Posted on 03/04/2020 1:12:10 PM PST by bananaman22
After replacing my furnace and water tank + having all LEDs, my power use was most definitely cut in half based on the graph I get from the power company.
If I come across some used solar panels I’m definitely going to install them and knock that down further.
60W per bulb, 2-8 bulbs per room, 8 rooms in your house.... burning several hundred watts an hour most houses, on lighting... LED drops that by 80-90%... cumulative impact is a lot more than a 5 or 10% improvement on your single AC over a year.
“The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that in 2019, the U.S. residential and commercial sectors combined used about 216 billion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity for lighting. This was about 8% of total electricity consumption by both of these sectors and about 5% of total U.S. electricity consumption.”
Wall Warts are probably the biggest addition of wasted power these days... with all the electronics using low voltage, warts plugged in and drawing power even when the device itself is off... But yes, far less overall draw for most things these days.... CRT’s were huge draws compared to LEDTV as well as Incandescent to LED lighting. etc.
Clearly there is a significant efficiency factor, from improved technology and specs.
Maybe there has been some degree of replacement of grid electricity by solar, natural gas, or other power sources as well, for some uses.
When I switched from incandescents to CFLs, I saw an immediate drop of about $7/month in my electric bill. Now I use LEDs and I think they are even more economical. It is irrational to be against energy efficiency.
Environmental whackos have forced us into using first the curly fluorescent lamps then the LED lamps for use in our homes and offices, which are much more efficient than the incandescent lamps they replaced. Sometimes up to 90% more efficient when comparing a 60 watt incandescent lamp to the 8 watt LED equivalent.
Now you’re mystified that we’re using less electricity?
Not the brightest Crayon in the box, are you?
“CRT’s were huge draws compared to LEDTV”
The first color TVs drew about 1000 watts. They were like a space heater.
I read somewhere that LEDs can “fail dark” and still draw current. I don’t know if that’s true; in any event, the amount of current would be small.
No wonder why my SMUD electric bill has fallen off the cliff every since I got rid of my incandescent bulbs and replaced them all (now) with 5.5 to 8 W LED 2700 K bulbs.
Back in that era, the power company (in Michigan at least) gave you free light bulbs when you turned in burned out ones.
“LEDs will glow even when the switch is turned off”
Back in the day you could use an incandescent as a ballast to light a neon so you could see the switch in the dark. Not any more.
Some parts of the country don’t like that extra heat, or paying to get rid of it.
We went all-LED three years ago, with foam insulation. Our electric bill is half of what it used to be.
Something is wrong if there is that kind of leakage.
Dangerously wrong
A lot of low energy products out there like LED bulbs.
New dishwashers, dryers, tvs and washing machines and refrigerators and other energy savers help.
I use a chromebook instead of a plug in computer and screen and so does my wife.
Our electric use age has been going down since, we replaced the older items with the newer ones noted above.
Our usage went down so much, in one year, PGE replaced our smart meter which was relatively new. Didn’t work for them, our monthly usage continued to go down with the new gear.
We have a lot of exterior lights which have been replaced with sensors or bulbs with light sensors. So from being on 8-12 hours per day, they are only on a few minutes.
If electricity use drops...nationwide and on a long term basis...it’s obvious that power companies will raise the price of power (on a kWh basis) to maintain peak demand capabilities.
Our new electric furnace and water heater draw about the same number of watts as old. Why would that change? Go to smaller heating elements you are going to get less heat. The water heater efficiency might have improved a little because of lack of mineral deposits.
My old one was REALLY old. It was pretty old when I bought my house 11 years ago. So that likely accounts for it.
The breakdown of my electric bill from Eversource is about half actual usage and half charges and fees.
I remember when I bought my first Energy Star French door fridge. My bill dropped $20/month just because of that.
How I wish I had a gas stove.
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