- What are your appliances using in energy?
- What is the appliances standby energy usage?
- What is the appliances powered on energy usage?
- How can I measure appliance energy usage?
- What are my yearly appliance energy costs?
- How does a digital electricity meter work?
- Where can some energy savings be made?
Digital Electricity Meter Introduction
Recently digital electricity meter have become more affordable and very accurate.
They can measure power in watts, voltage, current in amps, power over time in kilowatt hours, dollars per hour and CO2 emissions.
Electricity measurement accuracy can be to 1 decimal place. This can be useful in measuring low wattage standby power usage.
Accurate electricity meters can be bought for under $30. Find out your appliance energy usage and where savings can be made.
- Consider placing a rooms entertainment equipment on one power board and switching it off at the wall when not in use.
- Appliances can be controlled by remote controlled power boards if power point access is difficult.
- Master slave powerboards can power up entertainment equipment when the television turns on.
- Adjust the brightness of TV's to suit the environment. Full brightness often set as the manufacturers default will use more energy.
- Turn off gaming consoles at the wall when not in use and save up to $200 per year. PS 3 and Xbox 360 have high standby power consumption.
- Turn on computer power management with screen power down at 15 minutes and computer sleep in 30 minutes of inactivity.
- Control computer peripherals with a single power board turned off at the wall when not in use.
- USB controlled power boards provide power to peripherals only when the computer is on.
- Choose a laptop or netbook instead of a desktop and save over 50% in energy costs.
- Consider desktops with energy efficient processors (often in small cases).
- Buy computers with Energy Star 4 or 5 rating and include 80 Plus standard power supplies (> 80% efficient).
- For business groups consider thin client computers with a server (local or remote).
- Tablets and smartphones can perform some computing tasks with much lower power consumption.
- Adjust the monitor brightness lower to suit the environment and also save electricity.
- Extend a computers life by upgrading or reformatting into Linux
- Some advanced computing functions can now be accessed using Cloud Computing Services
- Cloud Computing Section
- Local Computer Energy Calculator
- Local Computer Power Consumption Calculator based on parts
- Use clothes line rather than dryer. Save about $100 per year.
- Using cold water for the washing machine makes savings of 50 - 150 litres of hot water heating costs per load.
- Clean dryer filters regularly to improve efficiency. Consider ducting hot dryer air out of the house to save on cooling.
- Turn off fridges that do not need to be in use. Save about $100 for each fridge turned off per year. Modern fridges use less energy. Reference
- Look for new appliances with 1 watt standby and are top performers in Energy Stars. Top Energy Star Award Appliances
- Disconnect any battery chargers than are not in active use.
- Using a multi port USB power supply is more efficient than using a computer just for charging devices like smartphones and tablets.
- Local Appliance Energy Calculator
- Best Washing Machine Energy Star Comparisons
- Best Clothes Dryer Energy Star Comparisons
