I have found the frig I had downstairs for drinks was the biggest user of power, took it out and saved about $10 a month. Just got to upstairs to get my Diet Coke.
For what it's worth, if you have that many 4 foot forecents running in your shop, ya might want to think about doing what I do in my shops for lighting. Some people think it is overkill, but, it's not. it's the way I do it for many reasons. I split them up in lighting circuits. I have direct fixtures over my work specific work areas, then the other lighting that simply lights the room. I have my work areas on separate switch legs to light those specific areas I am working. And the room is split up on two or more depending on the size of the shop and how many fixtures I have in that room. I will split general lighting fixtures up equally and evenly, for instance, for two switchlegs, I will wire every other fixture together on one switch, and then another switch for the remaining ones, then a switch for each of the specific work fixure areas. You can flip on one, all, or what ever combination you want for the effect, or lighting you need at any time. Alot of work? yeah, sorta, but well worth the trouble. On my shop wall by the door, I have a bank of 6 switches for any combination of lighting I need for that specific time. On work benches, you might want a 3 way switch in those locations so you can flip them on at the wall, or at the workstation itself without having to get up to do it. Just food for thought. Being a former electrician it maybe easier said than done, but, it's not hard to do really, and not much additional cost other than slightly more romex, and a few more switches. By the way, they dont always have to be separate circuits, but just different switch legs on a single circuit (as long as you stay within the limits of said circuit)
on a different note. Not train related, but this is an electricity consumption thread. If you have an electric water heater, you would be shocked how much power those things use. Rule of thumb, ANYTHING that uses a heating element uses alot of power, this includes toasters, electric ovens/ranges/water heaters/hair dryers/curling irons/clothes irons/electric dryers, you get the gest. Next for power consumption is motors/compressors, ie: fridges/fans/AC/Heating blowers, yadda yadda yadda.. The lest amount of useage comes from lighting. Like said earlier, people do not realize the power wasted by remote controls. TV, VCR, DVR, home theators, laptops, cell phones, etc. It it is a brick or charger you plug in the wall, IT itself consumes power wether the item is pluged into it charging or turned on or not. It is a small transformer that uses power if the item is on or not. People leave cell phone chargers plugged in. Well, even if you cell phone is connected or not, of that charger is plugged into the wall, it consumes power. Your TV, DVD player, cable box, home theator uses power if it is plugged on and on "standby" which is what it is in if you turn it off with the remote. Those items have 3 modes, On/Off/Standby. The only way to turn them "off" is to physically push the power button. By powering them off using the remote, they are still on, just in "standby" mode. Ever notice the little light that stays lit? A large energy savings can be accomplished by understanding those things. But a very large one is putting a "timer" on electric water heaters. I always put them on mine. A water heater uses heating elements (huge power needs) to heat the wather, and KEEP it hot, if you are using it or not. It keeps the water hot for instant hot water at any time. My water heater does not do this, because of the use of a timer. It is set to come on about an hour before we wake up, so wehave hot water for showers. It stays on for a few hours, then shuts off. The water stays pretty warm throughout the day assuming your heater is insolated well. Warm enough for general uses. Many dishwahsers super heat the water anyway themselves (another big power use), so in alot of cases, they dont even need the water heater. The water heater timesback on during the evening hours to heat water for use in kitchen, or showers after school/work/etc. Shuts back down in the evening while we sleep. You would be shocked how much electricity that alone will save. Now, that said, I know there is the bunch that will say "no it wont, because it takes more power to heat water from scratch than it does to keep it hot.." A myth. partially true, but a myth for the most part. It is true to a degree (no punn) it does take a bit more to get cold water hot, but still not as much energy than keeping it hot 24/7. besides, you can minimize that by having a water heater well insolated. It never really does cool down all the way before it kicks back on.
And if you think the cost of operating your layout is bad now, just wait until Congress passes and the President signs into law all those “Carbon off-set taxes”. Next big investment for your train room will be a stationary bicycle hooked up to a small generator.
Hmm..Years ago layouts was power by 12 car volt batteries.. Are you saying we may need to buy a string of 12 volt batteries to power our layouts? LOL!
