used just on the marque climbs to 125,000 watts for just one night; and 54,125,000 watts in a single year of 365 nights. This does not include the building, accent, doorway, or spot lights used on and about the building.

The amount of energy used for any one light show, on any one building, etc,,, depends upon the sum of the wattage of the light sources times the amount of time they are used.

Getting back to the marque example, some businesses are moving towards LED lights which use far less energy for the amount of light, or lumens, they give off. Other businesses are moving towards an assortment of timers and photo-electric cells to guide the turning on and off of their lights.

Home owners and apartment dwellers can do the same. They can also use a number of different types of CFL light bulbs which use far less energy than incandescent light bulbs to produce the same number of lumens, or amount of brightness. Towards "decorative" lights, many people are shifting to strings of LED Christmas lights, LED rope lights, and LED decorations; both for use at Christmas and on the patio in summer. Those that make these changes in a short period of time, often report that they can notice the difference on their power bill; this is an indicator that the actual power usage savings is great enough that they can readily notice it.

When considering the amount of energy used to light up a marque and then the potential energy use savings by switching that marque to an LED system, the numbers are bigger and more satisfying than the numbers in a single family residence due to the sheer number of light bulbs involved. But, as a number of different, individual residences all switch to energy saving CFLs, LEDs, solar lights, and take up additional power savings activities the savings can be tremendous. For example, within the past two years the State of California determined that 10% of all of their electricity usage is being utilized by TVs; both business and personal. Sure, a number of those TVs are probably located in bars, taverns, lobbies, and clubs. But, my guess is that a far larger percentage of them are in private residences.

There is a lot of collective energy savings potential within private residences. On the other hand, baseball fields that are brighter at night than during the day, large marques, and places like the Vegas Strip do make one ask about energy consumption.

how to power a remote cabin with no wiring by means of wind turbine only?

Q. there are no transmission lines in the vicinity so power can't be brought in, and even if it did it would be far too expensive. So how wind in conjuction with solar power the cabin? is that even possible?

Answer
Hey Timewaster, we live in a solar and wind powered cabin now, so yes, it's possible. When you say remote cabin, it's a little like asking, "How much gas does a car use?" Your answer would start hitting on subjects like miles per gallon, total miles, vehicle weight, and stuff that a non car driver would not understand. A remote cabin might have a few lights, or a deep freezer, the difference in power needs is very dramatic, even if the two cabins were the same size. So usage is very key, but not easy to determine if you are not accustomed to doing that sort of thing. People like us have a curse, we have to know where each electron goes in our home, we know when the sun came up last August, and how much wind we got in December two years ago. When you have a finite amount of electricity to work with, you have to work with it. Leaving the TV on, or even owning one, becomes a double edge decision process.

Having said that, I'll give you some quick facts: Our "Cabin," is 1200 square feet, it has a home sized refrigerator, and a small deep freezer. We have Whirlpool laundry machines, a coffeemaker, microwave, two TV's and a stereo. Our usage is around 220 KWH per month, probably a fraction of what your home uses, but way more than a remote cabin should need. We use a 1.4 kw solar array, which takes up about the same area on the roof of our garage as a mid sized car might. Then there is a 900 watt wind turbine in the field, which is a bit larger than a ceiling fan, but probably too small to run our entire home. On real windy nights, it can barely do the job. In the end, we buy a little power from the power company most months, maybe five dollars worth. The good news is we can. In your remote cabin, that will not be an option. Not to fear, all you need is a generator to fill in the gaps, as most solar powered homes have them anyway. Our entire system cost around $13,000, and it runs just about everything in our home. Divide it over 20 years (240 months) and your electric bill is pretty reasonable.

If you can start small with that cabin, then do it. Just figure in minimum lighting, and at most, a very small apartment sized refrigerator that you unplug when you leave. For that, you could probably get by with a few hundred watts of solar power and no wind turbine. Turbines are really neat, they also live on a tall tower, are hard to install and maintain, make noise, and then they break down. My solar array has never had a drop of oil, never needed a screw turned on it, and it runs silently, and makes the same amount of power today it did 11 years ago. For a small system, I'd go with golf cart batteries, maybe 4 of them wired for 12 volts, and a 1500 watt inverter. Then do some DC lights, in particular LED light strips in a few key places, they are really efficient and work even if the battery is too low to fire up the inverter. Two or three hundred watts of solar panels, a charge controller (Xantrex C-40 for example) and the 4 batteries and inverter might set you back $1500, but if you learned how to hook it up, and did the work yourself, you would actually understand it and be in a good position to expand or build a larger system one day without someone selling you a bill of goods. It is pretty easy to add wind later if you want to. Southwest Windpower is a good example, they have a small 300 watt turbine that has its own internal regulator, just connect the two wires coming out of the bottom to the 12 volt battery and let it go. There are others, just get one that is designed for battery charging, not direct intertie to the utility grid. The 300 watt turbine costs about $600. Then when you are running short, you can run your generator, which can recharge the battery and run your small loads simultaneously, so you only have to run it an hour or two every few nights.

What you need to do is get educated first. Get a sub to Home Power Magazine, then try to get to one of the energy fairs listed in the mag. We did 12 years ago, and here we are today. Try not to put too much weight on sources like this, in my experience living with and teaching solar and wind in the local schools, I've found there are three things in vast supply, sun, wind and missinformation. Lots of people on these websites are happy to offer their expertise in this area, having never laid a hand on a wind turbine or solar panel. Get the mag, read the books and look up the sources, and you can learn from people like you and I that have already been there, not the ones reading the interesting articles in Popular Science. Take care Protime.....Rudydoo

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What are the pros and cons of LCD vs Plasma vs Rear projection?

led tv electricity usage image

Naked Crus

I also heard there is no noticable difference between 1080i vs 720p when your set less than 50"

Answer
LCD - This is the everyman HDTV. Its mass produced, cost effective, low on power consumption, and just what people "know." LCD monitors in computers make it a more familiar product for many. Its SD playback tends to be a bit sharp/crisp; think the evening news (this isn't good vs bad, this is personal taste). Its colors tend to be a bit more muted (again not good vs bad, just taste). LCDs have a matte finish for the viewing surface (the edge around it can be glossy though depending on model).

