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Old 12-13-13, 02:57 PM   #1
pinballlooking
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Default How much power does your house use in standby.

I am amazed at how much power gets used when nothing is running. We have made really good progress on reducing big items power usage but the standby items are using about 500 watts. It will be a while before I start tracking it all down but I was wondering if others know how much power they are useing in standby.

That is enough power to charge my car one time a day.
12 kwh standby
24 kwh to charge car twice everyday.
36 kwh a day before we start using power


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Old 12-13-13, 05:21 PM   #2
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DVR's are good for about 50W when they are "off", which is about the same as when they are "on".
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Old 12-13-13, 05:39 PM   #3
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500W is equivalent to several desktop PCs running under load. Make sure it's not some "out of sight, out of mind" device. Could be a refrigerator/freezer in defrost when you thought it was not running.

As for the DVR, it's surprisingly simple to build your own with MythTV. I have one running on an Atom D2700 and it uses about 20W most of the time, jumping up to 32W when the main hard drive is spinning. (And it does a lot more than just a DVR.) Could possibly go even lower with a Raspberry Pi or something, though it won't be able to do as much.
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Old 12-13-13, 06:40 PM   #4
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500 seems pretty high to me.

My base load is around 100W according to my TED.

Right now as I type my TED shows 203W with my desktop computer on and a 13W CFL, and nothing else on/running in the house.
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Old 12-13-13, 08:41 PM   #5
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Mine is 1.2 amps at 12 v.d.c. I have plenty of LED light so I don't trip over the dogs at night without turning anything else on.. (The fridge light uses 3 watts when I sneak a snack)

I'm online, with one light on that fills 3 rooms with plenty of light, and I'm drawing 3.4 amps. This is my normal load in the evenings.. (Including the above LED's. They run 24/7)
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Old 12-13-13, 11:57 PM   #6
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My lowest use month was billed at 75kWh. So about 2.4kWh per day or 100 watts if it's all averaged. This is total use for the month with me living in the house everyday including computer usage, lighting, electric dryer, dishwasher use, etc.

Refrigerator use is pretty much right on 30kWh per month. So 45kWh amongst all the rest.
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Old 12-14-13, 11:08 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MN Renovator View Post
My lowest use month was billed at 75kWh. So about 2.4kWh per day or 100 watts if it's all averaged.
This is incredibility low usage. We have used 80kwh in a day.

I have a computer power supply I use for bench testing things I am working on. I had left I plugged in and running. So that is some of the power but not all.
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Old 12-14-13, 12:10 PM   #8
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I tested a few PC PSUs and they seem to use about 15W enabled but not running anything. They seemed to vary from unmeasurable to 3W when plugged in but not enabled. The "green" units use about 5W enabled and unmeasurable when not.

If it's an old/junk unit that requires a dummy load to keep regulation, add a few watts.
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Old 12-14-13, 01:50 PM   #9
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Back when I could view my consumption online through my old "smart meter", my usage in the middle of the night (including some cycling of the refrigerator and some ceiling fans running) was averaging 0.3-0.4kW/h. Using my Kill-A-Watt, I was able to track down a few offending devices which I took offline with a power strip. The entertainment center was one of those. Since I was upgraded to a "Net-Meter" in August, I haven't been able to view or track anything online.
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Old 12-14-13, 04:26 PM   #10
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68 watts standby. 11kwh average daily usage.

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