ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Yearly household usage in kWh

Agreed eddy current.

I hate these newer appliances with no proper on / off switches which don't switch the primary of the mains transformer.
You always have a transformer energised and pay for the magnetising current in the latter. Say 10 times 60 mA's is 600 mA's just being consumed 24/7.
Same applies to SMPS in VCR's etc

WFO Most TV's are old, the newest is perhaps 4 y.o. the oldest 25 y.o.

gfretwell I like the usuage expressed in MWh.

edited for typo's RF.

[This message has been edited by RODALCO (edited 11-05-2006).]

Here's our consumption of electricity for the last period I have full figures for;
August 2005 thro' July 2006 = 52 weeks:

Standard rate 3923 kwh
Off peak, 2715 kwh
Total 6638 kwh

= 0.76kw continuous average, say 3A @ 230v.
Peak amps might approach 50+ when I start up 'Big Bertha', my 20" planer.

Last year we burned around 1350 litres of diesel, gross calorific 13,500 kwh, + 2 [French] cords of oak, say gross 17,000 kwh.
It was, however, a long cold winter.

Now as some of you will know, I have gone a bit bananas on energy conservation in my remodel of the old place next door. Once we move down that end, I expect to see some startling reductions. This end is not bad, around 4" of glasswool. We are just having the windows fitted now, D.G. 0.25" - 3/4" - 0.25", Argon filled. The insulation is 8" minimum of glasswool walls and loft, with additional home-made foil and bubblewrap membrane the whole south facing roof under the slates. Ground floor has 4" of foam under the underfloor heating pipes, which unusually are fitted under the upper floor too. These are supposed to save energy by phyisiologics, allowing you to drop the thermostat 3 degrees F for an equivalent heating effect. Ventilation is largely forced fan, no recycling; [0.3 airchanges an hour], with an integral 1.0kw heat exchanger to save on heating and aircon bills. Aircon is a Daisikai reversible duplex unit by Toshiba, dc motors so no power surges and with a COP over 4; ie it heats too, about 4kw ouput. Toshiba sized the unit on the heat loss/ house size data I supplied. My calcs show a heat requirement, including ventilation, of around 2.5kw with the outside t = 30F & inside t = 68F.
Soon find out! - 'er indoors says if we ain't moved in down there by August 2007, she will "sell my tractor and get some Pro's in!"

Yes, my little pirana fish!

Alan

Rod, Good topic!



[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 11-05-2006).]

Dang, Ron, where do you live. Round here 1000 kwhs is bout $80. Tennessee

New York (suburb of NYC).
At least I don't have to pay demand charges yet like my clients in the city.

So-called "solar houses" with negative power consumption usually cheat and use gas heat and gas hot water, and aren't actually as wonderfully green as they appear on the surface. To actually heat a home in the dead of winter in the northern US, you'd need an exorbitant amount of solar panels- about a quarter acre worth, IIRC, and even then it doesn't work when it's cloudy. I've got all the calcs at home if anyone is interested.

In sunny climates closer to the equater, solar can make a significant difference.

I recently clamped my house and was astonished to see my entire house with TVs, computers, lights, everything- was only drawing 3A on one phase, and 15A on the other, and 9A of that was a 1000W worklight my wife was using at the time. (I have electric heat, AC and hot water, none of which were running at the time. But I *did* kick-start them all to see what the actual power draw was!)

I derated a bit for voltage drop when I built my addition. In retrospect, I think I may have oversized my conductors, lol. Especially considering the pole xfmr is only capable of 106A for the entire block!

[This message has been edited by SteveFehr (edited 11-07-2006).]

Back when Jimmy Carter was giving a tax rebate for solar I knew some IBM engineer types who were solar fanatics. One guy in Manassas had an active solar home heating system that worked if the sun was shining. The problem was he still needed a regular system for when it wasn't and the maintenance was a nightmare. None of those guys are solar fans now.
I was reading an article about Germany's PV solar program. They pay about 20 euro cents a KWH for power but the PV solar producers get 50. Taxes make up the difference.
I suppose if the cost of power doubles and the cost of the PV arrays halfs it might become attractive. I ran the numbers for using solar to run my pool pump, a nice predictable load that is somewhat flexible. When I projected the payback time ... well I would have been 82.

Solar is perhaps one of the DIRTIEST and INEFFICIENT forms of energy there is. Not only that, solar energy is NEGATIVE output technology. In other words, the energy input needed to manufacture a PV solar panel will far exceed the expected energy output over its anticipated lifetime (like everything else, solar cells will not last forever).

In order produce a PV solar cell, you start with silica sand, which in order to melt needs a temperature of 1600*C (nearly 3000*F) for that to occur. Do you realize the amount of fossil fuels that must be burned to acheive those temperatures? Once the sand is molten, crystal growth starts which isn't an instant process, the sand must stay molten for a very long time. After the crystal is "grown" and has cooled, it goes through a number of manufacturing processes under tight environmental controls... all of which uses lots of... not to mention the climate controls for the building, and energy to maintain a clean room and so on.

Bottom line is, to manufacture ONE square meter silicon PV solar cell takes FIVE GIGAJOULES of energy. A one square meter solar cell will NEVER produce five gigajoules of energy in its lifetime. EVER.

Solar energy is a complete and utter waste. If you subscribe to all the global warming nonsense, those solar cells that make you feel good about saving the planet resulted in the production of far more "greenhouse gas" than would otherwise have occured with "dirtier" forms of fossil fuel energy.

Wind power is another complete and utter waste too... look at how much real estate you need to utilitze to produce 1 MW of power. Compare that to the real estate a 1 MW natural gas or diesel generator utilizes. And what about all the endangered birds that get chopped up in those propellers, LOL?

Joe

Gentlemen, please be careful where you go with this thread.

We will not discuss political issues which seems to be where we are headed.

Agreed iwire, I made this topic to discuss annual electric power consumption in kWh, MWh, not political stuff.

Just interseting to see the yearly average usages in different states and countries around the world.

Cheers

Rod

Rod I think this is an excellent thread.

As a 'glutenous' American I am interested in how our real power consumption stacks up against other countries.

IMO many of our services in the US are grossly over sized compared to actual usage.

The owner of the company I work for has a very large home.

The service is 288 KW, (120/240 volt 1,200 amp) he will never need it.

I think it is more about bragging rights.