Archive for the ‘Energy Efficiency’ category

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Zerofootprint challenges students to reduce their school’s electricity use

November 14th, 2011

Zerofootprint Challenge Software: Zerofootprint has developed sophisticated software to help clients figure out where they are starting from (benchmark) and what they need to do to reduce their energy consumption. Take, for example, the Halton Catholic District School Board. This organization consists of 48 schools consuming large amounts of energy and water. Through the software provided by Zerofootprint, anyone can see which schools are the most efficient and which are the least in the areas of electricity, heating, and water. It also provides a way for the schools to compete against each other to see which school can improve its energy efficiency. Ron told me that the schools have enrolled their students into the challenge and one example he gave me was that when students find out that their school’s electricity consumption is nearing its daily consumption target, they will turn off non-essential lights and computers. He said that behaviour is changing as a result: the kids are playing board games at free time instead of hovering around the computer. And, perhaps most importantly, there is a sense of ownership and accomplishment when the students participate in this challenge. They see the results of their efforts and can connect human behaviour directly with electricity consumption.  As Ron pointed out to me, efficiency efforts are as much about redirecting their budget as it is about environmental awareness; the less money schools spend on heating and electricity, the more money they have available to put into educational activities and after school programs.

Zero Footprint’s Carbon Cube

Another teaching tool Zerofootprint has developed is the carbon cube. It is a cube measuring 6″x6″x6″ and represents 10g of CO2. There is a description on the box of what 10g of carbon is the equivalent to:

  • driving a gas guzzler 25 meters
  • making 1 cup of hot tea
  • having the lights on in your classroom for 1 minute
Teachers can demonstrate to their students just how much CO2 is emitted through specific actions as represented by these cubes.

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Posted in Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency

The Zerofootprint Re-skinning Awards: Energy Efficiency for Towers

November 14th, 2011
Zerofootprint established a contest two years ago that celebrates the re-skinning of buildings as a way to combat energy inefficiency in older buildings. The point of the awards is to highlight projects that have “re-skinned” an existing building and that have accomplished not only increasing a building’s energy efficiency, but also, improved its looks aesthetically. If you’re not familiar with the term “re-skinning”, it refers to adding a layer of insulation to the outside of a building instead of insulating from within. In many cases it also involves creating an air space in between the older building and the new layer, so that the air between the two skins acts as an insulator. The awards seek out examples that are replicable, cost-effective, aesthetically pleasing and improve a building’s energy efficiency.
When the large, leaky apartment and office buildings built in the mid-twentieth century, energy rates and climate change weren’t an issue. Now, however, landlords need to pay attention to rising heating and electricity costs. Re-skinning a building means that occupants can continue to live or work within it while the new shell is being constructed on the outside. Further, any new piping for water or rainwater catchment systems, fiber optics, electrical upgrades, renewable energy systems and other new technologies can be installed between the new shell and the old building without disrupting tenants. The re-skinning award categories are residential, commercial/institutional and industrial and entries are submitted from all over the world. For more information on the awards, visit: reskinningawards.com

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Posted in Architecture and Design, Energy Efficiency, What's new?

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An Introduction to Induction Cooktops

October 25th, 2011

The latest in energy efficient stove tops uses induction heating to warm and cook food. Food and liquids are heated significantly faster than with either a traditional electric stove or natural gas. But I’ve always had a few reservations with induction heating — although I’m becoming more convinced of its value all the time. My first reservation is that I hate cleaning a smooth cooktop surface. It seems to take three times as long as a traditional electric surface. We had a smooth cooktop two houses ago, and I cursed every time pasta water or mashed potato water boiled over onto the surface because it would cook right on and take me hours to get off (okay, I might be exaggerating a little). My other reservation is that it’s not gas. I love cooking with gas.

But now I find out that gas is highly inefficient when it comes to heating the pan and food. The majority of the heat is wasted — only 40% of the heat from gas actually makes it to the pan the other 60% ends up heating your kitchen. This is certainly not good in the middle of summer when the last thing you want is to add more heat to your home! With induction cooking 84-94% of the heat being transferred to the food and not to the kitchen, which means your food heats that much faster too. Secondly, cleaning the cooktop isn’t the chore it is with a traditional smooth cooktop because it never gets baked on to the cooktop surface. Because the majority of the heat is transferred directly to the cookware, the surface of the stove never gets more than warm. Therefore, any food that boils over doesn’t cook on to the surface which means cleaning it involves a wipe and that’s about it. It also means it’s a safer surface with young children around.

