Earth Hour aftermath
Mar. 30th, 2008 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanOne of the things we did last night was wander around the house and locate all the things that glow in the dark when the lights are turned off.
The TV doesn't need to be "on" all the time when we watch it once a week. There is a clock on the microwave and one on the coffee maker, we don't need both of them. We never use the VCR in the bedroom for recording, it doesn't need to be powered all the time either.
We already power 90% of the house through extension cords and power bars. We're going to rearrange them slightly so that anything that isn't say, a refrigerator can be switched off when it's not being used.
The best part is that the money we save on electricity eventually gets spent on insulation.
The TV doesn't need to be "on" all the time when we watch it once a week. There is a clock on the microwave and one on the coffee maker, we don't need both of them. We never use the VCR in the bedroom for recording, it doesn't need to be powered all the time either.
We already power 90% of the house through extension cords and power bars. We're going to rearrange them slightly so that anything that isn't say, a refrigerator can be switched off when it's not being used.
The best part is that the money we save on electricity eventually gets spent on insulation.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 12:28 am (UTC)Another figure that's worth looking at is computer power. A friend that does capacity planning estimates laptops being left on and not used or used for typical office tasks draw 50 watts (~1kWh per day), desktops 200 watts (~5kWH per day) and servers (running more or less full-tilt all the time with many disks) draw about 400 watts (~10kWh per day). Around here, that means two desktop computers left on all the time cost about $500 per year.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 12:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 12:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 12:51 am (UTC)My knowledge probably dates from the 1980s. Computers might be more efficient now, but I'll bet modern motherboards and graphics cards are power-hungry.