My last electric bill was a whopping $566 – just what I needed to motivate me into thinking about energy conservation. (My bills generally run around $250 in the winter. I suspect that most of the increase had to do with the fact that our geothermal furnace wasn’t working properly during the deep freeze of December 2009.)
At any rate, we sealed off the upper floor, where we suspect much of our heat was going; swapped out some incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs; and tried monitoring our electricity usage more carefully.
I suspected that leaving my computer on all the time was probably gobbling up a lot of electricity, so I purchased a Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor to find out for myself. I plugged the Kill A Watt unit into the nearest outlet, entered my cost per kilowatt ($.109 or almost 11 cents), plugged all my computer devices into the unit, and then checked back 24 hours later.
I used the computer for about 10 hours, and it remained on for the other 14 hours. Here’s everything I had plugged in:
- Dell Dimension 8100 desktop PC with two hard drives, CD-ROM, and speakers
- Sony 15-inch flat-screen monitor
- Netgear wireless router
- Wildblue satellite modem
- HP Officejet Pro L7580 printer
- 4-port powered USB hub with thumb drive
- Electric pencil sharpener
The result? It costs me 40 cents per day to keep my computer running constantly. That’s $2.80 per week, $12.00 per month, and $146 per year. My computer wasn’t quite the energy hog I had suspected. I could save $70 a year by turning it off for half the day, but I’m not sure that would be worth the savings.
I’ll be checking some other devices in the coming days – the second refrigerator, the washing machine, my TV/DVR/DVD/VHS, and so on. Stay tuned.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Keep me posted on what you find. Our e-bill went up quite a lot compared to last winter, despite new energy efficient windows and insulation in the attic as well as it being a warmer winter so far. I haven’t gotten my act together to get a meter and monitor anything, but a would happily learn from your findings
(oh and I think you mean the deep freeze of December 2009).
Thanks, Kathy. I fixed the 2009 error. I’ll blame it on Y2K.
A few bummers concerning my meter… for one, it doesn’t do 220V outlets, so I can’t test our clothes dryer. I’d like to know how much it costs us to dry a load of laundry at different temperature settings. Second, it requires an outlet, so I can’t test our light fixtures. I guess I’ll have to break down and do the math on those. Third, it does the washing machine, but can’t account for the energy required to heat the water for a hot load. I guess I’ll just wash all our clothes in cold water… or again, do the math.
How much do you pay per kilowatt hour where you are?
Looks like my rate is variable–I think it depends on the time of day the energy is used -they are trying to encourage folks to do laundry etc during the evening hours when there is less energy demand. In any event We are charged .084786 per KWH for the cheap rate and .102595 for the higher rate. For what it’s worth my bill was about $356 this month and I have been only washing in cold water for the last year or more (save for a couple loads of soiled bedding when someone’s been sick). We also only heat the rooms we use (though I suspect there is a lot of heat lost from the boys forgetting to keep the doors closed and forgetting to turn off lights when they leave a room), oh and I guess the fear of monsters leads to some of the energy costs (apparently monsters are less likely to visit if all the room lights are left on all night-they point to the fact that neither of them have been abducted when they’ve followed this practice, so why stop now). Oh well, if you find any huge energy wasters let me know, maybe they run in families. Thanks again for sharing your finds and also for sharing your lovely daughter with us. We all miss her and were so greatful she was able to come and help out. Love to all,
Kathy