IKEA has developed a great video on how induction cooking works:

Cookware: Yes, you need to use a certain type of cookware with induction cooktops. Because the induction heating is generated with magnets, only steel cookware will transfer the heat. Amir Girgis, Director of Sales and Marketing at Integrated Appliances explains some of the reservations of induction cooking, as well as the best induction cookware to go with your cooktop.

1. Don’t buy a cheap induction cooktop!!! As we all know you get what you pay for, but with induction, a cheap cooktop means low wattage coils, which will not give you the benefits of the technology…mainly power.

2. People shouldn’t be concerned about the cookware issue. Today, you can find induction compatible cookware almost everywhere…even Walmart. The hum that Deborah refers to really addresses the inefficiency of the cookware. The hum is the audible “waste” of power that the cookware is not absorbing from the induction coil. Usually it is louder at higher power settings. One way to solve this is to research online for cookware with a “Class Induction” rating. This is the standard for induction quality cookware and was created by induction manufacturers in conjunction with cookware manufacturers, so that consumers could get all the power from the coil. It is a European standard which was quickly adopted by the cookware companies because of the success of induction in Europe. For testing purposes, keep a kitchen magnet with you when shopping. If the magnet sticks to the bottom of the pan, then it will work on induction.

3. To make everyone’s life easier…here is my Top “5″ list of induction cookware:
Demeyere – from Belgium. Built specifically for induction. Class Induction rated. Viking cookware is made by them.
All-Clad Stainless Collection – the American standard.
Sitram – France
Bourgeat – France
Mauviel - the standard for copper cookware also makes a line called “Inducinox”…good quality.
All Cast Iron cookware…Le Creuset, Lodge..whatever. If it doesn’t have asmooth bottom go and buy a silicon pad to put underneath to prevent it from scratching the glass.

Amir’s top 3 induction cooktop brands for quality and performance are:

 Cost: Induction cooktops aren’t cheap but they are becoming more widely available. You don’t want to skimp on buying a low-end cooktop, as Amir points out above, because then you won’t be satisfied with the result. Another point to note is that induction cooktops run on 220volts, so make sure your kitchen is wired properly, and take any electrical changes into account when calculating your budget.

For more information on Induction cooktops, contact Amir at Integrated Appliances in Toronto.

Induction cooktops are sold at kitchen and department stores across North America.

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Posted in Appliances, Energy Efficiency

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Energy Efficiency — Creating and Implementing an Action Plan

September 10th, 2011

Woods auto shut off powerbar

I’ve written many articles on energy efficiency, and read a lot on it as well, where I’ve always gotten frustrated are the uncoordinated tips that are given about improving your home’s energy efficiency. “Buy this super duper auto shut-off plug!” “Install CFLs!” “Replace your windows and doors!” If you’re not taking targeted action, you’re not going to be as efficient as you think you are. You have to know where you use the most electricity before making changes, otherwise you’re not spending wisely, and you won’t see the results you want.

The first three articles in this series on energy efficiency involved discovering how much electricity your household uses, doing a home DIY electricity audit to determine which devices are using the most electricity, and finally, monitoring your family’s behaviour to see how electricity is being used. Now it’s time to synthesize that information and take concrete steps towards lowering your electricity consumption. You’ve done the research, now do the foot work.

Set a target. Let’s say you’ve determined that your family uses 1200 KWH of electricity per month and you want to get that consumption down to 900 KWH/month. Look through your energy audit and any notes on family behaviour regarding electricity you’ve made and decide how easily achievable the goal is (Reducing from 1200 KWH to 900 KWH is a 25% reduction, so it could be a top-lofty goal to start with).

There are four ways to reduce plug load consumption:

  • unplug,
  • use power intermittently,
  • replace items with more efficient models, substitution (ie., ceiling fans for central air),
  • change family behaviour (probably the toughest action to enforce).

Unplug. You know where electricity in your home is being used from your DIY audit. Go after the inexpensive, low hanging fruit first. No, not the light bulbs, unplugging gadgets. Unplugging is a no-brainer. Why is your VCR still plugged in? When was the last time you used it? What about that digital clock and old TV in the spare room you rarely use? What about the coffeemaker? If you don’t use the timer and it has a clock, unplug it. Any cord that comes with a DC converter and feels hot to the touch when it’s plugged in should be unplugged unless in use, particularly cellphone chargers and laptops. Those chargers draw power even when nothing’s attached to them. If you’ve done a meticulous electricity audit, you can see on paper just how much electricity you’ll stop using by unplugging gadgets and just how close to your goal the unplugging will bring you. Not only have you not spent a dime to make changes, you’re now paying less to your utility company too.

