Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
.....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

vortex2 wrote:
I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

It's probably not worth losing sleep over ;-) You might find you are
"wasting" 20 quid per year, but since that's less than half a tankful
of petrol or diesel, try to put it into context.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

You can judge the total more easily by watching the meter go round,
having first temporarily switched off likely interruptions such as
fridges and freezers and central heating pumps. But your power meter
will be useful to identify what makes up this "base" load.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?

Thinking about it, only. But please post your results.

--
"Signito ergo sum - I sign therefore I am."

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

In article ,
vortex2 wrote:
I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to
get out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am
in for a shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?

You need to ask yourself what the options are if you actually need such
things. Some need permanent power because of clocks etc but many don't.
There's no need to leave chargers switched on when not in use, for example.

--
*I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

"vortex2" wrote in message
.. .
I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to
get out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in
for a shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?
I'm working on it...
I've got posts in sci.electronics.basics - about reading the flashing LED
installed on some electricity meters, and keeping track of my power usage!!
I've gone from basic voltage comparators to a full blown microprocessor
project now... I'll let you (all) know when it's done!!
_______________________
Grim

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:49:47 -0000, vortex2 wrote:

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house
than ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

Most of that list you can't do much about, expecte don't leave TV's in
standby switch 'em off. Any chargers switch off/unplug when not actually
charging something.

I doubt that a Mplain power meter will be particulary accurate at low
power levels. Probably easier to count disc rotations or LED flashes to
see what your "base load" is.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

In article , The Grim Reaper dontbother
@Idontwanttoknow.com writes
"vortex2" wrote in message
. ..
I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to
get out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in
for a shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?
I'm working on it...
I've got posts in sci.electronics.basics - about reading the flashing LED
installed on some electricity meters, and keeping track of my power usage!!
I've gone from basic voltage comparators to a full blown microprocessor
project now... I'll let you (all) know when it's done!!
_______________________
Grim



And the consumption of what thats going to take!....
--
Tony Sayer

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

vortex2 wrote:
I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?

Don't forget that the "wasted" power is heating your home so for at
least half of the year it's not really wasted at all - it is causing
your boiler to switch off that little bit sooner. Of course it's a
little bit more expensive than the heat from your boiler but not much.

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:49:47 -0000, vortex2 wrote:

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house
than ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

Most of that list you can't do much about, expecte don't leave TV's in
standby switch 'em off. Any chargers switch off/unplug when not actually
charging something.


Our new LCD TV & HDD recorder have according to manufacturers a standby
consumption of 1 watt.each

PhilC

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

vortex2 wrote:

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

Remember however to bear in mind that much of that 'waste heat' is
actually contributing to warming your house up over the cold(er)
months... (and unless you've got aircon it won't be doing much 'harm'
during the summer).

Mathew

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

vortex2 wrote:
I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

Sorted probably into something resembling order.
Aerial Amplifier power.
Bell Transformer
Drill Charger
Answering Machine

I would be surprised if these totalled 10W.

USB Hub
Ethernet switch
ADSL Router
Assorted clocks/clock radios

Probably around 25W

Printer

These vary - many'll use 1W or so when off, a laser printer, used
sporradically can be very much higher.

Various lights

Add them up, and consider replacing any which are consistently on for 5
mins with CFLs.
And turning them off when not used.

TV on standby x 2

It depends, if fairly new - probably under 20W.

Bedroom Freeview box
Sky box

Probably around 60W.

This'd come to 120W for all of it apart from the lights.

A hundred quid a year ish.

Of course, the trivial answer is 'turn it off when you don't use it.'.

The harder answer is to consider how to reduce power use, while not
impacting things.

Switches help of course.

For example, the sky box will be deeply upset by actually being turned
off at the mains, and will take around a minute to wake up.

If they would actually publish power numbers on small appliances, then
you could pick lower power ones.

For example, my ADSL router uses 7W.
It cost 30 quid.
If I could have known that the 35 quid one would use 5W, then it'd be a
win - as it'd pay back in 3 yearsish.