LCD's are inherently bad with motion playback. The suffer from motion blur (ghost trails). This is why you see "better" ones advertised with 120Hz or 240Hz refresh rates. The improved refresh rates are an attempt to overcome that inherent flaw.

LCD's will give you weaker blacks, colors, and contrasts on the whole. This is why you see the proliferation of the LED LCD. That technological step alleviates those LCD problems.

Plasma TVs inherently give you better blacks, colors, and contrast. They are also inherently strong in motion playback as their refresh rate is near instantaneous (like a CRT). Plasma colors tend to have more pop to them (not good vs bad, just taste). Plasma SD tends to be a bit softer (think Hollywood films); again not good vs bad, just personal taste.

Plasmas should be conditioned though. For the first 100-200 hours of operation you want to keep the contrast and brightness cranked way down. Then optimize and enjoy. This isn't necessary persay, but most "nerd" consumer groups will tell you to do it for paranoia sake.

Plasma TVs are a shiny finish though, so in rooms with light control problems that finish can create reflection problems. Plasma technology on the whole does use more power than LCD. But not all models are made equal, so one must do some homework. And worst case scenario, a "very bad" Plasma TV would likely only cost you $40 more per year in electricity bills (and again not all models are made equal).

Plasma myth (1) - They experience burn-in. This is inaccurate, those days are gone. Just condition the gasses and then use it as normal and you're fine. Also, the better sets have built-in features to prevent this (on top of the technology just generally being better now than say 5 years ago).

Plasma myth (2) - They have short life spans. This is another inaccuracy. Most are now rated in the 60,000-100,000 hours range. At 8 hours a day 365 days a year that would mean a life of 20-30 years. So do you think you'll still want/own the same TV in 15 years, let alone 30?

Plasma myth (3) - They won't work in high altitude because of problems for the gasses. This is again no longer an issue. Current Plasmas can be purchased and used in mile high Denver, and above, so you'll be fine where ever you are (unless you're living in the Himalayas).

720 vs 1080 - There is no set size on when it matters. Typically though its though that anything under 40" definitely doesn't show any of the advantages of 1080. 40" - 50" is the grey area where some argue it matters and others say maybe a bit or not so much. 50" and above you definitely want native 1920x1080 resolution for your TV, as the advantages will become noticeable.

Damn almost forgot... DLP Rear Projection. The image quality, on all levels, is fairly close to Plasma. It would be at par with it if it wasn't a dying technology. Mitsubishi is the last developer of the technology after Samsung recently announced they were giving up on it. So Plasma is just getting more R&D and advancements than DLP. That said though DLP is still a rock solid image.

Its often joked that DLP will be the last TV you ever own. That refers to the expectation that the TV will still work until its actually physically falling apart (decades). But the bulbs in it need to be constantly replaced. Depending on the bulb and your TV usage, it could last anywhere from 1 year to realistically 4 years. Replacing is something you can do on your own easily enough. A new bulb though costs $200-$250 or higher. Also, some sets have air filters that you should clean every month or two. So there is certainly an inconvenience factor in owning the sets.

Do they make anything like this?

Naturality

I am interested in becoming more eco-friendly and I was just wondering if they have solar lights that light your walk ways at night is there such a product that can do the same for the inside of your house? Say that you place your bulbs outside to soak up all the solar energy then use them at night. Do they have anything like that or is that just something I wish they had cause I am tired of an electric bill?

Answer
Indoor solar lights would be a little impractical. Most of the outdoor solar lights that are reasonably priced aren't very bright, they are used more as walkway lights than task lighting. The bulbs don't charge, they have little solar panels. It would likely be much less expensive to change bulbs to CFL's or LED's. A CFL uses about 1/4 and an LED uses about 1/10the electricity of an incandescent.

Here are some more tips on reducing your utility bill.
It is about awareness. Learn how much energy you are using and how you are using it. Many cities or utilities have free energy audits, often they will come to your home and show you ways you can reduce your energy usage.

Help your heater by keeping the warm air in, weather strip and caulk doors and windows, seal off vents and other large gaps. Use heavy drapes over windows. Adjust your thermostat a few degrees, there is nothing wrong with wearing a sweater inside. A programmable thermostat can save money and make the home more comfortable. Many people crank the heat up while they are getting ready in the morning only to leave the house after it gets warm.

Replace appliances with energy efficient models when you need new ones. Even older ones can be used more efficiently, only wash full loads, line dry when possible, don't over dry clothes and make sure the vent is clean. You can wash fewer clothes by wearing things more than once, I wear my jeans a few times before they hit the hamper. Hanging up clothes that were worn for a brief time or only tried on will stop clean clothes from getting mixed in with the dirty.

If you are replacing lighting look for fixtures with fewer bulbs, and if you hate the look of CFL's look for fixtures that will hide them. There are a wide range of CFL's with various strengths and colors of light, try a few to see what works best in various rooms.

Standby energy can be up to 15% of your bill. Not all appliances use energy when they are turned off, but most electronics do as well as anything with a light or clock. Many chargers use energy even when nothing is attached. I use a power strip with a switch for my tv, dvd and game system and for my desktop, speakers and monitor. After I turn things off I flip the switch and stop using standby energy. I also unplug chargers and ipod docking stations when not in use.

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