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Where are you wasting energy? Energy audit sheds light on costly appliances, electronics

By Ann Tatko-Peterson, Contra Costa Times, Source: MCT News Service

Our energy company brought my family an unwelcome gift in mid-November: a SmartMeter.

Since the San Francisco Bay Area rollout last fall, these remotely read meters have come under fire. Consumers have complained that they do not accurately measure electricity usage, resulting in significantly higher utility bills.

I was worried. Reducing my carbon footprint and protecting the world from global warming hadn't gotten my attention quite the way the SmartMeter, and more specifically the threat of losing money, had.

Never before had I considered auditing my energy consumption. I didn't even realize that companies offered this service.

"That's the challenge with this industry," says Shana Fong, marketing manager for one such Bay Area company, Recurve. "Not many are aware that it exists. They're looking for a silver bullet product that will help with energy consumption. In reality, "... each homeowner has different priorities."

For me, the priority was avoiding a spike in my energy bill that wouldn't require replacing major appliances, the furnace or water heater.

So, with some online resources and a nifty gadget called the Watt-Minder, I set out to self-audit my family's energy use during December and January. And what I discovered surprised me enough that I was soon stocking up on compact fluorescent light bulbs and power strips.

THE MONEY GAME

My family of three lives in a 30-year-old, 2,100-square-foot, two-story house with four bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. The $2,027 we spent last year on utilities was almost in line with the annual U.S. average of $1,900, but well above the $1,206 average for homes in our city of Concord, Calif.

Clearly, we were using a lot of energy over the baseline. Utility rates are set using this baseline, defined as the minimum amount of electricity and gas that consumers need to live in a specific region.

The more consumers use above this baseline, the more they pay. For example, a baseline rate may be $0.1153 per kilowatt hour, but exceeding that baseline by 131 percent to 200 percent could cost $0.2607 per hour.

Hoping to bring down our energy use, I answered dozens of detailed questions in an online audit by government-sponsored Home Energy Saver (www.hes.lbl.gov). The resulting recommendations were what I expected: Switch to a natural gas dryer, replace our dishwasher and water heater with energy-efficient models, and have our ducts professionally sealed _ all budget breakers.

But I found something I could do within our budget. The U.S. Department of Energy says energy used to power major and small appliances accounts for 17 percent of a household's energy consumption. For us, that came to $750 a year.

Here was a number I could tackle.

THE WATTS GAME

SmartMeters eventually will be able to measure how much energy a household appliance uses, but I didn't want to wait for that technology.

So I turned to the Watt-Minder, created by Mashita Electronics. The battery-operated device measures the kilowatts used by any appliance that has a plug. Based on the rate you program into the device, it estimates the cost to operate that appliance.

"Most people just accept their energy bill. They don't think of utilities as a discretionary purchase," said Greg Endom, co-founder and owner of Mashita Electronics. "But really, you do have choices, starting with how you operate in your home. Doing simple things can save you a lot of money."

Here are a few surprising discoveries I made while using the Watt-Minder in my self-audit. All costs are calculated using the baseline quantity rate.

_ Light bulbs: I bought into the myths about how compact fluorescent light bulbs take too long to heat up, cast a harsh light and cost too much. Then I compared one 57-watt standard bulb to a lower wattage CFL that produces equivalent light. Left on 24 hours a day, a standard bulb costs us $63.73 a year. A CFL, $12.08. Multiply those potential savings by the three dozen bulbs in our home, and this one was a no-brainer.

_ Computer: Laziness and convenience long have prompted us to leave our computer and monitor running 24/7, at an annual cost of $88.48. The audit revealed that our actual computer use time is closer to 28 hours a week. By shutting it down between uses, we could save $73.77 a year.

_ "Phantom" loads: Do plugged-in appliances really draw power when switched off? Make that a resounding yes. The stereo with CD and tape player that we rarely use is costing us $26.57 a year just because it's plugged in.

We spend $77.46 a year to watch an average of 8 1/2 hours of television each day. And more surprising, $18.48 a year for those 15 1/2 hours daily when the set is turned off.

The U.S. Department of Energy has an efficient solution for this one. Simply plug home electronics into a power strip and turn off the strip when equipment is not in use. (California consumers also will save on energy costs if they purchase a television after Jan. 1, 2011, when the state's new energy-efficiency standards go into effect for sets 58 inches or smaller.)

_ Energy-efficient vs. nonefficient: Call this the tale of two refrigerators. In the garage stands a nonefficient, 18-cubic-foot, top-freezer model manufactured in 1996. In the kitchen is a 6-year-old, energy-efficient, 25-cubic-foot, side-by-side with ice-maker and door dispenser. The big spender? The energy-efficient refrigerator, costing almost $30 more a year to operate.

Energy Star helped shed some light on this one. Refrigerators with top-mounted freezers save 10 to 25 percent energy compared to side-by-side and bottom-mount. Automatic ice-makers and door dispensers increase energy use by 14 to 20 percent. And the most energy efficient are models 16 to 20 cubic feet in size. Plus, we open the garage refrigerator only a dozen times a week; the kitchen fridge sees that much action on a daily basis, forcing the compressor to work harder.

That said, having a nonefficient model of the same size and style in our kitchen likely would double the $67.28 we're paying each year, so energy efficient is still the best bet.

_ Blow-dryer: At first blush, spending $5.84 a year to use a hair dryer six minutes a day hardly seems like a lot _ until I compared it to a few major appliances. Two hours of daily watching on our upstairs television with built-in DVD costs $6.55 annually. An energy-efficient washer, used four hours a week, checks in at $11.40 annually. While the hair dryer won't break the bank, it's hardly giving much bang for the buck, and air drying is still free.

Switching to CFL bulbs, using power strips and better understanding the energy consumption of my appliances won't drastically reduce my electric bills. But at least it's a start.

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WAYS TO SAVE

In the course of my research, here are a few other energy tips I picked up from the U.S. Department of Energy, California Energy Commission, Energy Star and Pacific Gas & Electric:

_ Use programmable thermostats to set your heater and air conditioner to automatically shut off and turn on at predetermined times. A colleague's roommate tried this, helping reduce the monthly utility bill by $200.

_ Install a motion-activated outdoor light so you don't have to keep it burning while you are away from home.

_ Use the air-dry setting on a dishwasher to save 15 to 50 percent of energy. Also, avoid using the "rinse hold" setting, which uses energy to heat 3-7 gallons of hot water.

_ Select the moisture sensor setting to automatically shut off your dryer when clothes are dry. Also, dry loads successively to take advantage of the dryer's retained heat. Keep the lint filter clean so the dryer doesn't have to work as hard.

_ Wash clothes using a detergent designed for cold-water cycles. About 90 percent of energy used in clothes washing comes from heating the water, according to U.S. Department of Energy research.

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RESOURCES

_ U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Saver Tips at www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips and Consumer Guide at www.energysavers.gov.

_ Energy Star: www.energystar.gov.

_ Home Energy Saver: www.hes.lbl.gov.

_ Watt-Minder: www.watt-minder.com.

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(c) 2010, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

	Visit the Contra Costa Times on the Web at http://www.contracostatimes.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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