'Always ON' appliances

Anything you can turn on with a remote, like my new window air conditioner. It will have to be unplugged unless I put a 220 on/off switch on it. Do they make those?

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Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

Don't forget the coffee maker.
The kind for the lazy folks who forgot how to flip a on\off switch. But then I guess they figure that if the coffee pot isn't turned on at exactly 5:36 am that they are deprived and are second class .

Also the monster of them all is the------"*** INSTANT ***"
coffee makers, where the water is constantly kept "coffee hot" by--yup---an electric guzzling element.

Just another huge waste for this stupid gotta have it--NOW peoples. (almost said sheeple's )

Boy am I deprived....my coffee pot has NO timer\clock\radio\thingamagigs.

There wouldn't be much point in having an answering machine or a phone if it wasn't always on would there? We recharge the cell phone in whatever vehicle we happen to be driving at the time it needs a recharge.

This is interesting.

I absolutely did not know about 'phantom whatevers'. I thought the always on or instant on TV's were not longer being made.

Believe it or not, I just picked up an old Mother Earth News magazine from sometime in the 90's and that was the lead article!!!

From now on, I will unplug the computer, don't know about the dish satellite. It is a bear to get up and running again - but in a few months, our contract (that's another story) will be up and we will drop that little expense and the energy it uses.

I always unplug an iron, leaving an iron unplugged seems like a tragedy waiting to happen.

Thanks everyone for mentioning this. I am going back to the link and see what other appliances are culprits.

Washing machines?

I plead guilty.

And I need to really work on this. Our power strips for the TV's are behind the cabinets, most inconvenient to turn off. I tend to leave the computer on all the time because it's so slow to boot up and get back where I was (needs more memory!). And even when I do turn it off the monitor is on, though on energy-saving mode - the on/off button is broken. (It's an LCD monitor...kind of pricey, and I'm fond of it). I don't turn off that power strip because it's a UPS system into which our cable modem is plugged as well - and that controls our telephones. If the power goes off we still have phone service for a little while, then it's gone, but it's usually only a tripped circuit breaker or a 2-3 minute outage anyway, and it takes a long time for the phones to get back online after being shut off.

At least we did replace the big light outside the barn with a motion sensor light. That was a big savings.

there aughta be a law is a bad idea, because.....

electric and the cost of it isnt an entitlement, it is a commodity. like corn or oil, or tin foil or birdseed.

what you suggest is a government price freeze or, a government usage control.

a little consumer information is all that is required. We never "run low on power" we simply cause a high demand. and a high demand is not going to make us "run out of power".

the more the consumer demands the more the corporation produces and the more money they make.

sure... it makes more pollution, but if the demand is high and the supply is high, and it is dirty to produce power, regulating the pollution output of the power plant is better. The cost of power will go up, consumption will go down and/or people will go out looking for more efficient toys to buy to replace their old ones.

don't dance with the devil entertaining the idea that the government should control our use and our choice of toys we buy. If smart people choose to buy energy smart items... energy hog systems will have no market.

all it takes is a little education and commonsense. you cant make a law to cure collective stupid.

lol

I metered all my stuff.... when its off, it is drawing no power. I left a power strip of "transformer packs" [four, one for the 18v drill battery, the laptop the cell phone and a recharge flashlight] plugged into a kill a watt meter unused but plugged into power.... in one week those 4 charger packs drew no power. not even a 10th of a KWH.
So I dunno if that idea about power leaking off those things is a myth, but I sure cant get them to leak.
I also left a computer tower plugged in, with the monitor, shut off but the power strip ON. same deal no power consumed for a week.

now, the UPS battety backup did draw a tiny fraction of a KWH in a week, it keeps a battery charged up.with no UPS in the loop... the computer tower drew no current.

neither did a shop light fixture... nor anything i could plug in and leave "off", waiting for the phantom power to add up.

maybe old old old stuff does draw 'phantom power" I dunno.

I do have a mystery power drain bbut not from anyting I can actually account for...

dang phantoms...

mine is 3 yrs old, one week on the meter no used, no power drain. I doubt its the washer machines.
lol

I was hoping "numb" would chime in, since I know he has that gadjet. I think that "phantom" power is so small that its more trouble than it's worth. I bet changing one 100 watt bulb to flourescent would save more than all the phantom power in your house. I bet the payback time on a power strip would probably be ridiculus(sp). Powering up from "cold" probably burns up any power saved.These appliances werent designed to work this way, so it may not be healthy for them.A cheap sweater from Goodwill will save a lot more energy than a house full of power strips.

