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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to
save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. ------ "We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right questions." -- Edwin Land |
#2
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:00:58 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote:
Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. You can get an idea just from the temperature of the device when it is on standby. Cold devices can be ignored. I've found the worst offender in all my AV equipment is the cable box. |
#3
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly.
I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. You can get an idea just from the temperature of the device when it is on standby. Cold devices can be ignored. I've found the worst offender in all my AV equipment is the cable box. The Parasound was always slightly warm, despite its size, so the power it pulled was not surprising. But a unit with a "compact" power supply might be warmer -- in that area -- than a unit that pulls more power, but whose supply uses a bigger transformer or is further from the cabinet's cover. |
#4
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:00:58 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote: Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. One measurement is worth many guesses. I have 3 kill-a-watt meters. Very handy. This is not altogether true. If it's not all together true, then it must be all apart false. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. Halloween was Saturday, so I'm not surprised that you're still seeing vampires. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. It's the ones that are left on 24x7x365 that will get you. Borrowed from one of my previous rants on the subject: My DirecTV R15-500 DVR burns: Operating power: 22 watts or 42 VA Standby power: 21 watts or 40 VA That's only 8 cents per day or $29/year (at $0.15/kw-hr). Much better. However, the 0.5 power factor isn't very impressive but it's under 75w so it doesn't have to comply with EN61000-3-2. Using the revised numbers, yields: 12.5 watts for the 120GB Seagate hard disk http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_9.pdf 3.5 watts for my single LNB Subtracting from the 22.0 watts total leaves: 6.0 watts for everything else including switcher efficiency. I don't think there's room for much improvement (except for power factor correction). -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#5
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 10:06:26 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote:
Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. You can get an idea just from the temperature of the device when it is on standby. Cold devices can be ignored. I've found the worst offender in all my AV equipment is the cable box. The Parasound was always slightly warm, despite its size, so the power it pulled was not surprising. But a unit with a "compact" power supply might be warmer -- in that area -- than a unit that pulls more power, but whose supply uses a bigger transformer or is further from the cabinet's cover. A device that pulls a lot of power won't just have a hot transformer. It'll have a number of VLSI chips all gettng rather warm heating the entire cabinet. The difference between a component pulling 5W and one pulling 60W isn't subtle. |
#6
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. Or use a strip with separate ON/OFF switches for each outlet. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...2C3B3PRAAMCN2Y http://tinyurl.com/ybzqx2a |
#7
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. No, its true. You just tend to erroneously dismiss things that you *think* you aren't using -- but really *are*! My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. I've taken to installing power switches in all of the devices that don't have them. They all *claim* to "sleep" but even sleeping they often are wasteful. My current worst offender is the 100Mbps switch. Sure, I can turn it off -- as long as nothing will have to talk to anything else! : (this will be problematic when I switch to VoIP phones; I guess I'll have to install a low power 10Mbps switch/hub just for those loads) |
#8
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power
factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. |
#9
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 14:13:27 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote: Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. I beg to differ. If it measured volt-amps, it would say volt-amps, not watts. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_meter "Demand is normally measured in watts..." and: "Modern electricity meters operate by continuously measuring the instantaneous voltage (volts) and current (amperes) and finding the product of these to give instantaneous electrical power (watts) which is then integrated against time to give energy used (joules, kilowatt-hours etc)." http://www.generatorguide.net/watt-acpower.html "Note that residential meters only measure only real power (watts) and PF of your appliances do not affect your cost of electricity". Note that some utilities charge extra for low power factor loads: http://www.envido.co.uk/what-we-do/power-factor-correction Marginally related but interesting drivel: http://www.google.org/powermeter/ -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#10
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Same here. I checked all my devices for standby power and found that the LCD TV (Pavo) drew a ridiculous 55VA in standby. The other devices weren't exactly power savers either. I found that my Yamaha surround sound amp has only a few Watts standby power and also has a switched AC mains output socket, which unfortunately can only handle 100 or so VA. I built a relay box controlled by the amp's switched mains output and controls a power board in which all the "bad" devices are plugged in. Now I can switch the whole "entertainment" corner (except PVR) on and off with the amp's remote control. Since the TV forgets its setup when switched off the universal remote has to go through a 1 minute setup procedure though. That'll deplete the batteries early ..... :-( Tony |