Use power intermittently. This means put gadgets on timers, unplug cellphone chargers when something’s finished charging. Learn how to program and use your thermostat for both winter and summer. The earliest models were a pain to program, but the current models walk you through programming fairly easily. Schedule 15 minutes one weekend morning and program your thermostat to meet your family’s needs.

Add auto-shut off bars to your gaming stations, computer stations, and anything else that uses a lot of phantom power, such as cell phone chargers. You can plug several cords into one unit, so you will likely only need two or three cords, maybe you even have some already that you bought with good intentions, but just never got around to using properly.

Look at your DIY Audit, figure out how many power cords you’ll need, then program the devices to be on for only a few hours a day (why turn on a gaming station before 4 in the afternoon, or even, during the week if your kids aren’t allowed to game during the week?).

If you use your outdoor lighting every night, all night, you might want to consider putting it on timers or sensors so that it only goes on when someone approaches. We only use our outdoor lights when we’re expecting company (or the pizza delivery guy), because there’s a street light outside our home that does the job.

Go to saveONenergy for money-saving coupons on many energy efficient products including light bulbs, sensors and auto shut-off timers. Note: coupons are valid in Ontario only.

Calculate how much electricity you’d save if items were completely off for 18 hours per day and see how close you’re getting to your target.

Replace items with more efficient models. This is the area where some investment is involved, so you might want to develop a budget and see how much you’re prepared to do and when.

Lighting. In our house lighting counts for up to 20% of our over all electricity consumption, so it’s worthwhile examining where changes can be made to have an impact on overall efficiency. However, I have a confession to make: I hate CFL bulbs. I don’t like the light they cast or how long it takes for them to warm up. They don’t last as long as they’re touted to because (and no one ever tells you this) the more often you turn them on and off, the shorter their lifespan; they’ve got mercury in them, and you just know that some people are not going to dispose of them responsibly so some are likely ending up in landfill. It’s hard to find dimmable CFLs, and finally, I don’t like their shape because they don’t fit with some of my lamps. Harrumph. But I still use them. Not everywhere, just where I have a tendency to have lights on all the time, like in my office, the rec. room, and the kitchen.

Before changing all your light bulbs to CFLs and LEDs think about what really needs changing. Don’t bother replacing bulbs that are rarely used, ie., basement or hall closets, any other rooms/lamps where lights are rarely turned on. It’s not worth the money, and you won’t be saving enough electricity to make a difference. The next time those burn out, replace it with something more efficient. In the mean time focus on the rooms where lights are on the most often. In our house it’s the kitchen, the office and the rec. room. They all contain CFLs (even though I hate them). Not only will you see a significant drop in electricity consumption, but in the summer they generate less heat relieving your air conditioner of some stress too. Of course the corollary of that is that they generate less heat in the winter, so you might be increasing your heating bill slightly.

I like LED bulbs. They’re dimmable, they’re better looking, the light they cast is crisp. Plus, they don’t have any mercury in them. Because they’re still not cost effective for short-term decisions, it’s best to replace lights where they’re used the majority of the time. Buying LEDs, however, isn’t as simple as going into Home Depot and picking up a few, so I’ve written an article on how to buy LED lights. Invest in good quality ones and they will last the 75,000 to 100,000 hours they say they will.

Appliances. The next time you need new appliances, look for the most efficient Energy Star appliances you can afford. Here’s the thing about Energy Star, in order to be certified, an appliance needs to be at least 20% more efficient than its non-Energy Star counterpart. But there are many, many brands that go much farther beyond the 20% more efficient. Read labels and Energuide information that’s tacked on the front of all models and compare to the brand beside it. European models are so much more efficient than most North American models it’s not even funny — but they’re also considerably more expensive and may be hard or expensive to repair if anything goes wrong. Buy new appliances when you need them, and figure out which one is going to make the biggest dent in your electricity bill (most likely the fridge and the washer).

Note that central air conditioners and furnaces are also Energy Star rated, as are new homes, but not ovens or dryers. If you know how much energy your current appliances use, you can figure out how much electricity a new model is going to save you.

