Energy conservation is gaining attention as environmental concerns and energy prices increase. A good example of this is a recent segment on MarketWatch where Pablo Paster conducted an energy audit of Stacey Delo’s home in California. Important parallels can be drawn with Chicago, where thankfully energy prices aren't as high.

He discovered that her entertainment center was draining 60 watts of energy while the system was turned off, which costs $80 annually (at San Francisco rates). Pablo made me curious. What electricity vampires did I have in my home? I already have Energy Star appliances and use fluorescent light bulbs in nearly every fixture.

Armed with a watt-hour meter, I scoured my home for electricity vampires. This device plugs into outlets and measures an appliance’s energy use. You can buy them for around $30. My findings were similar to Pablo’s on his energy audit.

My entertainment center drains 26 watts of energy when the gadgets are turned off -- the equivalent of having two fluorescent light bulbs running 24/7 -- and costs $23 annually with Chicago electric prices. My DVD player and stereo required more than half as much juice to be turned off as they do when they are in use. I now have them plugged into a power strip, which I can turn off when I'm not using them.

The award for the biggest energy vampire goes to the toaster oven, which uses 1650 watts when turned on. My halogen lamp uses 20 times more energy than my lamp with a fluorescent bulb, but my clock radio uses just two watts to be annoying enough to get me out of bed each morning.

There are so many different ways to save energy. Some of them are quit simple, like emptying out the lint trap in the dryer or cleaning your air conditioning filter, while others require a lifestyle change. A way to make energy conservation fun is to have a competition with friends to see who can reduce their electric consumption the most.

Why does all this matter? The majority of our energy in Illinois comes from coal and nuclear. Generating electricity from coal contributes to the formation of acid rain, haze, smog (all dangerous lung irritants), mercury contamination, and contributes to climate change. Nuclear energy is dangerous and can create very long-term consequences. For example, the half-life of Uranium-235 is a staggering 713,000,000 years. That’s even longer than a can of Spam!

I have issues with this statement "The award for the biggest energy vampire goes to the toaster oven, which uses 1650 watts when turned on."

You're misunderstanding things a little. It's not a "vampire" when it uses power when turned on. It's just an energy intensive appliance. (And as far as I can tell, there ain't no such thing as an Energy Star toaster oven...). The "energy vampire" meme specifically refers to power use in 'off' or 'standby' modes.

For what it's worth, you have to put it in perspective too. The toaster oven may use 1650 watts (1.65 kW) when turned on, but the amount of time you use it (without timing anything, I'm guessing a minute or two to make a piece of toast) makes it something like 0.0275 to 0.05 kWh to make a piece of toast. At current Chicago energy prices, even after the rate hike, that's still a pretty insignificant amount of money. And even if you use it for a long time (like I did last night with mine to heat a frozen entree that took 40 minutes) it is still more cost-effective than using a large electric oven for the same purpose.

While there probably are some good opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of electricity-to-heat appliances (like toasters and space heaters), I'd rather see the focus on reducing wasted electricity that comes from heat generated when you aren't trying to (i.e. incandescent bulbs, batteries, etc.)

Posted by: Gregory Ehrendreich on February 28, 2007 4:09 PM

Choosing how we use resources at home is a very personal issue, but I like the awareness that comes from knowing how much electricity a given appliance consumes. It is not a financial issue for me, but rather fueled by wanting a clean world to live in. I certainly want to take advantage of the low hanging fruit, such as using a power-strip for appliances that drain energy when they are in standby mode, but I am also willing to make some changes that effect my lifestyle a bit. Once I realized that my halogen lamp uses 20 times more energy than my other ones, I no longer feel it is worthwhile for me to use it. I am willing to forgo toast for bread sometimes or put a slice in the toaster when my roommate puts it to use. If I used the toaster oven to cook a meal for 45 minutes, it would account for 1/4 of the daily electricity used in my home with four people. It would be great if electricity-to-heat appliances improved in efficiency or if unneeded heat generation didn't occur when using certain appliances, but in the meantime I am willing to be mindful in my use of electricity.

Posted by: on March 1, 2007 7:07 AM