#11
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
My DirecTV R15-500 DVR burns: Operating power: 22 watts or 42 VA Standby power: 21 watts or 40 VA That's only 8 cents per day or $29/year (at $0.15/kw-hr). Much better. However, the 0.5 power factor isn't very impressive but it's under 75w so it doesn't have to comply with EN61000-3-2. Using the revised numbers, yields: 12.5 watts for the 120GB Seagate hard disk http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_9.pdf 3.5 watts for my single LNB Subtracting from the 22.0 watts total leaves: 6.0 watts for everything else including switcher efficiency. I don't think there's room for much improvement (except for power factor correction). Spin the disk down when it isn;t being used! I.e., the device knows when it needs to turn itself on to *record* a show. So, it can conceivably spin down the drive when it knows it does NOT need to record anything! (it can spin the drive up 6 seconds before air-time and thus ensure that nothing is "missed"). Likewise, it can see when you are *using* itself to play back video so it could safely spin down the drive at other times (and force you to incur that 3 or 4 second spin-up delay when you *do* grab the remote and start poking at it) Done properly, even that 6W figure could turn into 1/2W as the entire device could sleep when not in use -- and just wake-up when the next "alarm time" is scheduled *or* when IR is sensed from the remote. |
#12
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:18:50 -0700, D Yuniskis
wrote: Spin the disk down when it isn;t being used! Sure, but I don't have any control over the DirecTV firmware. What I have is what I have to live with. My guess(tm) is that they spin the disk continuously to improve the operating life of the hard disk drive. I have servers that run 24x7x365 that never seem to eat a disk drive. I have one in the office that's been running continuously since about 1995. However, the same drives, will die after 3-5 years with start-stop operation. Done properly, even that 6W figure could turn into 1/2W as the entire device could sleep when not in use -- and just wake-up when the next "alarm time" is scheduled *or* when IR is sensed from the remote. Well, it's not quite so simple. The box downloads firmware updates and program listings erratically. It also calls home on the phone line in the middle of the night for pay per view and quality control. I can also make record schedule entries via the internet. If the LNB is powered down, it takes about a minute for things to settle down and stabilize again. Power consumption can probably be drastically reduced using some manner of standby mode, but my box is VERY busy, which means the algorithm may be rather complex and the savings rather limited. If it costs me about $3/month to avoid complications and extend the life of the hard disk, I would probably pay the price. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#13
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
AZ Nomad wrote in message
... On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:00:58 -0800, William Sommerwerck wrote: Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. You can get an idea just from the temperature of the device when it is on standby. Cold devices can be ignored. I've found the worst offender in all my AV equipment is the cable box. I bought a set-top box (UK Freeview) and thought to myself "hang on a bit the box is as warm with green LED on as on red standby" I measured consumed watts in both states and standby is 80 percent of the on state. I put in a hard on/off switch , data held in EEProm or whatever and no difference in function except programme info pages takes a couple of minutes to gather -- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/ |
#14
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:18:50 -0700, D Yuniskis wrote: Spin the disk down when it isn;t being used! Sure, but I don't have any control over the DirecTV firmware. What I Of course! My point was that *they* could still make significant savings in their dessign. have is what I have to live with. My guess(tm) is that they spin the disk continuously to improve the operating life of the hard disk drive. I have servers that run 24x7x365 that never seem to eat a disk Spin the drives down and then try spinning them back up! : (i.e., the stress seems to be on the spin-up) I think modern drives have really long MTBFs. What kills disks is the same thing that kills most electronic things: heat. drive. I have one in the office that's been running continuously since about 1995. However, the same drives, will die after 3-5 years with start-stop operation. I haven't lost a disk in 30 years (touch wood). The drives in my primary machine have date stamps of 2002. They see a fair bit of power cycling (since the machine doesn't have a reset button, the only way to truly reset it is to cycle power and wait for all the drives to spin up again). Done properly, even that 6W figure could turn into 1/2W as the entire device could sleep when not in use -- and just wake-up when the next "alarm time" is scheduled *or* when IR is sensed from the remote. Well, it's not quite so simple. The box downloads firmware updates and program listings erratically. It also calls home on the phone line in the middle of the night for pay per view and quality control. These aren't random events. There is software inside the box *deciding* when to do these things. So, it could go to sleep and still have told something to wake it up at its next scheduled activity. I can also make record schedule entries via the internet. If the LNB is powered down, it takes about a minute for things to settle down and stabilize again. Power consumption can probably be drastically reduced using some manner of standby mode, but my box is VERY busy, which means the algorithm may be rather complex and the savings rather Modern processors have very complex power management features *in* the processor (SMI). If they aren't being exploited, it is because the box's manufacturer was just lazy (and had no incentive to do so!) limited. If it costs me about $3/month to avoid complications and extend the life of the hard disk, I would probably pay the price. I've been moving all of my "software" (movies, music) onto large disks (several TB) so that I can serve this from a single machine. I let the drives power down when not in use. My biggest problem is the network switch that I rely on for distribution as it can't be powered down. |
