# How Much Power Does An Average Home Waste?



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I am up early every morning, between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. when I update my web site for the day.

This morning I finished in record time and sat at my computer in the dark, thinking about my day when I began to look around me at all the lights glowing softly in the darkness in our 1160 square foot home.

In my small office alone, I noticed the lights on the Airport Extreme, the USB hub, the modem, the three power bars, the printer, the satellite receiver, the TV, the fax, the sleep light on the eMac, the sleep light on the MBP, the charging light on the MBP, the WII, my cell phone and the light on the bar fridge.

Across the hall in the bathroom, I saw the glow of the digital clock, my electric shaver and my mustache trimmer.

The kitchen of course has two digital clocks, one in the microwave and one in the stove as well as the ready light on the 5 inch TV and the wife’s cell phone charger.

The dining room/living room glowed with the ready lights on the stereo, the HD TV set, the HD receiver, the portable phone and two power bars.

Our bedroom has lights on the digital clock and a couple of the wife’s things that are kept in the ensuite counter.

That got me looking around the basement and again I saw many lights aglow. There are two TVs down there with ready lights, two satellite receivers, two stereos, one Airport Express, the charge light on the MacBook and the sleep light as well. There are digital clocks in the bedroom and the bathroom and a couple of our daughter’s “thingies” plugged in, in the bathroom that glow.

In the exercise room, the iMac sleep light glows as does the ready light on the combo printer/fax/copier/scanner and the sleep light on the iBook.

I peeked in the furnace room expecting to find nothing, but there sat the washer and dryer lights aglow as well as one on the furnace.

That reminded me that the alarm in the attached double garage was glowing, as would be the stereo, the TV, the satellite receiver and the furnace in the single garage in the back yard.

The motor home is plugged into a 30 amp circuit just outside that garage and the lights would be aglow on the Airport Express, the carbon monoxide alarm, the propane alarm, the TV, the satellite receiver, the fridge, the five indicator controls for the water/electric system and the digital clock in the microwave.

That got me to wondering just how much power is wasted by these little, seemingly benign lights. And how much power do they really use?

Have you ever took inventory of your own home to see just how many lights there are on 24/7/365?

I certainly hadn’t even given it a second thought until this morning, but imagine how much power is wasted country wide, never mind world wide by these tiny little lights.


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## MLeh (Dec 23, 2005)

And that's why you buy power bars, plug all those things that don't really need to be on 24/7 into them, and flick them off when you leave the room, just as you would the lights. (You get used to :12:00: :12:00: :12:00: flashing on the clocks after a while.) 

Things like cell phone chargers should only be plugged in when they're actually charging something.

It really comes down to how much 'stuff' do you really need?


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

MLeh said:


> And that's why you buy power bars, plug all those things that don't really need to be on 24/7 into them, and flick them off when you leave the room, just as you would the lights. (You get used to :12:00: :12:00: :12:00: flashing on the clocks after a while.)
> 
> Things like cell phone chargers should only be plugged in when they're actually charging something.
> 
> It really comes down to how much 'stuff' do you really need?


Good point, I never even considered killing the power bars, but it would set my stereo to default and require a reset to auxiliary mode every time I wanted to turn on the TV. Seems more trouble that it is worth. 

I would have to unplug the 220 line behind the stove and the cord behind the microwave to turn them off which makes no sense.

As for the cell phone chargers, they only light up when the phone is plugged in to recharge even though they are always plugged in.

And yeah, we all have too much "stuff", don't we?


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

It's good of SINC to give consideration to these things, but it should be noted that LED lights (which make up the vast majority of the little lights he's referring to) use so little electricity that it would take an entire village's worth to add up to a buck or two's worth of use.

It's still more than "zero," mind you, and I do unplug hard drives when they're not going to be used for a while, and turn off my computer's (external) speakers and other such things when not in use like I do light switches.


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

While you were up & about, did you have a look at your electrical meter to see how fast the little wheel was turning while the house was in its "resting" state? Is there any way to gauge how much juice is being used at any given time (aside from how fast the wheel is spinning)?

My spice & I walked through the house a few weeks back, checking which fixtures had flourescents & CF in them as opposed to incandescents. There are a few incandescents still left but they are not on for more than a few minutes a year (storage areas).

We've got what we call a "charging station" set up on a powerbar as MLeh noted, as well as another powerbar set up for all the external backups. Computer screens are usually turned off when done, computer runs all the time with sleep mode enabled.

TV's are turned off, but they're in instant on mode. Stereo & TV receivers are turned off when not in use, but the stereo is just in a sleep mode. VCR's are always plugged in.

Garage door opener light has been changed to CF, front & back door lights are CF. There are 2 sets of motion detector lights which still have halogens (I believe) in them.

I'm willing to bet that the instant on circuit on one of your TV's uses more juice than all the little indicator lights in the house, though.


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

A friend loaned me a "Kill A Watt" appliance tester for a few months, so I might learn which 120V devices and/or appliances use the most energy. Obviously, large kitchen appliances, along with laundry appliances, use the most. Next is CRT televisions - they're energy HOGS!!! Older computers (I tested a 9600 working and in Sleep mode) use almost double that of newer computers. On my "cpu laboratory" desktop, I was pleasantly surprised to learn all those LED lights which run 24/7 use almost nothing, as has been mentioned. I have 2 large surge suppressing power bars into which a lot of "extras" are plugged and on all the time. It was an easy matter to place the Kill A Watt tester between the power bar and the wall outlet for testing.

I sleep well knowing those annoying LEDs scattered all over my household aren't burning out the energy meter bearings!


