Knowledge is power, literally. A colleague brought in a nifty little device today called a Kill A Watt—it measures how much power an appliance or computer is using. Right now, my Dell laptop is sucking 20 Watts of electricity per hour, or .11 Kilowatts for the last six hours (compared to our server, which draws that much in one hour).
I learned that if I right-click my desktop and click Properties>Screen Saver>Monitor Power and select “Turn off Monitor After 5 minutes” my power draw drops to 11 Watts (when I’m idle, which is hardly ever!). We also found that our Braun 12-cup coffee maker draws 60 Watts per hour when the burner’s on, but spikes to 850 Watts while brewing a pot (the equivalent of 120 Wh). That’s a pittance compared to the four-burner Bun-o-Matic coffee maker which gulps 1200 Watts to brew a pot and 100 Watts per burner to warm, or about 2.2 Kilowatts per day.
This tool has been enlightening (one can be had online for about $20)—it’s fun to get real time data of our carbon footprint and be able to make informed choices about where to change behavior.
Jan 7 Update
We continue to investigate the electricity consumption here and make real changes today, including an old mimeograph machine in the copy room which is actually broken but was plugged in and drawing 70 Watts (after checking, we got approval to unplug it). We've also determined that the soda vending machines are drawing 10 kilowatts per day with the front lightbulbs removed. That lead us to discover the VendingMiser, an ingenious, $165 product that reduces the power used by vending machines by 35-45 percent and saves 2-3 tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year (In the city of Austin, TX they're giving these away). We read that the typical cold beverage vending machine consumes 3600 Kw a year! We figured out that's almost as much electricity as a co-worker and his wife use in their condo in a year. Wow.
Jan 16 Update
We have created a page in the Energy practice area, under Conservation and efficiency to track the Museum's energy audit and share results and our action plan to reduce electricity consumption. Follow our progress here.
Kill-A-Watt Meters Available at Ottawa's Public Library
Bill MacDermott Says:Could we do this here in Cleveland???
--------------------------------------------------------------
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 01.30.09
Why Own When You Can Borrow?
The Ottawa Public Library has books, DVD, internet-connected computers, and all that, of course. Taking advantage of those is greener than buying your own (especially if it's a book or DVD you're only going to read/watch once). But thanks to a grant from the City of
Ottawa Community Environmental Grants Program, the library also has made 75 Kill-A-Watt meters available freely. I think all public libraries should do the same!
For those of you not familiar with what a Kill-A-Watt is, it's a small electronic device that you can plug into a power outlet, and then when you plug an appliance into it, you get a reading of how much electricity is used. What you can measure, you can improve. This feedback on your energy consumption can allow you to cut your energy use in the same way that fuel economy feedback in a car usually helps the driver save gas. You could even discover that some electronics drain quite a bit of power even when they are nominally turned off, or that some old appliance is so inefficient that it is costing you more in electricity than it's worth.
The only sad thing is that almost all Kill-A-Watts at the Ottawa Public Library are checked-in. Maybe
Ottawa residents don't know about them?
If you're in
Ottawa and reading this, come on, give it a try. And if you're somewhere else, suggest to your library to acquire some Kill-A-Watts, even if only a couple. From treehugger.com
kill-a-vending machine
Susan Miller Says:"We've also determined that the soda vending machines are drawing 10 kilowatts per day with the front lightbulbs removed. That lead us to discover the VendingMiser, an ingenious, $165 product that reduces the power used by vending machines by 35-45 percent and saves 2-3 tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year (In the city of Austin, TX they're giving these away)."
Great reason to get vending machines out of schools and government buildings..., unplug, load up, wheel away! Spit spot! Reduce obesity and diabetes, tooth enamel degradation and the spread on unhealthy processed food. Save our corn (from being the number 1 ingredient in soda pop). Fix those drinking fountains where need be and save a watt, a buck and some lives.
GREAT IDEA!
Kill-a-watt
Matt Russell Says:This sounds like a great learning tool. Will GCBL be a part of the Cleveland Conserves Campaign kick-off at Cleveland City Hall? It would be great to have one of these available to teach those in attendance about energy conservation.
In short, "The Cleveland Conserves Campaign is a city-wide effort to reduce costs, save money, promote the local economy and lesses the City's impact on the environment" - taken from the promotional material for the event from the Office of Sustainability.
For more information:
http://www.gcbl.org/events/kickoff-of-cleveland-conserves-campaign-01-23...
Cleveland Conserves
Marc Lefkowitz Says:We are planning on participating in the Cleveland Conserves kick-off event at City Hall. We can bring the Kill-a-Watt and a Dell laptop and maybe we'll rig up a power strip with sockets for a CFL and an incandescent light bulb. Thanks for the great suggestion. And thanks Jeff for offering to lend yours out - it's fun and addictive once you get started.
Lend-A-Lot
Jeff Schuler Says:I have a Kill-A-Watt -- useful and admittedly fun -- and am happy to lend it to whomever would like to try it out.
Just drop me a line.