#15
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. No -- with caveats. The vast majority of KWHr meters (in the US) are old "motors". These are tuned electromechanical kludges that are absolutely amazing in that they work AT ALL! : And, that they are so easily mass produced and have such long service lives! The are typically calibrated at 10% load and 100% load. And, again, at 50% (lagging) power factor (e.g., 60 degrees). I *think* that the nature of most loads is such that they can still claim their 1% accuracy despite all the perverse loads that have come into being since they were created (decades ago). Many electronic KWHr meters are motors outfitted with mechanisms to "count revolutions". This allows the "new technology" to benefit from all fo the design tweeks that the meters have experienced in their history. It is possible to convert a KWHr meter to a VARHOUR meter (an RC network in one of the coils, IIRC). Some newer "solid state" meters can produce a variety of metrics (VAR, KW, ToU, Q, etc.) as they typically have access to more data than a regular "motor" would. I've often wondered how far you can push an old "motor" in terms of distorting the load. E.g., how would a 120Hz *impulse* load be registered? But, its just an intellectual exercise as coming up with a way to make *use* of power "extracted" in this form would be problematic. |
#16
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message ... Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Most of the vampire devices are items I don't use regularly. I'm going to move them to their own strip, so that they will always be off, except when actually being used. I have just two comments on this: 1) If you are a residence, you are metered and billed by watts ( real power) rather than volt*amps. Measure the watts to see the power consumption that actually is part of your billing. 2) If you live in an area that requires heating your house for a majority of a year, the power dissipated is added to the heating of your house during the heating season and reduces energy consumption from the furnace energy supplier. The power is not wasted in this situation. This fact is rarely considered by the media. David |
#17
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. That's VARs, not VA-hours. For 'volt-ampere reactive'. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net |
#18
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours.
I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. That's VARs, not VA-hours. For 'volt-ampere reactive'. If you can have watt-hours, you can have VA-hours. Both are units of energy. Is VAR a unit of energy? No, it's a unit of (reactive) power. Energy and power are not the same. |
#19
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. That's VARs, not VA-hours. For 'volt-ampere reactive'. If you can have watt-hours, you can have VA-hours. Both are units of energy. Is VAR a unit of energy? No, it's a unit of (reactive) power. Energy and power are not the same. Yes, of course. But a VA-hour is a meaningless unit unless you know the power factor--real power costs money and fuel, whereas (apart from transmission losses) reactive power just sloshes back and forth cycle by cycle. That's why multiplying it by any period of time longer than a cycle is meaningless. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net |
#20
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Yes, of course. But a VA-hour is a meaningless unit unless you know the power factor--real power costs money and fuel, whereas (apart from transmission losses) reactive power just sloshes back and forth cycle by This one is a keeper -----------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ;-) cycle. That's why multiplying it by any period of time longer than a cycle is meaningless. |
#21
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On 11/4/2009 10:36 AM D Yuniskis spake thus:
Phil Hobbs wrote: Yes, of course. But a VA-hour is a meaningless unit unless you know the power factor--real power costs money and fuel, whereas (apart from transmission losses) reactive power just sloshes back and forth cycle by This one is a keeper -----------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ;-) cycle. That's why multiplying it by any period of time longer than a cycle is meaningless. Ah, so electricity really *is* like water, eh? (Volts = pressure, amps = flow.) -- Who needs a junta or a dictatorship when you have a Congress blowing Wall Street, using the media as a condom? - harvested from Usenet |
#22
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 11/4/2009 10:36 AM D Yuniskis spake thus: Phil Hobbs wrote: Yes, of course. But a VA-hour is a meaningless unit unless you know the power factor--real power costs money and fuel, whereas (apart from transmission losses) reactive power just sloshes back and forth cycle by This one is a keeper -----------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ;-) cycle. That's why multiplying it by any period of time longer than a cycle is meaningless. Ah, so electricity really *is* like water, eh? (Volts = pressure, amps = flow.) I once knew someone who always switched the wall sockets off when not is use to prevent the electrickery flowing out of the open socket. Ron |
#23
