The Energy Audit: Part Two -- Which household appliances draw the most power?

This article is part 2 of a series.  Read previous article.

The next question to answer in my power audit was what things in our home are using what level of power.  In order to answer this, I spent $20 on a fantastic device called the P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor.  This handy gizmo plugs into any outlet, you plug your appliance in question into it, and you can see how much power the beast is drawing.

I had far too much fun with this thing, running all over my condo, inhaling large quantities of dust as I crawled into tight corners under tables I haven’t been in years, plugging and unplugging like there was no tomorrow.  A small part of me felt like I was solving a big mystery by uncovering this data.  It was enlightening and empowering!

I wasn’t able to go behind my fridge, dishwasher, washer/dryer, or microwave/stove/oven, so those are out of the analysis for now.  Everything else in my home that plugs in was included.

The top five appliances in terms of wattage drawn:

1. Hair Dryer - 1875 watts
2. Toaster    -  1515 watts
3. Panini Grill - 1320 watts
4. Vacuum   -  1165 watts
5. Iron         -   1040 watts

Apparently generating heat takes a lot more wattage than generating light. I don’t know why this surprised me so much.  I guess it’s just kind of strange to think about making toast in the morning leading to major worldwide crises.  To me, toast always feels like a calming influence: something so neutral you could sit down with the Palestinians and Israelis on and come to an agreement that this was a lovely breakfast.

Truth is though, none of these devices runs for very long, so in order to figure out what the culprits are in my energy usage, I need to look at the wattage multiplied by the estimated usage time of each of these devices.  If you'd like to look at the entire audit, you can download the spreadsheet I used. 

The top ten appliances in terms of monthly power drawn:

1. Desktop Computer #1 – 72 kwh/month
2. Desktop Computer #2 – 64.8 kwh/month
I was shocked in at how much power my computers draw. Much more so than your average light fixture, and I leave them on 24 hours a day.  It’s just so darn time-consuming to shut down and start them up on a regular basis.

Even worse, if I add up all of the “stuff” that is attached to my always running computer: external hard drives, speakers, printers, DSL, WiFi... the situation is even more bleak.  All totaled, these systems plus peripherals cost me 115 kwh/month, or a whopping 36% of my total power usage!

3. Aerogarden – 36 kwh/month
My Aerogarden is a nifty box that irrigates and “suns” seeds to grow me basil and tomatoes. So much for growing herbs in Seattle in winter.  There’s no way the few handfuls of chopped basil I get from this bad boy is worth the energy it’s drawing.  It’s likely going to be cheaper to buy it at the store, or try to gently encourage some to grow in my window.

4. Comcast Cable box – 28.3 kwh/month
This one just flat out pissed me off.  My cable box from Comcast draws 40 watts. That would be fine, except it continues to draw those 40 watts with the cable power turned off.  Literally, turning off the power to the cable box did NOTHING to its power consumption levels despite the happy little clicking noise it made as it switched off.

That would be okay.  I could unplug the cable box when I needed to.  But when I do that, it loses state entirely – all of the data, program listings, DVR settings, are wiped until they can be restored from the central server again.  And that takes some time.  Twelve full minutes by my count.

Does anyone know if satellite tv has a similar problem?  I might feel a switch coming on...

5. TV #1 – 24 kwh/month
I like my TV.  And it is definitely a power draw during the few hours it’s on a day.  We’ll have to see if there’s a way to handle that without cutting back on viewing time.

6. Xbox 360 – 18.24 kwh/month
There’s been ton of articles written about it. The Xbox360 is power hungry!  Even when it’s turned off and plugged in, it draws a watt or two.

7. Family Room Lamp – 14.4 kwh/month
The lamp that’s pretty much always on in my family room is a monstrous little power drainer.

8. Computer Monitor #1 – 13.44 kwh/month
My primary computer monitor is always on, showing pics of the family, ready for me to use it.  Not good, apparently.

9. Vornado Fan – 9.84 kwh/month
The husband sleeps hot.  He turns into molten lava at night and requires a constant cool breeze aimed at him to stay semi-solid.  And since I’ve refused to fix the air conditioner, he’s been reduced to sleeping with the window open with a fan to try to circulate some air into the room. 

10. Hair Dryer – 8.44 kwh/month
I have long hair, and it has a tendency to go wavy and weird when I let it air dry.  It looks like the most energy-efficient way to fix that, however, is to straighten it with a hair straightener after its dried, and not to blow dry it straight.  Seems like a small behavior modification could make a difference in power usage here.

In Summary:
The overall audit accounted for approximately 70% of my total energy usage. Working backwards, it seems that the rest of my appliances and recessed lighting uses about 197kWh/month.  I’ll need to dive more into these later in order to completely address my energy usage. But this is a great start to understanding my energy patterns, and how to alter them.

Moving forward, it’s time to start diving into some projects to see exactly how far I can reduce this.

Comments

[Beth Terry]

One helpful device for you could be Smart strip power strips. They make it easier to turn off power to energy vampires because you don't have to remember to turn off the power strip. When you turn off the "control" device, everything else dependent on it turns off too.

Here's a post about it:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/10/smart-strips-are-really-smart.html

Now, this wouldn't work for your cable box, as someone pointed out to me, because you'd lose all your programming. But it would work for all your other entertainment devices. And it could work for all your computer peripherals as well. My post gives examples for how I've used them.

[Beth Terry]

By the way, thanks for the detailed explanations of computer power and light bulb wattages, etc. I love how detailed, organized, and thorough your blog posts are. I think we can certainly learn from each other!

Beth

[cody]

That was a great article and funny too. Thanks