Better question, what DO you do to get under 6KW/day while gone? Do you guys turn off breakers? My stuff is off when I'm away, but lots of phantom loads ~250W.
Hi TheBackRoads:
I think this is a good question. (I've had another one while reading through, which is I guess I'm wondering what folks use their TED device for, because in some cases it seems to be a bit different than my use approach, which involves trying to zoom in on various loads, including tiny ones, and getting a sense of how they affect the overall energy use at my house.).
Anyway, to get back to your question, what do I do to get under 6 kW/day when gone?
I had posted a list of measures in a previous message, and I'll paste some of it here:
- turning off circuits at the breaker panel: garage, HVAC, dishwasher
- unplugging 5 cordless phones
- turning off shower hot water recirculator (generally off anyway, but sometimes I forget).
- unplugging a couple of alarm clocks.
- turning off surge protector on one or two other things.
- unplugging one or two smaller UPS.
- turned off all internet related.
To this I would amend that lately I haven't been doing all these things (I don't unplug all cordless phones these days for example) and so I come back to a house that uses about 3.5-4 kWh per day, rather than 2.5.
There are a variety of other thoughts though. I guess various points large and small:
- I have one refrigerator/freezer, it is sized for a one-person household (about 12 cubic feet) and is generally regarded as one of the world's most efficient IIRC (Sunfrost brand). It cost a lot of money and uses (according to claims when I first bought it) about 0.6 kWh per day, on average.
- my home is inherently energy-saving (
www.terra-dome.com) and only 1,600 square feet plus garage. It's also set up as a one person household, so I don't have to be too worried about others when I make some of these "what do I unplug" decisions.
- if I really want to save energy, I turn off the circuit to the garage and manually walk back into the house upon returning from a trip, rather than having the garage door openers stand at the ready for days or weeks.
- someone mentioned their security alarms or smoke alarms taking energy. My smoke alarms and security sensors are battery powered. My security system though does have a component that is plugged in and has increased home energy use about 240 wh per day, I'd say.
- I've installed one or two or more few things which in theory are about saving energy but which ultimately in some ways take a bit of energy. This includes not only the motor on my solar hot water but also the inverter linked to my solar and home batteries.
- Overall, from day one I have refused to listen to the idea that a power draw is too small and so I shouldn't bother about it. It all adds up, I say, and so I try to consider if something really needs to be plugged in and running, or not.
With all that said, for a larger household with a conventional house and lots of other things going on, I think I'd be using a lot more energy both when away or at home. So, in some ways, now that I think about it, 6-7 kWh per day doesn't seem that bad, though I do tend to think that there are probably a few measures some folks could take to get that down at least a bit.
One footnote, I do not bother with any sort of DVR type considerations but instead tend to buy-and-stream. So, I never thought of it as an energy saving measure, but I guess in the end it is. I always make certain to have a surge protector with an on/off switch on my TV and most other electronics appliances, and for my TV and streaming device this is definitely off at all times when not in direct use. I"ve tried some smart power strips and so far haven't figured them out, so I stay with my old-school remember-to-turn-off-the-strip approach, for now. I do think it helps, in part because the streaming device has no off switch and in part due to the vampire load inherent to the TV waiting for the remote command.
Poll
