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I’ve been tracking my electricity usage daily since my last post and even though it’s just a few days worth of data, I’m starting to get a little concerned. With mild springtime weather allowing us to turn off the HVAC system for the last several weeks, I fully expected my energy usage to be better. The last few days have been averaging 60 - 70 KWH. Not bad. This equates to a monthly usage of 1,800 - 2,000 KWH. However, since my largest energy hog is turned off, what can be using this amount of electricity. I plan to attack the problem over the next couple of weeks by employing a gadget I purchased a while back but haven’t used much — Kill-A-Watt. This cool device plugs into a normal wall receptacle and measures the amount of electricity used by anything plugged into the Kill-A-Watt.

My hope is that by systematically testing several items around the house, I’ll figure out which items are the biggest energy hogs. Below is a list of the items I plan to tackle first.

1. Computer and peripheral devices. I admit that we leave the computer running too much. I have no idea how much its costing us to keep the computer on for 8-10 hours per day. I should just turn off the power strip at night to insure that no phantom loads are drawing power.
2. TV, DVR, and surround sound system. These items, especially the TV and DVR, use quite a bit of electricity even when switched “off”. That faint yellow light that says “Vizio” on my TV stays lit even when the screen is off. Another good candidate for using a power strip and turning it off at night.
3. Night Lights. How many night lights does one house need? At last count we have 5 night lights in use each night. Some of them don’t automatically turn off in the daytime, but stay light all day long.
4. Water Heater. OK, this is a big one. While we have an extremely energy efficient Marathon water heater, it is 85 gallons and we take a lot of long, hot showers. We also have a circulating pump that ensures we have instant hot water. The pump is only set to run for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours at night, but the water loses heat as it is circulated and has to be reheated.
5. Refrigerator, Dishwasher, and other kitchen appliances. One of the biggest mistakes we made in furnishing our home was not buying EnergyStar appliances.

I hope by paying attention to the little things, we can make a dent in our monthly usage. The Kill-A-Watt will be the biggest tool I will use to measure energy usage on these items. Persistence will be the key to making real changes. It will take a lot of small but deliberate moves to slowly lower our electricity needs. I’ll give an update in the next few weeks on my progress.

Filed under: Small Changes