[rogerhb]

A Hunt for Energy Hogs

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WSJ', 'A') Columnist Looks to Cut His Electric Bill And Finds Gadgets Aren't the Best Targets

[EnergyHog]

I'm right here! I got precision German bearings installed in my electric meter.

[Johnston]

I heard something really disturbing the other day. Apparently, there is an epidemic of the people living in the big McMansions of western Sydney switching their air-conditioners on before they leave for work in the morning, so that they have a nice cool house waiting for them when they get home.

That's leaving the a/c on for 10+ hours, often in 38ºC heat (100ºF). Sheer insanity, just think of the energy bills.

[gg3]

Eventually those McMansions will be turned into multi-family apartment houses, as the ostentatious Victorians of San Francisco in the 1800s have become today. And since they weren't designed for the purpose, they will make downright shitty apartments, to be inhabited by another generation of the relatively-poor.

As for Australian air conditioning madness, that could be stopped by simply passing a law and enforcing it with the aid of remote thermal imaging. Cold house with no warm bodies in it: fine 'em $100 per day. The obvious solution for individuals being to put timers on their AC so at least it only turns on 1/2 hour before they get home.

The degree to which people will cling to their lead weights of stubborn stupidity as they ride the whirlpool down the drain at the botton of the toilet, never fails to amaze me.

Though, I suppose it's a rather more hopeful sign to see the WSJ starting to raise the question, "when is enough, enough?"

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'A')s for Australian air conditioning madness, that could be stopped by simply passing a law and enforcing it with the aid of remote thermal imaging.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'A')s for Australian air conditioning madness, that could be stopped by simply passing a law and enforcing it with the aid of remote thermal imaging. Cold house with no warm bodies in it: fine 'em $100 per day.

[WisJim]

Back to the article in the WSJ, I find it interesting that he didn't bother actually checking power consumption of his refrigerator, but rather went to a generic chart! Refrigerators have gotten much more efficient in recent years, and I am regularly surprised at how much power a 10 or even 5 year old model uses compared to a new one--but you don't really know without actually measuring!!

[aahala]

One device the author needed but didn't have, was a mirror.
To spend $6/mon for electricty for a PC in your bedroom, what the
hell is he doing in there? Or a better question, what isn't he
doing in there?

Then he estimated $30 for lighting. That works out to 6 KWH
per day! And that means 100 hours of 60 watt bulbs per day.

So what's he doing? Ten lights for ten hours a day, or is he
keeping the parking lot lit?

[onecvj]

He cited a potential $85 savings for a CFL vs. traditional bulbs. I've always read $30-40 savings. Does the heat from the bulbs really account for up to $50 savings in air conditioning? And wouldn't that more or less be offset by heating cost savings in the winter? Does anyone have any data on this?

[Johnston]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he degree to which people will cling to their lead weights of stubborn stupidity as they ride the whirlpool down the drain at the bottom of the toilet, never fails to amaze me.

[HamRadioRocks]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Johnston', 'I') heard something really disturbing the other day. Apparently, there is an epidemic of the people living in the big McMansions of western Sydney switching their air-conditioners on before they leave for work in the morning, so that they have a nice cool house waiting for them when they get home.

That's leaving the a/c on for 10+ hours, often in 38ºC heat (100ºF). Sheer insanity, just think of the energy bills.

[MrBill]

What about the energy wasted by the WSJ and the other daily rags spending time, money and, of course, more energy writing about general themes that have been already covered in their competitor's newspapers, in specialist mags in more detail, by scientific journals and consumer reports, or my gawd, already written about after the first energy shocks in the 1970's? Do these 'journalists' ever consider that their jabbering on about this or that when their ideas are neither new nor unique makes them part of the problem? That larger houses may use more energy? Who would have thought that? Duh.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MrBill', 'D')o these 'journalists' ever consider that their jabbering on about this or that when their ideas are neither new nor unique makes them part of the problem?

[Zardoz]

The ever-growing mania for big flat-panel televisions sure as hell isn't helping:

20 TVs' power consumption compared

Size does matter, huh?

They're the hot item this Christmas season. Now that the prices are getting down to where a high percentage of us can afford them, they've become a must-have electro-toy.