Ceiling fans: There are Energy Star rated ceiling fans too, although using ceiling fans throughout the house will permit you to set your central air conditioner at a higher temperature, or do without it altogether. Ceiling fans consume, on average, about 60 Watts of electricity, versus a central air conditioning unit which uses approximately 3500 Watts (depending on the size, year made, efficiency, etc.).

Change Family Behaviour. If you’ve been watching your family’s and your own behaviour, you’ll have noticed when they leave lights/computers/gaming stations on, the fridge door open, chargers plugged in, etc.  Controlling your own behaviour is the easiest and maybe the best way to start is by improving your own habits. Can you line dry some of your clothes more often? Have you set up a centralized cellphone charging station where it’s easy to unplug at the end of a charging session? Have you got yourself into the habit of turning lights and computers off every time you leave the room?

Regarding the rest of your family, doing a few calculations to see how much it costs every time these little actions occur may help, especially if there’s a way to incentivize them to change. If, after a year of behaviour change you saved enough money to treat yourselves to your family’s favourite restaurant, or something even bigger, maybe that would help. Whatever motivates them to think about conserving, you should try. Maybe they can help you brainstorm ideas, if kids take a stake in the decisions, they are more likely to follow through — with lots of reminders, coaching, and encouragement.

Review and compare. Now that you’ve taken steps to reduce your electricity, review and compare your results and see how you’re doing versus your original target goals. There are a few ways to do this: The first is to wait until you get your next electric bill and see what your power usage from the previous year was. If you want instant gratification, and you have a smart meter, and you live in a service area, sign up for Lowfoot.com. Not only does the service send you your electricity usage daily, it starts you off with an automatic 10% reduction target. Every time you use less electricity, you receive a cash deposit in your Paypal account at the end of the month. If you don’t have a smart meter hooked up to your home yet, have a look at the Power Cost monitor. This company has just teamed up with Plot Watt to offer even those homes without smart meters the ability to track and identify accurately, the electricity consumers in the home.

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Posted in Electronics, Energy Efficiency, Government Incentives and Rebates

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Cutting your electricity Use: Observing your Family’s Behaviour

August 10th, 2011

Think back to the ’80s, before the existence of iPods, home computers, electric telephones, home theatres, gaming stations (all right, there was Nintendo). Although our appliances consumed a lot more electricity per unit than the ones we use now, we used a lot less electricity per household because there wasn’t as much electronic stuff. How many of us actually think about how we’re increasing our plug load when we buy a new electronic gadget?

So, now that you know how much electricity you’re using and where you’re using it (from my previous two articles), you can probably identify some of your home’s major electronic consumers. But there’s another piece of the puzzle that many people don’t even consider, which is human behaviour. You can have all the efficient lighting in the world, a programmable thermostat for your heat, Energy Star rated auto shut-off power bars, but if you’re not using the equipment properly, they’re not giving you the benefits you bought them for in the first place.

In addition to the obvious things like turning off TVs, printers, and computers when you leave a room, there are other less obvious behaviour items to check for, such as:

  • Programmable Thermostats. Do you know how to program your programmable thermostat and have you done so? If you haven’t, pull out the instruction book and do it. You can save significantly on your air conditioning bill by raising the temperature by 3-4 degrees while you’re out at work or away on weekends. Did you also know that when you set your home’s temperature to cooler for when you return to your home at the end of the day, your thermostat triggers the “recovery” mode early enough in the cycle so that by the time you’re home the house has reached the desired temperature setting? In other words, don’t worry about setting it for a cooler temperature half an hour before you get home, the thermostat takes care of the temperature difference well in advance. If you’re really comfortable with your programmable thermostat and you’re away on weekends, either turn it off, or set the temperature a few degrees higher for the weekends. While you won’t notice, you’ll be happier with your electricity bill.
  • Extra and/or Older Electronics not in use. As I mentioned earlier, we have a lot more devices plugged into our homes than we did 20 years ago. So many, in fact that it probably doesn’t even occur to you what kind of plug load you’re adding when you buy a new electronic device. Now, with a critical eye go through each room in your house and look at the electronics that are a constant drain on electricity and don’t even get used. Do you have a digital clock running in a guest room you never go into? An old VCR plugged in you haven’t used in years (and may even still be flashing 12?), how many phones are cordless? Can you switch a few that are rarely used over to the old and quaint corded models? It’s a good idea to have at least one of these phones in use in the event of a power outage if you still have a land line.
  • Appliances. The extra 25-year-old fridge or freezer you’ve been using for as a drinks fridge or extra food sucks up a lot of extra money, so much money that you might be better off getting rid of it and investing in a more efficient second fridge or freezer or trying to make do without. If your washer and dryer are older than 15 years, you might want to consider buying new Energy Star rated ones. They save on water and electricity and dry your clothes faster. Are there appliances like the coffee maker, microwave, etc. that you don’t need them plugged in when not in use? Do you use the timer on your coffeemaker? Does the microwave need to be plugged in all the time? Look for savings to be had which involve nothing more than unplugging appliances not in use. This is particularly true for smaller appliances that have LCD clocks/displays.
  • Chargers. Unplug all chargers, cellphone or otherwise, when not in use. This is an easy step to talk about, but apparently a difficult one to achieve. The amount of power that’s wasted is estimated to be between 10-15% of your overall electricity bill. An easy action to think about doing, probably more difficult to achieve until you’ve developed the habit.
  • Shutdown/Turn off. Turn off devices, lights, computer, printers, etc., when not in use. How do we get our kids to remember to do this? If anyone has some suggestions, I’d love to know. I’m fortunate that I work from home because our electricity bill would be significantly higher if I left the house before my teenagers. Lights stay on all over the house after they’ve left for school in the morning (and yes, cellphone chargers also stay plugged in too). I’ve told them a thousand times to turn off lights when they leave a room, but since there are no consequences for leaving them on, they ignore me. Maybe I’ve got to start handing them an electric bill at the end of each month to get their attention.
  • Do exterior doors stay open during extreme weather so you feel like your father yelling “stop heating the neighbourhood!” Make sure your family closes doors to keep your home’s temperature constant. Also, keep doors to unused rooms closed and vents blocked to make cooling and heating more efficient.

Monitor your family’s behaviour patterns over a few days, make notes about any glaring issues you see. If there are easy fixes to make such as unplugging appliances that are never in use, do it, but don’t worry about making changes now, the next article is about creating and implementing an action plan.

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Posted in Electronics, Energy Efficiency

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Farewell Toronto, Bonjour Montreal!

July 28th, 2011

Just a quick heads up here. I haven’t been producing many articles this summer and that’s because I’ve been busy packing. We’re going on an adventure — moving to Montreal!

I love Montreal and I’m familiar with the city as my husband and I both went to university there. However, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to living there without studying for mid-terms or exams, and when I have enough money so that I can buy good wine instead of the infamous Cuvee des Patriots, available in a local depanneur (corner store) for $2.85 — back in the ’80s, I’m sure it’s creeping up on $5 a bottle now. Even we, young, poor students recognized that it was better used as a salad dressing than poured into a wine glass!

So what does this mean for the blog? Yes, I will still continue to write it, and I will still feature some Toronto businesses — but by necessity, the blog’s scope will expand to Montreal and Toronto, with maybe some Ottawa thrown in for good measure. The point of what I write about is to help you find green building materials, in addition to demystifying green building itself.

Montreal has a very vibrant green building sector as well as many companies that produce products for the market, a few I’ve already written about such as Montauk, PolarFoam/Heatlok (Demilec) and Adbond. I’m looking forward to exploring the green companies in and around the city, writing about them and their efforts to lighten their environmental load.

In the meantime I have some great Toronto articles coming on Transition Towns, Permaculture, green walks, paint and more, so stay tuned!

Oh, and if you have any suggestions about interesting Montreal-based companies I should get to know, leave a message in the comments section or contact me at cathy “at” becgreen.ca.

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Posted in adhesives and sealants, Furniture, Insulation

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A Do-It-Yourself Plug and Lighting Load (Electricity) Audit

July 27th, 2011

In a previous post I discussed the importance of benchmarking your electricity use. Benchmarking helps you understand how much electricity you are currently consuming, as well as your usage history. Now we want to figure out where we consume it.

A Do it Yourself Home energy audit is easiest if electricity is used exclusively for plug load and lighting. In the event that it’s also used for heating and cooling, it’s best to call in a home energy auditor so they can help you track down the air leaks in your home and help you figure out where to add insulation, weather-stripping, and plug air leaks to bring your heating bills down — or you can calculate plug load in the non-heating season.

I’ve written about the benefits of hiring a home energy auditor here. Note: The Canadian government has just reinstated the ecoEnergy Retrofit grant program, now available until March 31, 2012, which means now is a great time to get an energy audit done, particularly if you’re planning on home renovations. Between the Ontario government and federal government, you could get $300 of your audit paid for, which for most homes covers 75-100% of the audit.