65284, true the cordless phone and answering machine wouldn't be any use if they were unplugged but some people don't realize that they are always drawing current.

comfortablynumb, have you never heard of rolling brown-outs or the power outages from excess usage? Electric companies can make only a finite amount of electricity, that is why they are currently trying to build new power plants. I do know the new washing machines with the computer boards do draw some current, it may only be a kwh per month or less but they do draw some. I unplug my washer so it doesn't get it's poor little brain fried in a power surge. With the battery chargers it all depends on how good the battery is. If the battery won't hold a charge the charger will draw more current. Again, it won't draw much, maybe 2 or 3 cents worth a month. At any rate, not good to leave them plugged in all the time. Power surges can cause damage to always-on appliances.

Wasn't calling for a new law! Just said I was surprised somebody hasn't made one yet. Little sarcasm here! LOL

If you are on alternative energy, ie rolling your own, you become very aware of the least phantom load.

I am very dependent on electric power to make this mobile home habitable, which is a main reason for not wanting brown outs or black outs here. Certainly want to do my part to remove unnecessary draws on the grid.

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Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

I had a brain fart cyn I was thinking about other aspects of what ya said I wasnt meaning to beaT you with a shoe or nothing.

the brown out thing, I was more thinking of it as a sign of demand and not a sign of a need to conserve, from a supply point of view. the natives wat more drugs, ya make more drugs, you dont advise them to cut back on consumption..... if you are the pusher.

my heads on a different gear I dunno what I was babbling about..

lol

the phantom load thing... I see it, I cant find the source. for example, I shut off everything last night, all but the fridge and the tv. somewhere, something ate 8 KWh of power, and it wasnt the fridge because it doesnt draw that much, from previous metering.


based on my cost, 7.5 cents per KwH, 7.5 cents /by 1000 watts = .008 cents per watt hour. {if my math is flawed, point it out...please!} so a 60 watt bulb burning for one hour is .008x60= 48 cents per hour.

a 13 watt CFL [60 watt equivalent] would be; 13x.008= 10 cents, per hour.

the incandescent burns almost 5 times the power of a CFL, by my math that might very well be off. math never was my strong point.

no CFLs in my house burn out as fast as incandescents for some reason. and they cost 14 bucks for a 4 pack. with tax thats nearly 4 bucks a bulb.

I can save the same money in the long run but simply turning the light off when it isnt needed, or better, I put 3 min motion sensors on a few rooms.

the math doesnt seem right.... 7.5 cents is .075 dollars, divide by 1000 watts [one kwh] to get cost per watt hour it is.....

.000075 dollars. ofr argument round it off to .00008 so 60 watt hours = .0048 dollars, or rounded off thats..... 1/2 a penny for one hour of 60 watt light.

ok my head hurts someone correct that math before I get a nose bleed.

a 13wCFL by that figure will burn for 4 hours, for the same cost as an incandescent 60w bulb.
or for a whole penny you get 8 hours of 13wCFL light, and only 2 hours if you have a 60 w incandescent?

with a price for one watt-hour, you can do some surgical thinking.

am I right on the cost of 1 watt hour = .00008 cents ?

watt rating / 1000 = kw rating. so a 60 watt bulb goes; 60w/1000= .06
so a 60watt bulb is really... a .06 kilowatt bulb.

.06Kw X .075 cents = .0045 cents, or rounded off as they will do in their favor, .005 cents... 1/2 a cent per one hour of use.

13w/1000=.013Kw X .075 = .000975 cents, per hour.

thinking that way makes it a lot easier. I think...

I turned almost everything off at the breaker box. I have a frig and a freezer that I didn't turn off. Went out to look at the meter and it was still running 90 mph. The only thing that slowed it down was to flip the main to kill all electric to the entire house. I did a test over the past year. I have 3 A/C's that run 24/7 during the summer. I heat with wood, not even a fan to circulate the heat during the winter. My bill was the same in the winter as it was in the summer. It appears that I pay $300 a month to run the frig and freezer, everything else is free.

LOL

seem like a lot of that going around.

Let me ask this...I use surge protectors/power strips to protect my computer and high priced sewing machine as well as my iron against electrical surges. In doing it also makes sure they are off. Is this not a practical or workable thing to do?

I learn something new every day here...even when I haven't much time to spend on the HT site! LOL

LQ

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I was doing that and was told it puts the computer at risk because the surge protector only protects when it is turned on. When turning the surge protector off, you are turning off the protection but keeping the electric lines connected for surges to come through. The only way to protect them and not have the instant on feature active is to unplug them. If this information is not correct, someone please enlighten me to the true facts.

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KindredSpirit:
I was listening to the morning TV show from my radio on the way to work, so I have no idea what the thing looks like. Maybe you can google whichever show has Diane Sawyer on it for this week and find the segment for new gadgets or moneysavers?

Sounds like you are on 'level pay'. Might ask your electric company.

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

Comfortablynumb, no problem, I misread things all the time.

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)