Paranoia !!!???

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Hi

This is just an observation and I wondered if anyone else had the same problem !

Most of you will know that our house if off grid and we have been working to get it performing as well as we can over the 18 months since we moved in.

I was out last night looking at the Sunny Island in the garage and as there was no PV input, and the Turbine is away getting fixed, the energy consumption at that time was around 620w.

That was with the Pellet Boiler running (not igniting) lights on in a couple of rooms, TV/Sky on and a few minor things with LED's, etc. Oh yes, and the Xmas tree lights !

I came in and said to the missus it was quite high (normally around 400w) but then I had another think and realised it was less that one of the 1kW heaters we used to have in the old house !

It obviously goes up when the big demand items are on, but the genny kicks in then, but I said that we were so preoccupied with keeping the consumption low, we were losing sight of the practicality of it all.

So in Mid WInter, with heating on, lights on and a few consumer items, in reality, 620w is b*66er all !!

Is this normal ??!!!

Is this what living off grid does to you !!

[dimengineer]

Yep - I'd say that 620W would be pretty normal, for someone who cares about and is careful of their useage.
I've got a big, conventional detached house in the london suburbs, and our "normal during the day" electricity use ranges from about 600W to 1000W

I'm sure that there will be those on this forum who will damn you for being so cavalier in your electricity use.... 

[Billy]

I think you are lucky but be careful.  When leaving the house how many times do you go back indoors to check everything is switched off?  Try and limit it to five times or you may find you need to eat more, the lock wears out quicker and you loose all the heat.   

billy
 

[renewablejohn]

Just got an early christmas present from my daughter of an energy monitor and now paranoid. Most of the time reading 150 to 200W during the day and upto 350W with all lights on and TV. Only time it jumps is when making a brew so now been told to use the stove kettle instead. I think it will be broken very soon.

Do these monitors interfere with modern electric meters as the meter seems not to be displaying although the light keeps flashing so it is working.

[Baz]

600W ! that's 50 Amps if you were on 12v, even 12 Amps at 48v which needs a thickish bit of wire.
Do you have a phenomenal number of xmas lights?
Allow one low energy bulb per person and 1 general in the hall (bit like teabags isn't it)
TV if it is over 60W get a smaller one.
Sky box 25W
laptop 25W, modem 15W
Boiler shouldn't take more than 10W if it isn't pumping / feeding, but circulation pump if >40W get a low energy one.
Off grid I would be aiming for 200W when on batteries - then grin and wallow in it when the turbine is running.

Easy for me to say of course in the office under 10 strip lights, aircon running to offset the heating of electrical equipment, just noticed the Set Top Box is on (25W instead of 12W in standby but who cares it's on grid and I'm not paying) but I'm being ecenomical and not watching the news or cricket so TV is off. Now must go and heat my lunch up in the 3KW microwave.

[biff]

our little house is running about 300watt or less,in daylight
               this would include the circulation pump which runs off the main bank.the telly and pc run off our small standby pv and the fridge runs off the gas stanby,normally we would have everything running on the trubine 24/7 but now the geni comes on about 6 or 7,0 clock.
    when the turbine is running we use a lot more energy because we can only store so much so rather than have it blowing out in heat from the controller we use it up with lecky fires in the house.a few people remarked that it was rather wastefull but h,mmm and h,awwd when it was explained.we are obviously looking forward to getting the new baby up and running,
                                                                                         biff
 .

[rondurrans]

Do you know what the Pellet Boiler uses in operation - fan(s), screw feed for pellets, not sure if there is anything else - I bet that could be another 50 to 100 W.

Ron

[HalcyonRichard]

Hi,
    I have been trying to minimise electrical consumption as I may be moving to an off grid property. Without too much effort may average consumption is 4 kWh/day. This is with the house occupied all day. This equates to an average of 167 watts.