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Ron wrote:
I once knew someone who always switched the wall sockets off when not is use to prevent the electrickery flowing out of the open socket. I was told by someone that they were worried about the radiation from their (receive only) satellite dish. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM |
#24
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
Ron wrote: I once knew someone who always switched the wall sockets off when not is use to prevent the electrickery flowing out of the open socket. I was told by someone that they were worried about the radiation from their (receive only) satellite dish. Geoff. Thats why they used to come with instructions for making a tinfoil hat |
#25
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
N_Cook wrote:
I bought a set-top box (UK Freeview) and thought to myself "hang on a bit the box is as warm with green LED on as on red standby" I measured consumed watts in both states and standby is 80 percent of the on state. I put in a hard on/off switch , data held in EEProm or whatever and no difference in function except programme info pages takes a couple of minutes to gather What is meant by "standby"? You may think you know (as I thought I did, too), but it isn't that simple. See he http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...75-of-time.ars It's not just Sony. I queried Panasonic about the regular clicking from my LCD TV, even when it was in "Standby" mode, and also the less-than-green readings I was getting from a power meter attached to it (15w in standby, and 30w when it clicked. I do not know what the power factor of the TV is, so do not know how these figures correlate with Panasonic's stated standby consumption of 0.3w, but they don't seem very different from those reported with the Sony). This was their reply: "In response, I would advise that first please ensure the SETUP menu option for “auto search in standby” is switched off. (this is in the “System Update” SETUP menu option. Turning off this option will also stop intermittent clicking from the TV that are caused as the internal PSU relays are turned on to allow the Freeview decoder to work for software updating. 2.) Please note that the set takes approximately 2 minutes for all the PSU relays to click off and so the power will only read 0.5W after this time. 3.) Ensure that the power meter used can read the power factor of the unit required to calculate AC power and is using this to calculate power. 4.) Ensure the meter is capable of accurately reading 0.5W; many meters cannot go this low. Please refer to the meter’s specification." That reply was open and very helpful, but (a) "auto search in standby" is the default condition (b) there is no mention of this in the manual (c) I still do not know how often the TV goes into auto search mode, for how long, and what the actual power consumption is in this mode. I have now taken to switching off at the plug when the TV is not in use. Info on the DTG pages let me know when to leave the TV in standby/autosearch for an update. It makes me wonder just how accurate many other low consumption "standby" figures are. -- Jeff |
#26
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 22:16:35 -0000, Jeff Layman wrote:
N_Cook wrote: I bought a set-top box (UK Freeview) and thought to myself "hang on a bit the box is as warm with green LED on as on red standby" I measured consumed watts in both states and standby is 80 percent of the on state. I put in a hard on/off switch , data held in EEProm or whatever and no difference in function except programme info pages takes a couple of minutes to gather What is meant by "standby"? You may think you know (as I thought I did, too), but it isn't that simple. See he http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...75-of-time.ars It's not just Sony. I queried Panasonic about the regular clicking from my LCD TV, even when it was in "Standby" mode, and also the less-than-green readings I was getting from a power meter attached to it (15w in standby, and 30w when it clicked. I do not know what the power factor of the TV is, so do not know how these figures correlate with Panasonic's stated standby consumption of 0.3w, but they don't seem very different from those reported with the Sony). This was their reply: that's impressive. I just took my killowatt from storage and measured a few devices. 50" panasonic plasma: on 340watts, off less than 1. 32" polaroid lcd: 130 Watts on, less than 1 off. diskless computer for mythtv remote (1.8ghz amd64, 2G ram), 25 watts on, no standby mode. Scientific Atlanta HD cable box, 20 watts on/standby. No surprises. I knew the cable box was a pig, about the same as a computer left running 24x7. |
#27
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On 11/4/2009 11:56 AM Ron spake thus:
David Nebenzahl wrote: Ah, so electricity really *is* like water, eh? (Volts = pressure, amps = flow.) I once knew someone who always switched the wall sockets off when not is use to prevent the electrickery flowing out of the open socket. Don't laugh; way back when, they (you know, "they" who put light bulbs inside refrigerators and such) used to sell outlet covers for nervous customers worried about just that. -- Who needs a junta or a dictatorship when you have a Congress blowing Wall Street, using the media as a condom? - harvested from Usenet |
#28
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
N_Cook wrote:
I bought a set-top box (UK Freeview) and thought to myself "hang on a bit the box is as warm with green LED on as on red standby" I measured consumed watts in both states and standby is 80 percent of the on state. I put in a hard on/off switch , data held in EEProm or whatever and no difference in function except programme info pages takes a couple of minutes to gather I checked my VCR/DVD player one day and found that it drew exactly the same amount of power when "off" as it did when "on". The power button was essentially just a placebo. |
#29
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