In our home’s case, I know our electricity use is entirely plug load and lighting since we use natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking. There are two ways to do an electricity audit — the quick and easy but less accurate way, or the detailed, time-intensive but far more accurate way (quite the salesperson, aren’t I?).

In either case you should take your time and calculate your lighting load using the following method since no extra equipment is required and all the information you need is written on the light bulb (usually).

Calculating lighting load: Decide whether you’re going to start from the top or bottom of your home, but work your way systematically from the front of your house to the back visiting every room, bathroom and closet that has lights. Note your ceiling lights, table lamps and undermount lights, their wattage and estimate how much time they’re on each day. Include closets if they have lights in them.

In our kitchen there are six 50 watt halogen lights that are on in the morning for 1 hour for six months of the year and 2 hours for six months. In the evening, the six lights are on for three hours in the summer and five hours in the winter. There are also two incandescent hanging lamps which are on for three hours in the evening. So, calculating the amount of electricity the kitchen lighting load for an average day (estimate 1.5 hours per morning, 4 hours per evening for a total of 5.5 hours per day).

  • 6 lights x 50 watts/light x 5.5 hours per day + 2 lights x 60 watts/light x 3 hours per day  = 2,010 watt-hours per day or 2 kwh per day. Therefore, in one month the kitchen lights use 61 kwh of electricity.

Repeat this process for every room in your house and add up your total lighting consumption at the end. The results will tell you how much of your total electricity bill is dedicated to lighting. In our house, I estimate that our lighting bill accounts for 20% of our total electricity bill before central air is turned on.

Finding your electricity hogs: So, if lighting only accounts for 20% of our home’s total energy use, where is the other 80% coming from? Appliances, computers, TVs, digital boxes, stereos, cellphone and game chargers, gaming stations, alarm systems, digital clocks and of course, air conditioning.

Method I: Quick and Easy Way of estimating where your electricity is being consumed.

Make rough estimates of time usage for each appliance in each room in the house (remember to count those items that are in standby mode too such as computers, DVD players, stereos, TVs, etc.) then multiply it by the amount of watts per device as given in the links below.

Method II — Detailed, exact measurement: If you’re Type A like me, then you might be interested in determining exactly where you’re using the most energy instead of just making educated guesses. There are a few reasons to do it this way: one is that the results may surprise you — perhaps you thought it was your four-year old dryer that was using the most energy, but in fact it might be your 15-year-old deep freeze — especially when you consider that it runs 24-7- 365. Another surprise might be seeing how much energy your TV-Surround Sound-Gaming System use — even when it’s off (because it’s not really off, it’s in standby, still drawing electricity, commonly referred to as phantom power).

Measuring the electricity draw of each device is fairly simple, but to do it properly, you’ll need a few tools.

1. Pencil/pen and paper for recording your findings,

2. calculator for the math-challenged like myself,

3. energy monitoring device such as a Kill A Watt EZ monitor or PowerCost monitor.  Amazon.ca sells energy monitoring devices, and Canadian Tire sells a Blue Planet Energy Monitor. I’ve also read that some libraries, such as the Ottawa Public Library, will loan out the Kill A Watt. A good idea for a partnership between Toronto Hydro and the Toronto Public Library, don’t you think?

Go through each room in your house, identify everything that is plugged into a wall aside from lamps — which you’ve already done in part I. Don’t forget to measure things that might be put away but are used on a daily basis. Below is a list of some, but not all, of the possible electricity using devices in each room. Generally though, you only need to count the items you use daily or weekly.

Bedrooms contain a variety of items from clocks/iPods and chargers, TVs, digital boxes, DVD players, computers, in addition to lamps and overhead lighting.

Bathrooms have a lot of appliances that you might use in the morning getting ready for the day including hair dryers, curling irons, straightening irons, etc. These items can use a lot of electricity even if it’s only for a short amount of time.

Kitchen. All those small appliances that get used daily including toasters, toaster ovens, coffeemakers, microwaves, hand blenders, etc. can really add up. Also try to determine how old your fridge, dishwasher and oven are and look at this chart to estimate how much electricity they consume.

Laundry room. Washer and dryer, iron, steamer.

Living room/Family room/Great room. Stereo, TV, DVD player, surround sound system, digital TV PVR box, gaming system, video player, musical instruments such as electric amps, guitars, keyboards.

