Has anyone looked at working with utilities and/or appliance/electronics manufacturers to provide little read-out lights showing kilowatts being drawn by a device or system at any given time? I read in this discussion last year about the use of portable meters that are hooked up to electricity-using items in a house to show residents how much electricity these items are using. What about building that information into the appliances, HVAC system, etc. on a continuous basis? More simply, just showing the KW being drawn, or showing cumulative KWH over daily or monthly cycles. I'm imagining what that would do for awareness of energy use. The AC system goes on, and the thermostat panel lights up with the KW being drawn. A similar read-out lights up on the refrigerator door, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer whenever they run. For most appliances it could simply be one fixed number representing the rated power which is drawn whenever the unit operates. Others might require multiple settings, and the indicator light would read the setting or phase of operation and show the corresponding power rate (e.g. the power requirements for agitate, rinse, spin). Perhaps some items would be so variable as to require a built-in meter like the KW meter in a treadmill at the gym. This might be most helpful with computers and other small electronic items that may be drawing power in sleep mode and have highly variable power use rates through the course of operation. The sheer number of items around the house showing energy use might be a major wake-up for a lot of people.
- Bill Carter
Electricity Use Indicators for Awareness
Sign in or Sign up to comment
The Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton (ACAP-CB) has just started a pilot project in partnership with Nova Scotia Power and Conserve Nova Scotia related to Residential Power Cost Monitoring. The Program is called "More Power To You". We have recruited 100 volunteer households throughout the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Each home will have a power cost monitor installed for a period of one month that will track power usage from the entire home. Each house will receive 5 CFL's and an energy meter that will can track power usage from a single appliance. Education on methods to reduce home energy use will be provided. These homes will be revisited after a four month period to determine what behaviours were changed (if any) to reduce power consumption in the home. The results of this project may be used by Nova Scotia Power to develop a long term project as part of their Demand Side Management Plan. The details of the project can be viewed at www.acapcb.ns.ca
Valerie O'Grady
Development Officer,
ACAP Cape Breton
Hi Bill,
I really like your idea about built-in KWH meters for some devices. As you probably know, stand-alone KW meters (like the Kill-a-Watt) retail for about US$20, so presumably if built into some other electrically operated appliance it would raise the retail price by that amount or less. I think a great starting place would be refrigerators. They are expensive to start with, so an extra $20 wouldn't be a huge issue. More importantly, increasing electricity consumption is a sign of a problem with your fridge. For example, you might need to vacuum the coils, renew the door gasket seals, etc. Therefore, the KWH meter could be marketed as a performance monitoring device that would benefit anyone owning the appliance, not just something for energy wonks. And, for those who are really interested in minimizing energy consumption, having a KWH meter on a fridge would let the owner see, over time, the impact of changing the freezer temp from 0 degrees Farenheit to 10 degrees, or making similar adjustments to the main compartment. For many other appliances, a better R&D investment might be to have a clock that turned the appliance off at night. For example, a TV that turned itself all the way off at 11 PM and didn't wake up again until 7 AM would actually reduce electricity consumption directly, rather than just provide information about consumption. There may already be Energy Star TVs that do this - but I haven't been shopping for TVs in quite a few years. Anyway, I really like your idea and hope you can get some manufacturers (or the Environmental Protection Agency) interested in it.
Best Regards,
Bruce Karney
[email protected]
+1 650 450-0332 (mobile)
+1 650 964-3567 (home office)
+1 650 903-0954 (fax)
833 Bush St.,
Mountain View, CA 94041 USA