Ken Kranz Weblog Ken Kranz Weblog

Warning:

The key factor to this analysis is the percentage of time in a state I associated with each device. The results are only as good as the value I plugged into this cell. That said; because I used a spreadsheet, I have the opportunity to change this value anytime I want. If you think my percentage values are not realistic, please submit your best guess – along with a reason why your SWAG is better than mine ;-)

Interesting Discoveries:

Lighting: I have 58 incandescent lights in my house. Note: I measured both 65W and 100W incandescent light bulbs. In fairness; I have a mix of 65W, 75W, and 100W bulbs in my house. That said; lets assume I only have 65W bulbs throughout my house - thus allowing for an apples-to-apples comparison to a 13W CLF.  If I swap every incandescent bulb for a CLF I would save $1520 annually.  That's assuming that my estimate of the lights being on 30% of the time is accurate - which I am starting to wonder about.  Even if the number is 15%, that's still a significant savings.  Also keep in mind that, 65W, is on the low side.  For the record; I’ve been doing this for a while and can attest that it is not practical to convert all lights to CLF, more on that later.

Lighting Costs: for the amount of money I spend a year on lighting, I could almost power a single blow dryer on the high heat setting 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  I didn't say it was a particularly useful discovery.

Home Office: My out-of-pocket electrical costs to run my Sun home office is approximately $375. That includes all the equipment I leave on 24x7 + the dollars for lighting 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week.

Saving Money: If we were disciplined enough to actually turn off or unplug all the devices we are not using, we would save around $320 a year. This does not include the devices that it does not make sense to unplug (eg: TV, DVR, etc)

New Treo Charger: My brand new Treo replacement charger must be Energy Star 5 compliant because, when not charging the phone, it uses zero (zip) electricity.  This was the first device I tried to measure and I thought my Kill-A-Watt was broken.  It's a fact; I ran a test for days and, unloaded, it used no electricity.  I believe it is using some current, but not enough for the Kill-A-Watt to register. 

Conclusion(s):

For all the talk about vampire sapping electronic devices, the cost savings one can achieve by unplugging unused devices is just not worth the effort. Granted, if every American did it, it would be huge for the country. On an individual basis; it’s just not worth the effort. We have started unplugging the “more convenient” devices (like the seldom used pencil sharpener and electronic picture frame), but that will net us less than $100 per year. In the long run, I suspect we will end up forgetting to unplug them.

Over the years I’ve heard people complain that:

While this is true (especially the working from home being great) and the office space cost is probably very high, it turns out that the home office electrical costs are fairly low. If it costs me $400 a year for the privilege of working at home – that aint bad. Plus, I could do a lot to bring these costs down. Things like shutting off the printers when not needed and switching from my halogen track lighting to CLF.  In fact; I have moved some of my devices to a separate power strip that I now routinely turn off.  Word of advice: watch the stand issue laser printer that Sun supplies (manufacture's name intentionally withheld).  It aint cheap to run 24x7.

Where you can save BIG bucks is by switching to CFL in general. That’s huge and easy. I’ve been doing this conversion for the pas 2 years – as lights burn out. I have about 80% CLF in my house (and no real plans to tackle the remaining 20%) There are down sides to CLF, but the savings is measurable and large. Even taking into account the 65W vs 100W and the 30% usage time issues, you are still talking of saving well over a $1000 per year savings.

Downsides to CLFs

There are hidden costs and issues with converting to CLF. First they are more expensive to purchase, but, in theory, last longer.  Some bulbs give off odd hues. Some are slow to warm. There are other issues, like: you can’t use a dinner switch with a standard CLF – and, going from “off” to “on” fast with a dinner doesn’t cut it. So, you either have to swap out the dimmer for a 2 pole switch ($) or purchase dimmable CLFs ($$$). I’ve done both as needed. Also note that newer CLF compatible dimmer switches do not dim as low as older switches.  So, if you are going for that romantic, low light effect, forgetaboutit.  If you try to use an older dimmer switch, the bulb will flicker noticeably while on the low setting.

There are some devices where it just looks plain’ol stupid to put in a CLF. Some of our ceiling fans take 3 small bulbs. Using CLFs screams high-tech red-neck! Same with bathroom fixtures. Basically; anytime the bulb is exposed in an otherwise finished environment, the resulting look is not-so-good. Exposed CLFs in the basement or garage is just me.

Final Suggestion

If you have any older slow-to-warm CLFs, put it in your bathrooms.  During the night, when your eyes are adjusted to the dark, the slow-to-warms are perfect.  They slowly get brighter - allowing your eyes to adjust accordingly.