Your Biggest Energy Pig at Home

We do not have A/C for our house.

We use two 20inch square fans in the windows. They consume 24watts each.

 

My AC consumes 800W to maintain temperature and about 1800W while it is cooling down. But I only run it at night time.

My biggest energy hog is my server rack. About 2KW constant draw, 24/7/365 and it doubles under high loads which don't happen too often.

 

that's too bad!!!

 

you got nuthin' on google and the nsa.

 

My two roommates, one leaves the TV on all day for his dogs (?????) while no one is home. The other keeps a personal mini fridge of ice cream.

LG-AS695 ? 2

 

I hear ya. My last roommate never turns off the lights unless he's watching a movie. The one car garage light which is for his car only is permanently on. Uses the heater in the morning and A/C in the afternoon, winter or summer. Temperature cannot deviate from 72 degrees no matter what. Uses the dryer every morning because it takes the wrinkles out of his clothes. Our electricity bill for a two bedroom apartment was consistently $100. That's more than I pay on average for a 3 bed house with my family of 6.

 

I hear you about the servers gulping down energy. It would be nice to convert them to solar power. If there was a national effort to solarize the server farms in this country, that could get the ball rolling to wean off of use of oil.

DBCassidy

 

SHHHH! They are watching, reading, and listening right now.

DBCassidy

 

I have a fairly good sized home but I have no idea the number of amps we pull. All I know is we have two 200 amp panels full of breaker switches. 3 heat pumps, 4 zones, two 80 gallon electric hot water tanks, two dishwashers, a mini fridge upstairs, beverage/wine cooler, among other things. Just paid the electric bill of $153. The electric company has changed out our electric meter twice over the past 8 years - is it because they thought they were defective? We are very conscious about leaving lights on and I am the thermostat Nazi in our home (LOL). We built our home to standards that qualify for slightly lower rates. I set the main floor at 77 during the day, 76 at night, with the master bedroom zone at 74 at bed time. Upstairs, one zone is at 80 while the other is at 82 since we generally don't spend a lot of time up there. When we have guests, or if we're using the space, I'll turn it down to 76. Spring and fall when the heat pumps don't get much use, our bills will average $60 - $75. Winter can get close to $200 during a cold spell and summer generally is no higher than $180. Our electric bills are generally the same or lower as our friends who have homes less than half the size, and a lot less appliances.

 

At least it helps with your winter heating

 

I must say this little gadget is second in line after my Kill-A-Watt for helping me track any changes we make and how they affect the monthly bill.

LG-AS695 ? 2

 

I live off grid and the biggest energy draw is the water pump, about 13 amps at 12 vdc, or about 150 watts. We use between 5-800 WH/day total, plus 12 gallons of propane per month.

On my grit tied house, the biggest draw is the fridge at about 800wh/day, total electric is about 5-8 KWHs/day. Solar hot water, wood heat, propane cooking.

Icarus

 

We have a time of day meter so we try to use the electric clothes dryer at night or hang the clothes out. The other electric hog is the electric stove/oven. Next would be the frig and then the one window A/C that is rated at 7.8A at 120V.

The one I want to replace most is our natural gas boiler that heats the house. Its rated for 140,000 BTU input and 100,000 BTU output. Talk about not efficient.... But a new boiler is expensive and not sure I want to switch from baseboard hot water heat to central forced air heat....

 

We are in the process of going off-grid. So lowering consumption is the goal.

Besides we moved to an area that does not need A/C.

Our well pump is our biggest load.

 

The new mini-split AC units are pretty efficient.
I just (DIY) installed a 24K BTU Panasonic mini-split (18 SEER rating) with four indoor heads for the upstairs bedrooms.
Four rooms covered with a 12 amp (max) draw. Most times the outdoor unit/compressor's hardly working. Overall it seems very efficient..

 

I've been 'evolving' that way after the big central air failed a couple of years ago:

• Window units - TV and bedroom, cheap, noisy, and readily available, their reliability left a lot to be desired and genuine pain in the *ss to put in and take out. Still, the 5,000 BTU operated just fine on Prius-power during summer power outages.
  
• Portable units - TV and bedroom, a little more but much easier to install and take down. Unfortunately bought some with higher power requirements than Prius power but the small one should work (famous last words!) Still there is the condensate problem but much easier to install and take out.
• Mini-split - awesome 9-10k BTU units running 800W or less, ideal for Prius power. Now they are homeowner installable. There are some technical challenges but one of my co-workers suggested installation of a 'cable raceway' on the interior walls. This makes installation much easier, fewer external holes, and I can stagger them in to the various rooms over the years. Best of all, each can be Prius powered so during an outage, we're OK. Some even have a heat-pump capability, another efficiency savings.

I'm still shopping but it is good to have choices. I never want to use that dang attic duct work again except for the gas furnace heat.

Bob Wilson

 

Consider the Rinnai boiler series. Try are up to 96%, provide demand hot water, and are very reasonably priced, and very reliable.

Icarus

 

Going by max ratings, the boiler you have is 5/7 = ~ 70% efficient.

Have you considered spending the money on windows or insulation instead ? Insulation will also improve your winter performance while windows will add value and aesthetics to your home if you have something nice outside on the Southern face.