Home Office. Computer, monitor, speakers, printer, scanner, photocopier, telephone, cellphone charger, wireless router, modem, etc. If you’re using a measuring device, be careful about unplugging and replugging devices back in as some cause an automatic reset on devices. Check your manuals first.

Furnace and utility room. Dehumidifier, furnace fan, electric hot water heater, central air conditioner, alarm system, whole home sound system, sump pump, etc..If you still have access to the manuals, for some of these devices it would be better to check them for electricity consumption or look up their energy consumption online. Some items are better left untouched unless you know what you’re doing — in this case a measurement device like the Power Cost monitor is better than the Kill a Watt because it measures pulse changes in your electricity consumption and devices don’t need to be unplugged.

Garage and outside. Lawn mower, weed wacker, whipper snipper, garden lighting, pool heater, hot tub heater, cabana lights/fridge, stereo, etc.

For each of these devices estimate how much time they’re on for daily, multiply the wattage by time and divide by 1000 to get the number of kilowatt hours they’re drawing. Ex:

number of hours  device is on x watts / 1000 watts = x kilowatt hours.

so, for a hair dryer that draws 1000 watts that’s used for 10 minutes  or 1/6 of an hour daily

1/6×1000/1000= 0.167 kwh daily.

At this point we’re just recording how much electricity each device uses and estimating how much it gets used. You should have accounted for, in theory, about 90-95% of your overall electricity use after systematically going through each room in the house.

The goal here is to discover where the most electricity is being used. However, before we can develop an action plan to reduce our consumption, there is another part to the equation that’s often over-looked and that is, human behaviour. We’ll look at how we affect our home’s energy consumption in the next article.

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Posted in Electronics, Energy Efficiency

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Benchmarking Your Electricity Use: The First Step to Conserving

July 6th, 2011

With Central Air Conditioning Season well underway, I thought it was a good time to produce a series of articles about how to reduce your electricity use. This article is the first in a series on “how to” reduce your electricity use. In this case I’m referring specifically to “plug load” and not heating.

Consider this: when you go on a diet you always have a specific target amount of weight you want to lose. It doesn’t matter that it’s five or twenty-five pounds, it’s that you know how much you want to lose and you work towards achieving that amount. And how do we arrive at the targeted amount we want to lose? By knowing where we’re starting from. With body weight, it’s a pretty easy process: you step on a scale, find out how much you weigh, (calm yourself down after you’ve read the number) and decide what weight you ideally want to be and what weight is realistic. That part in between — the actual losing weight process — is the hard part, but the point is, you can’t know how much weight you need to lose until you know where you’re starting from.

It’s the same with conservation, be it energy, water, transportation or living better. If you want to lower your environmental footprint, you can’t really make any real progress unless you have a good idea of where you’re starting from. That’s the point of benchmarking. Benchmarking will help you figure out how much you’re using and give you an idea of where you need to go from there. Also, once you know how much you’re using, you can tackle the easy “low hanging fruit” first — kind of like the “first five pounds of water” when you start a diet. Get fast and easy results and it will motivate you to continue….right?

Another point of benchmarking is discovering how much energy or water you use versus the average family living near you. Finding that out can either be a startling revelation if you use more than average, or comforting, if you already use less. In Ontario, in 2007, the average family of four used just under 900 kWh of electricity monthly. Since the majority of Ontario homes are heated with natural gas, you can assume that electricity use is mostly plug and lighting load.

How do you compare? To find out how much you use, pull out your electricity bill. There is a lot of juicy information on that bill — at least here in Toronto. Not only can you see monthly comparisons from this year’s use versus last year’s, but also your average daily consumption and total number of days included in the billing period.

According to our bill, our family of five consumes 26 kWh per day outside the air conditioning season for a total of about 786 kWh per month. While it’s less than the 950 kWh used by the average Ontario family of five, it could be better.

Our house has a smart meter which means I can go online at any time and check out what time of day I’m using the most electricity. Like any family, our heaviest usage times are first thing in the morning and at night. Big surprise.

So, I have two goals that I’ll set myself and aim for over the next two months. The first is to decrease our home’s overall electricity consumption, and secondly, to try to shift more of our habits to mid and lower peak-use times. Let’s say I decide that I want to decrease the amount of electricity we use by 30%. I’m not sure yet if that’s realistic. Depending on how we use electricity will help determine what changes I can make to lower our consumption. How will I do that?

