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Household Electricity Consumption

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richms:
There is no way that a warm wash uses that much energy - the machine is only heating for a maximum of 20 mins, and my one is 2300 watts, so thats about 2/3rds a kwh of electricity maximum - It may be a bit more if I wind it up to over 60°C - but thats just insane when a 40°C wash gets all the grease out.

I have never had a cold wash work as well - except possibly in the middle of summer when the water is coming in at close to 20°C from the tap - warm washes is probably the last thing I will ever give up.

Kevin Mullins:
Our machine is an el' cheapy, so it doesn't have the built in water heater stuff.
But non-the-less we have actually been doing the cold wash thing for some time now.
(and I agree it doesn't work as well)
The big thing is that it obviously hasn't made a big impact on where all the electricity usage is coming from in our particular situation.

We were actually looking at new washers and dryers just last night.
Probably going to start replacing some of the higher consumption equipment once I get some comparisons on what the newer stuff really uses.

I love it when they slap a sticker on something like a clothes washer and dryer that claims to "only uses xxxkw per year"..... uh.... based on how many loads of laundry might help in that equation.
My fridge has a similar sticker, but that's a little different, once it's set it should remain a fairly consistent usage.

Somebody pull out their bill from last month and see what their overall usage was.
I guarantee it isn't no 5840 Kilowatt Hours. 

I'm still monitoring my fridge though. I keep turning it down further and further seeing how well it stays cold and seeing if it still shuts off like it's supposed to.

Hoopz:
I would agree with the comment about a heat pump.  Ours has three cells or units that pulls air in down to about 5 degrees F before the furnace itself kicks on.  That's a simple explanation from a simple owner.   ;D

I think if you check into them, you'll find they are very efficient.

MonMotha:
Electric resistance heat is a pretty expensive way to heat space.  Natural gas or delivered liquid propane does tend to be somewhat cheaper, but a heat pump (preferably geothermal) is likely the cheapest.  Use natural gas/propane as the backup/emergency if you have it available.  COP (don't you dare call it efficiency) of 4 is attainable on conventional models (varies with outdoor temp), and I've heard of up to 7 on practical geothermal models.  Due to fluctuations in outdoor air temp, that COULD explain your usage and bills.

I tend to use 750-800kWh in the winter (gas heat) and 800-1000kWh in the summer (running the A/C, so it depends on outdoor air temp).  That's just me.  My PC (~150-200W) runs 24/7.  Electric water heater.  Reasonably new (but cheap/crappy) fridge.  Electric range.  Other sources seem negligible.  I use mostly CFLs for illumination.

Experience suggests that you add ~100kWh/mo per male household member and ~125kWh/mo for females (longer showers, more complicated clothes, etc. is the only explanation I can come up with for the difference; possibly more home cooking in some households).

I haven't proven out the draw of all the arcade games, but they'll all be running this weekend, so I should check.

Some descrepancies:
1.9kW for a 1HP motor is wrong.  It should either be 800-950W or perhaps up to about 1.5kVA.  If you're measuring VAs and not Watts, then it's more reasonable but still seems high.  For reference, 1HP (for EEs) is 746W, and motors are rated on output power.  Motors tend to be reasonable efficient (most energy consumed is converted to mechanical output), but they don't have great power factor.  1HP induction motors designed to common standards are >78% efficient.  1.9kW is in line with a 2HP motor.

220W seems a little low for a fridge, but might be right on an old model that perhaps has a smaller compressor motor.

The clothes dryer isn't likely a huge concern.  You just don't run it that much.  I'm only doing laundry for one, but I maybe run my clothes dryer for 5-6 hours in a month, and some of that time is spent in no-heat fluff/cool down.  That's only ~30kWh/mo at your measured draw.

Check all your findings against appliance tags.  All appliances will have ratings on them somewhere.  Often you're only given current draw, so multiply by line voltage to figure worst case power.  Sometimes they'll also give you a rated "wattage" which would account for power factor, so use that as your basis for comparison with measurements.  Any appliance that is substantially measured as consuming more than rated is likely broken and should be repaired/replaced (could even be a fire hazard!).

Kevin Mullins:

--- Quote from: MonMotha on February 06, 2009, 06:34:04 pm ---Some descrepancies:
1.9kW for a 1HP motor is wrong.  It should either be 800-950W or perhaps up to about 1.5kVA.  If you're measuring VAs and not Watts, then it's more reasonable but still seems high.  For reference, 1HP (for EEs) is 746W, and motors are rated on output power.  Motors tend to be reasonable efficient (most energy consumed is converted to mechanical output), but they don't have great power factor.  1HP induction motors designed to common standards are >78% efficient.  1.9kW is in line with a 2HP motor.

--- End quote ---

Well maybe you can help decifer the power usage from the labels that I filed away when I installed the pump. I attached scans of the two labels they sent with the pump.
If I'm thinking correctly a rough idea of the wattage would be Volts x Amps ??
Looks like it's about 8.2 Amps with a max. of 9.8 Amps X 230volts.
But then there is the one label that has " KW 0.75 ". That wouldn't be the kilowatt rating would it?? (it's a lot closer to what you mentioned of 800-950W)


--- Quote from: MonMotha on February 06, 2009, 06:34:04 pm ---220W seems a little low for a fridge, but might be right on an old model that perhaps has a smaller compressor motor.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, I thought that was quite low myself, but it is a pretty small compressor.
And it's still very quiet.
My big concern with the fridge was whether or not it was continuously running. (only because we think it might have been the more we "listened" to it)
We're still kinda watching for it's on and off cycles after turning it down again.
And I will probably double check the wattage usage again just to double check.


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