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## adagio (Aug 23, 2002)

One of the worst culprits in a home after the refrigerator is the clothes dryer. It should be used sparingly. Hang clothes to dry whenever possible. I've got into the habit of removing clothes immediately from the washer and hanging things up all over my condo. It looks like hell but since no one is around but me to see it, I don't care.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

You could purchase a Kill A Watt and find out.

I bought one to test our aquariums/fish room to fine tune the amount of hydro we use. An interesting discovery was that CF bulbs do not always consume the amount of electricity they are rated at. For example we have several different brands of CF bulbs on tanks and an 11 watt rated bulb might range from 7 watts to 11 watts depending on the brand with the cheap Dollarama bulbs actually using the least amount of electricity.

I would suspect your 10 year old fridge is the biggest power waster ours is definately due to be replaced....

The bulk of our lighting is CF, one spot where we had a huge power waster was the bathroom fixture which consisted of 8 globe shaped 75 watt bulbs. That works out to 600 watts vs 8x15 watts or 120 watts.....

According to my Kill A Watt,
The microwave is using 1 watt at idle.
LG LCD monitor, 0-1 watt off plugged in, 1-2 watts on standby and 22 watts in use.
Dell Precision, 3 watts off, 140-206 watts surfing
iMac G4, 1 watt off, 45-56 watts in use with Airport downloading
Cordless phone, 3 watts at idle/charge and 3 watts in use

Don't have any big CRT monitors any more but it would be interesting to see what they use.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

This is an excellent thread, and timely as well.

Chas, it isn't that these appliances and devices use electricity to power little LED lights. It's the fact that the LED lights _indicate_ that these things are drawing power *all the time.* That little light on your DVD player or stereo or Airport means that those devices are not just on, but using a little bit of power separate from what they need to turn on indicator lights. That power does add up significantly, especially over time, and in the numbers that are indicated in this thread, and in most every home and business.


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

adagio said:


> One of the worst culprits in a home after the refrigerator is the clothes dryer. It should be used sparingly. Hang clothes to dry whenever possible. I've got into the habit of removing clothes immediately from the washer and hanging things up all over my condo. It looks like hell but since no one is around but me to see it, I don't care.


We do have 2 regular light in the house that are on long hours. It used to bother me but besides providing ambient light, we also use these as reading lights. Turns out that wasted energy also helps heat the living space for eight months a year. The other four those bulbs are turned off.

All CFBs have an incomplete colour spectrum. This combined with the 60 times on 60 times off every second, forces the brain to do a lot of filtering. The result is they are useless for reading.

I do agree dryers and ovens should be used as sparingly as possible. Both use 4+KW per hour. Despite claims to the contrary dishwashers are also energy wasters. 

One other thing if I am not using the computer it is turned off, not asleep, off.


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## MazterCBlazter (Sep 13, 2008)

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## MazterCBlazter (Sep 13, 2008)

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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Yes, you can't over-insulate your home, but there has to be a regular transfer of air.




MazterCBlazter said:


> Newer appliances,computers, and electronics are much more energy efficient than older items. Old light bulbs should be replaced with the modern energy efficient ones. Exceptions can apply in situations where heating form light bulbs is desired. Water heating and furnace systems should be kept up to date and filters replaced on schedule.
> 
> Homes should be checked for air leaks in doors and windows. In Canada, you can't over insulate your home.
> 
> ...


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## MazterCBlazter (Sep 13, 2008)

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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

I'd agree about over insulating a home, why R2000 homes have air exchangers. We replaced 2/3 of our windows over the past 2 years and have noticed an decrease in heating and cooling costs. Also a lot less drafts especially in the room over the garage which was always cold. But I've also noticed the air gets stale faster so in the summer we open our windows up a lot more than we used to.

It looks like the power bar plus the DLink wireless router are taking down about 5 watts, when I turn hit the power button and open up all the outlets this jumps to 22 watts which is 2 LCD monitors, 2 cordless phones, a camera battery charger and a PC. Guess I'll keep the switch off as it doesn't affect the network...

Re CF bulbs, we have full spectrum bulbs for our birds and there are different colour temperatures depending on the manufacturer. I run the Phillips natural daylight 5000k bulbs on our fish tanks because I prefer the cooler blue colour temperature to the 3200k yellowish glow from standard CF bulbs.

But one big downside of CF bulbs is the mercury content and now it looks like there is also a possible risk if you use these bulbs at very close range. Article here.


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

Niteshooter said:


> Re CF bulbs, we have full spectrum bulbs for our birds and there are different colour temperatures depending on the manufacturer. I run the Phillips natural daylight 5000k bulbs on our fish tanks because I prefer the cooler blue colour temperature to the 3200k yellowish glow from standard CF bulbs.
> 
> But one big downside of CF bulbs is the mercury content and now it looks like there is also a possible risk if you use these bulbs at very close range. Article here.


They are full spectrum not continuous spectrum there is a huge difference. Also the spectrum is only half the issue. Turning on and off 60 times a second is filtered into continuous light by the brain. A major cause of headaches. Truth is incandescent bulbs are much better for reading where natural north sunlight is unavailable. The CFBs may make sense in hot climates where the heat has to be offset with AC. In Canada they are a waste of money plus the overall environmental damage from the phospors, mercury and lead far outweighs the increased lighting efficiency. First clean-up poisons then worry about CO2.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

MazterCBlazter said:


> Another thing that can save power is to set your personal schedule to go to sleep when the sun goes down, get up when the sun comes up. Then less power is needed for running lights and toys. Also healthier.



And it is healthier how?


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

"Have you ever took inventory of your own home to see just how many lights there are on 24/7/365?" Yes, but I do what MLeh suggests. 

Years ago, I won an award for the efficient use of electricity for a home over 3500 square feet. I could not have done it without my woodstove, however, which heats our home during the day when I am at home with the dogs and everyone else is out of the house.


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## MazterCBlazter (Sep 13, 2008)

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