Blue Boat Home learning to live together sustainably

Here is the electricity consumption of each of our appliances, measured by Kill A Watt unless otherwise noted.  "Typical usage" indicates how much power a device uses when we use it the way we usually do; cost per year assumes we use the device that way every day.  In reality, of course, we don't run any of these devices in any of these modes all day, every day, or even all year.  Costs are estimated based on $0.124 / kWh, which includes all our utility's fees and charges.

It's hard to classify the operating states of some electronics... for the purposes of this chart, "off" means no lights are showing and a power switch or button is required to turn it on; "standby" means a light is on and/or the device can be awakened by a button other than the power button; "idle" means it is fully turned on but not doing anything; and "on" or "running" means it is doing its main function.  Some devices do not turn off unless they are unplugged; others have both an off and standby mode; some consume the same amount of power whether running or idle; others save power while idle. Very low numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, since the Kill A Watt meter itself (as its name might imply) consumes a Watt!

Remaining to be measured:

• Air conditioner
• Cell phone charger (Jessie's)
• Dishwasher:
• Furnace (blower)
• Microwave oven (high power)
• Microwave oven (standby)
• Printer, inkjet (printing)
• Printer/copier/scanner (printing)
• Printer/copier/scanner (copying)
• Printer/copier/scanner (scanning)
• Stove:
• VCR (running)
• VCR/DVD, bedroom (playing VCR)
• VCR/DVD, bedroom (playing DVD)
• VCR/DVD, office (playing VCR)
• VCR/DVD, office (playing DVD)

Implications:

1. The most room for improvement is in the basement -- pretty much any means to reduce the amount of time the dehumidifier runs would pay for itself, from replacing the windows to running box fans.
2. The second biggest improvement would be to reduce the amount of time the media center is turned on.  Since it tends to turn itself on, this means unplugging it when no recordings are scheduled.
3. The refrigerator is almost 7x more efficient than the dehumidifier, and so is not a candidate for early replacement, despite being one of the least efficient models on the market 9 years ago.
   
4. Even on its lowest backlight setting, the LCD TV uses 50% more power than the CRT. (It also has more than twice as much screen area.)
5. The LCD TV and cell phone chargers use less than one Watt while on standby.
   
6. The media center uses nearly as much power while turned off as it does on standby, so we may want to consider unplugging it when it is not due to record a TV show.
7. The crock pot does not reduce its power consumption after it reaches peak temperature (boiling).  We may want to put it on a timer so it can cool off by dinnertime.
8. The handheld vacuum cleaner is a real bargain, whenever we can use it in place of either of the other vacuum cleaners.
9. The clock radio and stereo speakers do not use measurably more power when on than off, but the surround-sound speakers use more than 5 times as much.
10. The 17" LCD monitor uses more power than the Dell or Apple notebooks, even though the notebooks have their own 13" LCD screens (admittedly, half the screen area)
    
11. Leaving the Wii on standby all day consumes more power than playing a game and then unplugging it.  Even leaving it turned off (but plugged in) all day consumes nearly as much as playing a game and unplugging after.
12. Jessie's Gateway laptop uses more than twice as much power as Ben's Dell or Apple notebooks, despite being 8 years newer than the Dell and having only 1.5 times the screen area of either of them.  It's not a huge expense or anything, but it's an interesting fact.
13. The percolator uses almost twice as much power as the washing machine in the same amount of time, and a tenth as much as the dryer.