BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living What watts are you using right now?

I am sitting here at my netbook, which is plugged into the wall. The netbook is corded to a larger monitor that my ex gave me. It's a nice luxury but I really do need to look at how many watts it uses.

I also have a table fan running in my studio window, and the washing machine on.

What else (heh - watt else)? No lights on since there is daylight and the monitors cast their own light. A modem. Two surge protectors. And the fridge is always plugged in, even though it is not actively running right now.

I'm going to go add this up.

What are you doing right now to draw electricity?

Okay, so:

1.5 amps for the large monitor = 180
modem = 6
laptop = 189.6
table fan = 66
surge protectors, five plugged in, one watt each = 5
fridge = 0 when not running, 144 watts when running


And then there's this:
10 amp washing machine with Energy Star label = 1200 watts
If I turn on a light over my desk as it gets darker = 13

So right now:

446.6 watts (washing machine is done now and fridge is not running) and will be 459.6 when i turn on one light.

When the fridge kicks in the watt use will bump up to 590.6

When I was using the wash machine earlier (but the fridge was not running) it was 1646.6 watts! Big difference!

Just to be thorough, what else did i use today?

Microwave to heat dinner = 900
Cell phone charger = 3.68 (although I also have a solar charger for this, so potentially this is a zero amount)
Ceiling light over washing machine = 23
Coffeepot = 975

I don't have any more phantom loads since i put everything on my surge protectors, so if i did that properly, that number is zero.

Okee dokee!

It seems that for the majority of the day I was using 446.6 watts. Sometimes this number bumped up to between 1000 - 1700 watts, approximately.

I certainly could use less - i don't NEED the large external monitor. Not using that wold bring my average use number down to 266.6 watts.

The fridge, when running, brings the system over 500 watts, but honestly, without the external monitor I am well under that number.

So, to live without using a coffeepot, washer or microwave, I could have a solar system that provides 500 watts! That's not too bad! This would not work for the winter, but i can mess around with that when winter is approaching.

I mean, i could handwash clothes, use a french press for coffee, and cook the old fashioned way on a gas camping stove or even cook on a wood stove. If I didn't want to be quite so extreme, I could use a generator for the large appliances, or just briefly turn the actual house electric on at the circuit breaker. I will think about that last idea. It might be appealing.

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Anyway, i am not asking you guys to do any of this painstaking counting, but i am curious...what do you have plugged in and in use right now?

1.44Kw

Probably water heater.

Cool, Burt! How did you check that? Did you go right to your electric meter? I have not thought of doing that.

Yes, water heaters pull a LOT of energy. 1.44 kw is 1400 watts. But if this is your current total usage, lots of other stuff is probably drawing as well.

Anything that creates heat or creates cool is an expensive draw. A water heater is on the watt level of a space heater, microwave, hair dryer, coffeepot, fridge.

AC units pull around 1500 watts constantly, but the starting surge pulls between 2200 and 5000 watts!! Wow.

I just took a look at my energy meter today and it's pretty much set up like a code. I will have to ask the company to show me how to read it.

I have noticed that the wheel spins faster the more energy I am using.

I just called APS (arizona public service) to learn how to read my meter. Mine is the Type B with the round glass housing and five little clock dials. They said some are digital.

You read each clock sequentially. So mine is, right now: 70726. The last time they checked the meter it read 69599. That is in watts, I guess. I should have asked.

The spinning wheel is indeed showing that electricity is in use. It spins faster under times of higher draw, like when using a washing machine or air conditioner. I want to plug in all kinds of things now and compare how fast the wheel spins! Maybe later.

Anyway, my watt use since last they read me (close to a month ago) would then be: 1,127 watts.

Or kilowatts? Something seems wrong. let me go check the website. I don't want to wait on hold again with the phone.

They told me this info is also available on their website.

OK, i was totally incorrect with everything. I did not find watt info on the website, just cost comparisons. So i called APS back and got the actual scoop.

Today's reading is 69722 kw (or kWh?). The difference from the last reading gives me a total useage of only 126 kWh. That's a great decrease from last month's 434 kwh! And in this month people usually use a significant amount more because of air conditioning. So my fan plan is working very well, among the other electrical savings changes i am making.

Oh, and I was told this makes my daily use at only 4.34 kWh per day. That will be a fun number to work with.

Can someone tell me if my math is correct? Does 4.34 kilowatts = 4,340 watts?