I achieved this over time with little effort. Hear are a few of the typical consumptions :-

32 " TV 30-50 watts (old one 150 watts)
Fridge freezer averaged 2 kW/day new larger one 1 kWh/day(170 watts when motor running)
laptop 30 watts(on for 10 hous day when working at home) old desktop 150 watts
boiler 170 watts with pump and fan running 7 watts on standby
Lights are mainly CFL's - kitchen halogens 280 watts total (probably used 2 hours/day in winter)
Lights on in evening are 3 x 5 watt CFL's
Christmas lights 2 LED strings at 6 watts = 12 watts
Gas hob kettle
Halogen oven for roasting 1 kW
Actifry for chips roast potatoes etc 1 kW

So 600 watts could easily be reached with some items on.

Regards Richard

[desperate]

Hi russ,
even on grid it can be quite bad, I spend an inordinate amount of time with my head in the airing cupboard interrogating the TDC3, reading the meters and weighing wood.
We use 7kWhr/day or about 275w on average, that doesn't include any heating though, so your consumption sounds good to me.

Desp

[Eleanor]

Below average Desp!  

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/domestic%20energy%20consump%20fig%20FS.pdf

According to this the mean UK household use is 3300 kWh/year, 9 kWh/day or 377W continuously. It hasn't changed from 2003 but gas usage has gone down from 56 kWh/day to 45 kWh/day. The report classifies low electricity usage as 2100 kWh/year (5.75 kWh/day) and high usage as 5100 kWh/year (14 kWh/day). I think it would be necessary to exclude heating from any figures to get a proper comparison.

[russ_fae_fyvie]

I've just double checked the consumption (at 240v) of a few bits and pieces and as a comparison to what we had when we first moved in.

Main drain was a 42" Plasma TV (no, honest!) which was measured at 410w !
Needless to say that was changed to a similar sized LCD which uses 54w and its only on at the most, 2 hours a day.

Next was my iMac which used 218w
That was replaced with a Mac Mini (20w) and LCD Screen (16w)

A constant drain is the Septic Tank Aerator Motor which needs to be on all the time (90w), we did mess around earlier in the tear by turning it off for periods but it bumblebeed it up and the garden was smelly ! So thats staying on.

Another unavoidable drain is my CPAP Machine (I have sleep apnea) at night, about 40w for 7 hours a day.

All the lights are low energy, all on individual sets giving a max of 60w (3 spots) and the main ones are all 10w fluorescents.

I looked at the Inverter this morning before the heating came on and most of the lights were off and it was around 220w

Max at any time with a few lights on, TV, etc, is 600w but only for 2 hours max.

To be honest I am not worried about the genny having to come on during the winter, there is no point in being uncomfortable or in the dark to save a bit on the consumption because we are only using that max for a short time, the heating is included in that.

Once the Turbine is returned that will help because this is all going on without it and with very little PV input so allI can say is, roll on Summer !

[biff]

yes russ,
      i second that,"roll on the summer"
                                             biff

[camillitech]

Hi Russ,

"Another unavoidable drain is my CPAP Machine (I have sleep apnea) at night, about 40w for 7 hours a day."

Have you tried red wine :-) works for me, probably dearer than the machine but far pleasanter :-)

Damn shame about that septic tank, I'm sure you could fill a pressure cylinder whilst your genny was running and let it aerate slowly. Have you tried the dead rabbit trick and done away with all the bleaches and sh1t3, vinegar is just as good 

Good luck, Paul 

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Hi Russ,

"Another unavoidable drain is my CPAP Machine (I have sleep apnea) at night, about 40w for 7 hours a day."

Have you tried red wine :-) works for me, probably dearer than the machine but far pleasanter :-)

I used to find a half pint of Malt Whisky worked but I couldn't afford the cost or the hassle I got from the wife !!

[langstroth3]

Oh dear. I see from the ofgem article it says

There is no definitive answer for why typical electricity consumption has stayed the same. Lighting and household appliances are increasingly more energy efficient, but this may have been offset by the growing number of energy-hungry gadgets in a typical home. For example, there are more laptops, large screen televisions and other electronic appliances.

That's certainly true in the gadget city langstroth household. After an initial 'success' in 2009 of reducing an average of 14kWH of electricity down to 10kWh/day it 's started to creep back up. It'll be interesting to see what effect the new PV array has on next year's consumption - guarding against I detect a worrying tendency for us all to think "we don't need to bother now we've got PV!".
  to all you achieving lower consumption.