yep.. kinda a false sense of "Green". The electric hybreads aren't as green as they advertise just for that reason. Sure, no carbons in the air when running on electric, but if they have to, or when they are plugged into the wall to recharge, that electricity that is charging it was generated by nasty burning coal. Also, a faulse sense of "saving" money and the earth is ethonol vs gas. Ethonol is some cheaper than petrol, but, it doesnt get as many miles to the gallon as petrol, because even tho it is a good source of burnable calories, it doesn't contain as many calories as petrol, so it takes MORE of it, to do the same work as a petrol. Well.. That should off set any montary savings. I do agree with vegitble and green engery, don't get me wrong, but do the math, and homework yourself to find out what it does to improve things... Just sayin..:mwink:
I just looked my last electric bill and I am paying ~15 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which is quite high compared to recent years (still feeling the effects of last year's high fuel prices and still enjoying the "benefits" of rate deregulation) but it is still pretty cheap, all things considered. At present I have nearly 800 watts of florescent lighting in the basement, so with trains running I would be approaching a kilowatt: about 15 cents per hour to operate. BTW, I agree with Tudor about switches; I have set my lighting up so the 4 quadrants of the square basement are on separate switches. Now a question: does a cell phone or laptop charger really draw power if it is plugged into the wall, but the device being charged is *not* plugged in? Where is the current on the transformer output going? I agree that most home electronics do draw some current (hence power) in standby mode. Cheers, Gary
The transformer itself is consuming the power. it does that and produces the 9v or whatever the output is. A transformer in therory a huge resister of sorts. 900 watts of lighting power. If you think about it, that is still less than a common bath room hair dryer.. :tb-ooh:
Just about EVERY thing in your home that is electronic has a transformer (just like your 12 volt trains). Most of these items run on much less that 120V, most run in the 5-12 volt range. Your cell phone charger has a big coil of wire inside it that the 120 volts loop through, it also have a smaller loop of wire that does not physically hook to the 120V system, it used the field around the big loop to excite the small loop to put out those 9 volts of power, so yes if its plugged in its working. If you have an old radio or VCR kicking around, take it apart, you'll see the power cord more then likely hook to a transformer, some time it mite even go to the power button first, but not always. Ever turning off the power button in some cases will not kill power to the transformer, that's what called instant on, the system is powered up, it just in stand by. On a side note the last TV I bought does not have ANY buttons, it only run my remote *
Unplugging your cell phone charger while not using it will probably not make a noticeable difference in your electric bill. It probably uses only a watt or two when charging, and a fraction of a watt when not charging. Unplugging your laptop adapter might make a noticeable difference, as it consumes as much as 120 watts when powering your laptop, and may use a few watts even when not plugged into your laptop. There is no current running through the transformer output. However, depending on how the adapter is designed, it may heat up just from being plugged into the wall. Any heat being produced represents consumed energy. If you can feel the warmth, it's sure to be at least a few watts. This is kind of misleading. First of all, a transformer is in fact a "physical hook" and electrons do actually flow through the transformer from one loop to the other and back. Secondly, modern AC adapters and charging devices have various electronics in them designed to reduce the "no-load" power consumption by switching off current flowing through parts of the device. While it's true that adapters use power whenever they are plugged into the wall, they use a lot less power when their devices are not plugged in, often by huge factors. So saying "if its plugged in it's working" is an oversimplification. Older devices are less likely to have good no-load consumption, so the older a device is, the more pertinent the advice to unplug it when not using. The "warmth test" is good, too.
Ben - I agree. If there is input current, but no output current, the only thing the input energy *can* do is heat the adapter. Some of this is being dissipated in the output rectifier (ac-to-dc) circuitry, I am told. It's all pretty low level though - compared to that kilowatt in the basement. Cheers, Gary
I've been quite carefull with electric usage from the outse. As my project is in a purpose built building away from the house I was carefull in the choice of heating and lighting units I placed in the room. My heating used ceramic greenhouse heaters they consume the same electricity as a 40W light bulb and are on from Oct/Nov thru to about Mar/Apr and the lights are also low energy bulbs. Even though my layout isnt finished I have hardly noticed any extra consuption, I know Im not running trains but I am using power tools soldering stations and a coffee machine. Shaun
You are correct in saying that the power consuption is very minimal with a charger plugged into the wall. You will not notice a differnce in your bill because a cell phone charger is plugged in. The POINT is, and the question was, "does it consume power" and the short answer is "Yes it does". Many people are not aware of that. Monitary benefits to a single user by not plugging it in is Nill. But, planet, and conservational benefits of people understanding that, and thounsands of people unplug, well, you know it all adds up, especially when you add up ALL the power supplies, and "bricks" that are used with todays electronics. As far as my personal benefit in keeping things like that unplugged when not in use, is for safety. These things even tho this is rare, CAN malfunction, and even cause a fire. In fact, my daughter's laptop power supply almost did just that less than a year ago. She never understoon why Dad kept on her about keeping it plugged in all the time. She had it laying in the crease of my chair (just the power supply) and it was plugged in. I sat down on it, and kept feeling a "burning" on my arse cheek. It finally got so uncomfortable that I got up to see what was burning me. I dug it out of the chair, and it was too hot to handle, and even started melting the plastic cover. You could see the imprint of the fibers from the chair upholstry on the plastic. I strongly believe it it was left there over another night, it very well could have gotten hot enough to ignight the chair upholstry. My daughter now understands and keeps her laptop and new power supply unplugged.
