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From: Alex on 29 Jul 2010 22:35
Hi Everyone ...

Today Oprah had an episode about frugal living, and one suggestion was
to unplug most items when not in use. I've known for some time that
many electrical items like TV, cable box, etc use electricity even
when off, but while watching the show I started wondering if timers
could help cut back on how much electricity those devices use.

My thought is this weekend I'll pick-up a Kill-a-watt meter plus a GE
7-day plug-in timer, both of which at home depot would be about $45.
My thought is to gauge how much electricity the things in our
entertainment center use per hour when not in use (HDTV, cable box,
BluRay, AppleTV, and Wii) and if I can set the timer to only bring
power to these devices say from 4:30pm to 11pm M-F then change the
weekend schedule as needed, this would cut the usage by a large
percentage. Then I could do the same for the cable modem/router and
even the microwave in the house.

Has anyone investigated doing something like this? They just
installed a Smartmeter at our house, so hopefully soon we'll be able
to see how much electricity our house uses in 15 minute intervals
anytime.

Thanks for any advice...

Alex
From: Michael Black on 29 Jul 2010 23:39
On Thu, 29 Jul 2010, Alex wrote:

> Hi Everyone ...
>
> Today Oprah had an episode about frugal living, and one suggestion was
> to unplug most items when not in use. I've known for some time that
> many electrical items like TV, cable box, etc use electricity even
> when off, but while watching the show I started wondering if timers
> could help cut back on how much electricity those devices use.
>
Think it through, which is what frugality is really about.

How many of those devices need power to keep settings? If they don't then
you don't need a timer, just put them on a master switch of some kind and
turn them off when you don't need them. Indeed, it's a useful thing
anyway since you are likely to use them all together, and having single
switch for them all means you don't have to fuss with multiple on/off
switches like you're in the cockpit of an airplane.

You can check each device. Unplug them for ten minutes or so, then
see how much resetting you need to do before you can actually use them.
Chances are good many will require some work, and thus you won't want
to turn them off. That they don't have some internal backup to keep
the settings when power disappears is a completely different matter, and
really that's where the fussing should go.

Unless you are willing to redo the settings each time you turn on the
devices, you won't want to do anything but leave them plugged in.

Why would a timer be better than a switch? You end up spending more
money for a timer than a switch, but all it does is turn things on
and off without you having to remember to turn things off. It's way
cheaper to just remember.

Timers on heating, which I assume is where you got this "idea",
is a very different matter. There, you want temperatures to be
reasonable when you get up, or when you come home. Thus you either
add a timer to turn the heat on enough of a time before you get up
or come home, or you live with the cold until it warms up once you get up
or come home to turn on the heat. A very different matter, you need
things turned on while you are still in bed or still out.

The things at home don't need that warming up. You get up and flip
the switch. Or come home and flip the switch.

Buying gadgets isn't necessarily a frugal thing.

If you want to know about current drain, pull everything out of your
AC outlets and record the time and the reading on your electric meter.
Leave things unplugged for an hour, maybe a few hours (I suspect the
longer you leave things off, the easier it will be to get a good reading).
When the time period is over, read the electric meter again, then subtract
the first reading from the second, and you know what power has been
used in that time.

Then, plug things back in but don't turn them on. Record the time and
the reading on the electric meter when you do this, and then sit back
witout using things for the same length of time. Then get the electric
meter reading, subtract the reading at the start from the reading at
the end.

You now have two values of consumption, one without your devices plugged
in, the other with them plugged in. Is it some value that you will
really fuss about, or not? Figure out how much money you pay per hour for
that current drain, and then scale it up. Is it something to worry about,
or will that light you leave on over the front door be more significant?

If you find the draw excessive, then the thing to do is start dealing with
what you can live without.

A device that you don't use very often might as well not be plugged in
all the time, you can live with any resetting of things on the occasions
you do use the device. YOu likely will find some devices draw current
but not to keep memory alive, and those might as well be turned off
when not being used.

Michael

From: Metspitzer on 30 Jul 2010 00:17
On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:35:33 -0700 (PDT), Alex <samalex(a)gmail.com>
wrote:

>Hi Everyone ...
>
>Today Oprah had an episode about frugal living, and one suggestion was
>to unplug most items when not in use. I've known for some time that
>many electrical items like TV, cable box, etc use electricity even
>when off, but while watching the show I started wondering if timers
>could help cut back on how much electricity those devices use.
>
>My thought is this weekend I'll pick-up a Kill-a-watt meter plus a GE
>7-day plug-in timer, both of which at home depot would be about $45.
>My thought is to gauge how much electricity the things in our
>entertainment center use per hour when not in use (HDTV, cable box,
>BluRay, AppleTV, and Wii) and if I can set the timer to only bring
>power to these devices say from 4:30pm to 11pm M-F then change the
>weekend schedule as needed, this would cut the usage by a large
>percentage. Then I could do the same for the cable modem/router and
>even the microwave in the house.
>
>Has anyone investigated doing something like this? They just
>installed a Smartmeter at our house, so hopefully soon we'll be able
>to see how much electricity our house uses in 15 minute intervals
>anytime.
>
>Thanks for any advice...
>
>Alex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power
From: Bill on 30 Jul 2010 01:49
A timer is a good idea for something like a cable TV box or satellite box.
Those need to be on awhile before you can use them, so not easy to pull the
plug.

Other than that, I use power strips WITHOUT an "on light" on the switch.
These are hard to find anymore since most now have a power on light. But I
found one type which has a solid black plastic switch and no power on light.

Then I can place these power strips in an easy to reach location and easily
switch things off when not in use.


From: Alex on 30 Jul 2010 09:58
Thanks for the great replies...

Actually the idea of using timers came from an episode of Oprah that
aired last night where they interviewed several people who talked
about how they save electricity. One lady reported that her electric
bill went from over $200 to less than $100 just by unplugging
everything she didn't use. I doubt we'll get that kind of return
since I think much of our usage comes from the HVAC system plus the
oven since we cook each morning and night, however if we can use
timers to 'unplug' the vampire devices when we're not home, that would
help to some degree.

I'm trying to mix frugal living with convenience, which is where the
timers come into play. Our entertainment system (TV, cable box, Wii,
and BluRay) all plug into the wall through one power switch, but given
the cable box takes about 3-5 minutes to power-up, that's not ideal
with a 3 year old. This may change in time, but by using the timers
to disconnect power from these devices from say 7:30am to 4:30pm
during the week day plus 11pm to 6am each night, that would disconnect
the devices about 56% of the time. When I get the KillAWatt meter to
test how much they use, this should help. If it's only using $10-$20/
month it may be worth it to just keep them plugged in... not sure. We
also have a second fridge in the garage we're not really using, so I
may look into getting rid of that as well.

Michael, you said I probably got the idea from heating, but honestly I
didn't think about having a timer on the electric water heater until
reading other posts after I posted my comment. As you suggested I'll
need to test how much electricity our hot water heater uses, by
monitoring the meter, but given our hot water heater is in the garage
with Texas summers, it's VERY warm in there most days as it is. I
wonder if a timer would help if we only had it turn on the water
heater from 4am to 6am so the water's warm for AM showers, then again
from 4pm to 6pm so it's warm for evening kids baths, laundry, etc. I
bet with the garage staying as warm as it is, that would help keep the
water warm. Then for winters I could adjust the timer and wrap the
water heater.

Metspitzer, great read on Wiki article, and they actually suggest what
I'm suggesting here by using timers.

And BIll, I didn't think of the light on the power supply using a
large amount of power itself, but I guess it all adds up.

Thanks for the replies -- Alex
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