Saving Power in your Home Office

cweditor writes "Rob Mitchell shows how he measured energy use of all his home office equipment, and then targeted the energy pigs for replacement. With better equipment choices, he'd save $90/year. If you've got more than a couple of computers and printers at home (and if you're a Slashdot reader, you probably do), the savings would be a lot higher. Includes detailed formulas as well as a spreadsheet on monitor energy usage."

SETI@Home

[Czmyt]

I was running SETI@Home on all of my computers for a while until I realized that they use less power when the processors are idling as opposed to processing at full speed. Now I do not run any kind of volunteer processing like that. I can also see why it's a bad to install this kind of software at your place of employment. I wish that I could volunteer my computers' time without is costing me extra money to do so.

love to see more of this

[misanthrope101]

There are many energy-saving questions I'd like to see investigated. For example, I have an old Subaru, and I'm not sure if I should buy a new fuel-efficient car. Mine isn't a guzzler, and I can afford a newer one. But that new car, even if it gets twice the MPG, costs energy to make--would an extra 20mpg offset the energy cost of making the car, and if so, how long would it take? Money aside, I don't know whether to keep the beater (which gets about 20mpg) or get a newer car.

Also, what about TVs? I have a 19" old-fashioned TV. Cheap, and it works. But I'm looking at a 32" LCD. The LCD might pull less electricity, but would the difference offset the energy costs of making the TV?

Measuring your power

[Lurks]

Decent little article. I decided to go on a similar drive and make our home (which serves as home office for myself and my wife) a little more efficient. I targetted a number of things including DC plug packs being left in idle, devices in stand by etc. What I did was measure the household electrical current draw by timing meter revolutions (old spinning type meters in near universal usage in the UK) before and after, and work out what was worth doing.

I detailed my thoughts in this blog [electricdeath.com] along with details of how to calculate power drain from the electrical meter in your home.

Re:Saving elsewhere

[Rogerborg]

And as long as throwing things away is free (or charged at a flat rate) thus it will continue. And that's why there's little point in charging manufacturers a disposal levy up-front; once they've passed that on to the customer, there's no disincentive to dispose of the item.

Sometimes, the device is not the problem

[F1Rumors]

Rather, the brick that converts the AC to DC is inefficient.

My savings came from taking an efficient computer power supply (80-85% efficient, depending on the load) and running my own 12V and 5V supplies direct to the devices that use those voltages [includes: cable modem, wireless router, usb hub, network disk, a GPS/VHF radio and a camera]. When I can be find time to finish the job, I'll do the maths and buy the parts to add 19V and 6.8V for two other devices.

In practical terms: I no longer have a collection of bricks generating heat, so I waste considerably less energy; I plug only one device in to the UPS, eliminating a lot of wires, so the installation is simple and tidy; and there's a bonus: the fan on the power supply keeps air moving over the equipment whenever heat builds up...

Re:The power company is going to owe me money

[CommandNotFound]

I've had horrible luck with CFLs for primary lighting. I have used them for years in lamps that stay on for long periods of time, but for areas like the kitchen or for primary lighting, every brand has been a dud. The main problems are the 1-5 minute warm up times and the eerie lighting quality. Saving money and power is a good thing, but I gave up on CFLs earlier this year when I wasted $12 on two can light CFLs that were useless the first 5 minutes, and after full warmup were NOT as bright as the incandescent 65W bulbs next to them. I placed them in the basement office which has no windows, and for the first 30 seconds it was about as bright as taping a couple of gameboy units on the ceiling (I'm not joking). Nobody wanted them, so they are sitting in a landfill somewhere now, and I lost out on about 120 KwH of elecricity (we were running about $0.10/KwH here). I wonder if they could change the CFL to consume 50-60W to "heat up" in a second or two, and then ramp down.

In the past I've had brands that failed after a year or two, or buzzed. I wish there was a site that had hands-on reviews in real-world conditions, and even more importantly, where to buy the units. For now I'll stay with incandescents for primary lights, with CFLs in lamps and "mixed in" with incandescents, and just not leave lights on when they are not needed.

Re:love to see more of this

[monkeySauce]

You mean one with those 300 watt halogen bulbs that were so popular 5-10 years ago? Those things aren't lights, they are heaters which happen to illuminate their surroundings.

I have CFL-equipped torchieres which put out a heck of a lot of light using only 38W. A strategically placed, bright white CFL could take care of the reading needs and for mood lighting, add a couple smaller CFL lamps (5-7W) and kill the other lights. You lose the infinite range of the dimmer, but turning on different combinations of smaller CFL lamps would get you different levels of illumination, and even all of those lamps on at once would use much less energy than one halogen torchiere on full.

Re:Only $90/year????

[Woogiemonger]

Turn your house up 1 degree in the summer and down 1 degree in the winter and you will save more money than that!

For some, including myself, 1 degree higher or lower can really make someone uncomfortable in his/her own home. However, I learned that in the winter, a bit of cardio exercise can really mute this effect. I find that I need my house at 73F during the winter, but after a jog outside, or a bit of time on the treadmill (however much that uses up in energy), I can lower the thermostat down to 65-68F or lower for the night, no problem. I also improve my health and fitness, which is perhaps the most important factor for /. readers. :)

Re:Dishwashers are a win, not a loss

[dwywit]

Seriously - do people really do this? Let me get this right - "Dirty soapy, clean soapy, rinse, chlorine sanitize"

Holy shit, no wonder we're going down the tubes. Do people really think it's necessary to completely sterilise their dishes?

I live on solar power + batteries, backed up by a petrol genset for bad weather, and one think I can't run is a dishwasher. Why? Because dishwashers have water heating elements in them - the specs I've seen say that they will heat incoming water up to 70 or 80 degrees C for washing purposes (that's 20 to 30 degrees above typical household hot water supply), and electric heating elements are one thing that's a no-no for solar+battery systems - it's one of the least efficient uses of electricity known, and regardless of any water savings, the disposal of the caustic output from the wash cycle is an environmental problem, too.

Overall, dishwashers may be of some use to some people (e.g. large families with children too young to wield a wash brush or drying towel), but one sink of soapy and one sink of rinse is enough for this family of four.

It's the same thing with homeowner associations banning the use of outdoor lines for drying clothes because it'll lower property values because "poor people" can't afford electric clothes dryers. I don't see or read such short-sighted things very often.