Seeking good resources on how much energy is used for a number of less-familiar daily office and residential energy uses. This would be used for comparing a little-understood energy use to another, more familiar or tangible concept or energy use. For example: "Leaving a copy machine overnight uses enough energy to make over 1500 copies." I'm not looking for energy use CO2 equivalencies (although suggest 'em if you know 'em), but rather specific examples that connect an unfamiliar (e.g. standby copy machine energy) to a familiar (e.g. 1500 copies).
Rob Hall
Energy Program Manager
CU Environmental Center
Boulder, CO
Tangible Energy Use Comparisons
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Here at BC Hydro, we have been working to develop energy use comparisons that make sense to our consumers. I developed an excel "calculator" with the consumption rates of various appliances and activities. This allows us to generate a number of different scenarios that can be chosen based on our need. For example: Drying one load of clothes in an electric clothes dryer uses the same amount of electricity as: - Making 174 pieces of toast - Using a laptop computer for 166 hours (24 hours a day for a week!) - Running 4 strings of holiday LEDs for 193 hours - A 25W CFL on for 100 hours - Cooking 42 burritos in the microwave (or anything else that takes 3 minutes) - Operating an ENERGY STAR fridge for two days - Operating an ENERGY STAR chest freezer for almost three days It wasn't difficult to develop, you just need to figure out the consumption of the activities you wish to report on.
Gareth
Gareth Clarke
BC Hydro
Power Smart - Residential Marketing
Suite #900 4555 Kingsway,
Burnaby, BC, V5H 4T8
P: 604 453-6392
C: 604 725-2759
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E: [email protected]
Rob Hall wrote: For example: "Leaving a copy machine overnight uses enough energy to make over 1500 copies." I'm not looking for energy use CO2 equivalencies (although suggest 'em if you know 'em), but rather specific examples that connect an unfamiliar (e.g. standby copy machine energy) to a familiar (e.g. 1500 copies).
Rob,
I like this idea very much -- but your example of what is supposed to be familiar is not. I'm an energy nerd, and I have no idea how many kilowatt hours it takes to make 1 copy or 1500. I suggest that you use something as simple as "run a 100 watt incandescent light bulb for 3 days," or perhaps if you want a more visually interesting image: "toast 200 slides of bread" or something more related to what people do in their own homes.
Best Regards,
Bruce Karney
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