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Post by Phoebe on Mar 8, 2014 9:10:19 GMT 11
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Post by Jim Hare on Mar 8, 2014 11:16:46 GMT 11
Jim, your 6.1kW system in NSW would more then cover your needs unless you have a very inefficient house. Our problem isn't so much inefficiency as high requirement. First of all it's a massive house plus my wife and I both run businesses from home. We use a lot of power at peak times when other families are off at work and school. Even with a 6.1KwH system we still have a $900 power bill each quarter! Still, I'm desperate to look into any inefficiencies we might have and how we can improve the situation, but am not very handy with electrical instrumentation. Still, when we factor in all of the power we AREN'T using to drive, as well as what we would use in an office/studio environment, it relieves some of our guilt. Anyone know a good third party service to help break down our usage and look for efficiencies?
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Post by riddick on Mar 8, 2014 12:04:13 GMT 11
Jim, we used to have an inefficiency report done by the government free. I had it done as well, however, you can do it yourself. I have slashed our usage massively, such that we use about half the normal consumption of an average family and I also run a business from home (ie have computers running all day). And all this without the family noticing. First you need to change all your lighting to LEDs (or CFLs in worst case). Do not leave anything else, have a look around well, even I found old bulbs after I looked around (garden, outside etc). In Victoria there were a few companies who came out and changed all your lighting to CFLs for free if you had the old light bulbs. Also, get some standby switches, I have about 5 in the house which cut power boards in a minute once some equipment is off (eg turn TV off and power to everything else is cut). These were provided for free by the government as well. It has cut massively as the stand by power is costing you 24/7. If you have a pool, that will be a main culprit. Also, buy one of those watt meters that you can plug into a normal socket to see how much each of your equipment is using. For example, I was pretty astonished to find that one of our old TV sets in the kitchen was using 25W stand by while only 65W while running. That is 0.6kWh a day, every day just on that. Now I have a standby switch for that TV so it is using 0W when turned off. Plug this into every socket that you are using and check the numbers. I have cut about 30% just doing all the above. Now I can use that for the LEAF
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Post by Jim Hare on Mar 8, 2014 12:11:19 GMT 11
Great advice, thanks! Yeah, been keeping a close eye on LEDs, was just waiting for the colour temperature to be acceptable but feel like they are now. We have about 35 x 50w halogens in the house that could instantly drop to 12w or whatever it is. Already have CFLs in the few sockets that aren't halogen.
Pool, yes! Solar heat but electric pumps.
Reverse Cycle air conditioner big enough to run a small hotel. We use it sparingly.
I like the idea of the standby switches. I have a watt meter so will take some readings.
Our businesses are film production and audio production so we're running much more than computers, cameras, lights, amps, instruments, speakers, and sometimes four computers at a time crunching away.
Thanks for the push, just what I needed!
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Post by gabzimiev on Mar 9, 2014 14:50:08 GMT 11
Great advice, thanks! Yeah, been keeping a close eye on LEDs, was just waiting for the colour temperature to be acceptable but feel like they are now. We have about 35 x 50w halogens in the house that could instantly drop to 12w or whatever it is. Already have CFLs in the few sockets that aren't halogen. Pool, yes! Solar heat but electric pumps. Reverse Cycle air conditioner big enough to run a small hotel. We use it sparingly. I like the idea of the standby switches. I have a watt meter so will take some readings. Our businesses are film production and audio production so we're running much more than computers, cameras, lights, amps, instruments, speakers, and sometimes four computers at a time crunching away. Thanks for the push, just what I needed! 50W halogens such a waste of energy.... I've replaced some of mine the most used ones with sunny lighting ecogems www.sunnylighting.com.au/Products.asp?GUID=192 CFLs can also be replaced with leds but less of a saving you move from 15w to 9w...aldi when they have them on special have really nice ones ledbenchmark.com/ is a useful comparison site. tips for electric pumps is the limit the starts, if it's doing a large amount of stop starts then replace with a Variable speed drive which will lower the flow instead of stopping. standby switches in my view are a waste of money most things have such a low standby power consumption. that the switch cost more than 3 years of power. as for you computers you need to work so not much I can say there just decrease the time until the screen turns off, and buy nice LED backed screens.
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Post by Jim Hare on Mar 10, 2014 10:47:13 GMT 11
Awesome advice, thanks! Yeah, I'll check the standby power and see if there are any units drawing an unreasonable amount when not being used.
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Post by riddick on Mar 11, 2014 19:55:56 GMT 11
In my case the standby switches cost $0, courtesy of the Victorian government, so really they were a no brainer. Check if you have a similar scheme in NSW. Also, those watts do add up rather quickly because it is consumed 24/7. For example, saving 50W of standby is more then $130 in a year at 30c/kWh. Going by the amount of equipment Jim has, he may in fact have quite a bit of standby.
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Post by Jim Hare on Mar 12, 2014 10:10:58 GMT 11
Yeah, walking into my house you would think the Apple Store and JB HiFi just exploded and you're walking through the aftermath! My guess is there is some stand-by wastage going on.
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Post by Phoebe on Mar 12, 2014 10:25:33 GMT 11
When I had 2 split system air conditioners installed recently I was told they use a little power even when turned off unless you turn them off at the meter board - and you have air conditioning Jim.
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