An ADSL router + switch may take 8W, rather than 7W for an ADSL router,
or 15W for seperates.


Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to actually find out real power
use for stuff you're going to buy.
This is one area where the government could actually make a useful
contribution, mandating standby power consumption numbers on things.

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:49:47 -0000, "vortex2"
wrote:

|I've been losing sleep on this:
|
|* There are 8760 hours in a year.
|* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
|* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.
|
|I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
|ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).
|
|ADSL Router
|Ethernet switch
|USB Hub
|Printer
|Various lights
|Answering Machine
|Bell Transformer
|Aerial Amplifier power.
|TV on standby x 2
|Sky box
|Bedroom Freeview box
|Drill Charger
|Assorted clocks/clock radios
|....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.
|
|That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
|out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
|shock.
|
|Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
|outcome?

As has been said repeatedly here all these things heat the house for 8
months of the year, so I ignore the costs.

Don't try turning off the Sky box or TVs they are designed to stay on
standby and forget important information when switched off, then go into
startup mode when power is restored which is a right pain in the *rs*.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

"Dave Fawthrop" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:49:47 -0000, "vortex2"
wrote:

Don't try turning off the Sky box or TVs they are designed to stay on
standby and forget important information when switched off, then go into
startup mode when power is restored which is a right pain in the *rs*.

Sky box, yes, I agree, and in my case also the DVD/HDD recorder, because
both of them download new EPG listings during the night. In fact, my Sky box
has to be left *on* (not just in standby) and tuned to British Eurosport
(channel 410) because that channel carries the GuidePLUS+ information that
the DVD/HDD recorder needs to download each night.

But TVs? TVs can be switched off at the mains with no problems, unless these
new-fangled plasmas and LCDs have something that I don't know about - which
is possible as I'm on widescreen CRT and will be for a few years yet.

JellyBelly

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

vortex2 wrote:

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

Stick a clamp meter rount one of the meter tails - darn site easier that
measuring each devices consumption one by one.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves?

No, stuff is plugged in because I want it that way, so not much point in
counting the cost.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:49:47 -0000, "vortex2"
wrote:

I've been losing sleep on this:

* There are 8760 hours in a year.
* A unit of electricity costs (say) 8p
* So 1 watt of household quiescent consumption costs 70p per year.

I have more wall warts and other items, permanently on in the house than
ever before and they're always warm (the linear ones at least).

ADSL Router
Ethernet switch
USB Hub
Printer
Various lights
Answering Machine
Bell Transformer
Aerial Amplifier power.
TV on standby x 2
Sky box
Bedroom Freeview box
Drill Charger
Assorted clocks/clock radios
....and no doubt lots more. The list goes on.

That's a lot of 70p's in the course of 12 months. I am going to have to get
out my Maplin power meter and add all this up. I have a hunch I am in for a
shock.

Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?

Give up the telly. There's a lot of time/energy/money saved right
there!

Also replace your router/switch with a USB modem and software firewall
;)))

cheers,
Pete.

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

On Dec 13, 4:16 pm, Dave Fawthrop
wrote:
Don't try turning off the Sky box or TVs they are designed to stay on
standby and forget important information when switched off, then go into
startup mode when power is restored which is a right pain in the *rs*.

If your TV is absent minded then it probably needs fixing.

Our Freeview boxes run quite warm in standby but can be switched off at
the mains with no probs.

MBQ

Calculating the quiescent power consumption of my house
 

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
snip
Anybody out there done this exercise for themselves? What was the
outcome?
I'm working on it...
I've got posts in sci.electronics.basics - about reading the flashing LED
installed on some electricity meters, and keeping track of my power
usage!!
I've gone from basic voltage comparators to a full blown microprocessor
project now... I'll let you (all) know when it's done!!
_______________________
Grim

And the consumption of what thats going to take!....
--
Tony Sayer

PIC chip - takes approx 40uW... i.e. not a lot :P
____________________________
Grimch