"William Sommerwerck" writes:
Your electric meter measures watts, not VA. If you know the power factor, you can convert these VA measurements to watts and eventually to your cost of electricity. The kill-a-watt meter shows both VA and watts (as well as PF). My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. It measures true watt-hours. A bad PF device will cost you only SLIGHTLY more in losses than if it had 1.0 PF. [Increased I, ergo more I^2R] You can look up "Electricity meter" in Wikipedia.. -- A host is a host from coast to & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433 |
#30
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 14:13:27 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed: My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. FWIW, Energy Australia responded to my query as follows: "Most residential classification customers are metered by a spinning disc meter, or a basic electronic meter which does not have enough 'smarts' in the meter device to enable billing to be carried out at a KVA pricing. Currently small customers are billed on KWh pricing, and KVA Demand pricing usually relates to large commercial and industrial installations where poor power factor may impact upon the EA network, and there may be an economic billing benefit in the customer pricing to ensure that Power factor is closer to Unity." - Franc Zabkar -- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email. |
#31
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
On Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:00:58 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed: Its been pointed that you don't really need a watt or watt-hour meter to save money -- you just turn off things you're not using. This is not altogether true. My electric bill was ridiculous, so I started checking. I'd been too lazy to regularly turn off my A/V system's equipment, which includes a number of vampire devices. I was surprised to discover that the Parasound controller pulled 30VA, even when not turned on. And a Lexicon CP-3plus drew 20VA, simply in standby. As I rarely use it, I turned the standby switch to "off". Calculate the VA consumed by the X2 EMI suppression capacitor across the mains terminals. For example, a 2.2uF cap across a 240VAC 50Hz supply consumes 39.8VA: http://www.google.com/search?q=240+x...+x+50+x+2.2E-6 - Franc Zabkar -- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email. |
#32
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours.
I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. FWIW, Energy Australia responded to my query as follows: "Most residential classification customers are metered by a spinning disc meter, or a basic electronic meter which does not have enough 'smarts' in the meter device to enable billing to be carried out at a KVA pricing. Currently small customers are billed on KWh pricing, and KVA Demand pricing usually relates to large commercial and industrial installations where poor power factor may impact upon the EA network, and there may be an economic billing benefit in the customer pricing to ensure that Power factor is closer to Unity." This is really confusing. Looking solely at the second paragraph, the implication is that industrial metering is at the VAh level, not Wh. I don't think this person really knows what he's talking about. The fact that his statements are redundant ("a basic electronic meter which does not have enough 'smarts' in the meter device") and jargony strongly suggests this. Nevertheless, thanks for asking. I think I'll call the Seattle utility again. |
#33
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
My understanding was that the watt-hour meter actually measure VA-hours. I asked the electric company once, and that said that was the case. But I wasn't speaking with an engineer. FWIW, Energy Australia responded to my query as follows: "Most residential classification customers are metered by a spinning disc meter, or a basic electronic meter which does not have enough 'smarts' in the meter device to enable billing to be carried out at a KVA pricing. Currently small customers are billed on KWh pricing, and KVA Demand pricing usually relates to large commercial and industrial installations where poor power factor may impact upon the EA network, and there may be an economic billing benefit in the customer pricing to ensure that Power factor is closer to Unity." This is really confusing. Looking solely at the second paragraph, the implication is that industrial metering is at the VAh level, not Wh. It may well be, and for the reason given, which seems valid. I don't think this person really knows what he's talking about. The fact that his statements are redundant ("a basic electronic meter which does not have enough 'smarts' in the meter device") and jargony strongly suggests this. Perhaps a bit clumsy, but I think the word meter is being used in two different ways. The scribe probably wasn't employed for his writing talent. Sylvia. |
#34
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
I used to work for a submetering outfit and Kill-a-watt was cool.
We tried real hard to find as cheap a doppler ultrasound flowmeter for water and fuel but the lowest we got was two grand. But my stud finder is ultrasound. THe only difference should be software. - = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist http://www.panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm http://www.facebook.com/vasjpan2 ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos] |
#36
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Kill-a-Watt surprises
William Sommerwerck wrote:
This is really confusing. Looking solely at the second paragraph, the implication is that industrial metering is at the VAh level, not Wh. Industrial customers sometimes are required to pay extra if they have a low power factor. This gives them an incentive to do their own power factor correction instead of making it the power company's problem. |
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