Stay tuned for part II: the DIY plug load (electricity) audit.

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Lowfoot.com — Paying you to conserve electricity

June 10th, 2011

Is it too good to be true? A website that pays you to save electricity? I thought so until I received my first statement where I had racked up $0.42 in Lowfoot credits in less than two weeks. Granted, $0.42 isn’t going let me retire any time soon, but it certainly gives me the motivation to do more.

Lowfoot.com was started by Philip Playfair and Steve Hammond. Both had already worked within the utility industry before when they’d founded and eventually sold a company called Advanced Utility Systems. I contacted Phil to ask him about the company’s unique approach to helping people conserve electricity. I have to admit that paying people to save electricity is definitely a unique approach to conserving — and probably even more motivating than just seeing a lower Hydro bill every two months. So I had to ask Phil — “How are you able to fund our albeit small payouts every month?” He told me that they fund it through general revenue from advertising, but that eventually they will be looking for companies to sponsor each month’s pay out.

Believe it or not, the model isn’t new. Recyclebank in the US does something very similar: Working with municipalities across the US, the company encourages people to recycle by giving them points that go towards savings and discount coupons towards new products. The points are sponsored by companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Unilever.

How Lowfoot works: Create an account, and give Lowfoot.com permission to access your electricity account. Currently Lowfoot is able to access information from a growing list of utility companies in Ontario. Eventually its services will be available across North America.

Once you’ve created an account and have given Lowfoot access to your utility account, it will show your usage history, calculate your current average daily use, and set a target for you to achieve, usually 10% below your current use.

What I really like about this program is that you get daily emails telling you whether you’ve achieved your target for the previous day or not. What that means is that you don’t have to wait for two months (in the case of Toronto Hydro) to find out how you’re doing.

Daily emails are far more motivating to get you to do more to cut your consumption and bi-monthly hydro bills. But what’s really interesting is that you can see how many LFCs (Lowfoot credits) you’ve earned through conservation. In addition, even if you don’t save during off-peak hours, you can earn credits when you conserve during peak use. So, if you can reprogram your central air conditioner, or go without during the day, you’ll earn more credits during this time.

It makes sense. As the Lowfoot website explains:

The ultimate goal of Lowfoot is to have our community generate enough capacity to significantly—and permanently—reduce the demand on your local grid. This means that utilities will save money on infrastructure, can avoid building new power plants, and won’t have to fire up old, dirty plants when demand exceeds supply. There’s significant value in that.

Every step of the way, Lowfoot shares a portion of our revenue with our membership, to reward you for lowering your usage—and to keep you earning!

As the company grows and shows that its members consistently conserve electricity, particularly during peak times, the company anticipates being able to sell those carbon credits on an open market and share the wealth with its members. As the website points out:

It’s all about numbers and consistency. If you reduce your consumption by 10 kilowatt hours a day, you’ll save a few dollars on your electricity bill.

But if you and 10,000 other Lowfoot members do the same thing at the same time, you are generating just as much power as 100 small windmills!

Now imagine 10 million people doing the same thing. That’s a huge amount of power—but it all starts with you.

For those of us interested in tracking our conservation efforts and seeing whether our efforts are effective, signing up for Lowfoot is a no-brainer. You get daily emails telling you how you’re doing, and you make money every time you hit your conservation target or below.

This website, along with an energy monitoring device (such as the Kill A Watt or Power Cost Monitor), can help you take real steps towards energy conservation.

For more information, or to sign up for Lowfoot, visit the website.

Thanks for the information Phil!

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The Power Cost Monitor — Measuring Your Electricity Consumption Every 30 Seconds

June 6th, 2011

I’m developing a series of articles to help homeowners reduce their power consumption in a step by step way. The outline for the series was a piece of cake. Filling in the specifics, however, has been a bit more of a challenge than I first thought. Truthfully, I’m still stuck on the second article: “Identifying the Electricity Consumers in Your Home.” The title for the second article also changes all the time, so don’t go looking for it when it’s finally published.

The thing is, assessing your plug load, particularly around lighting, is relatively easy. You look up at the ceiling, figure out how many bulbs are on, what their wattage is, estimate the number of hours they’re on during a 24 hour period and you’ve figured out your lighting load. But the rest is a little trickier. While I was doing my lighting consumption for my house, I discovered that lighting accounts for 2o% of my overall electricity consumption. That means 80% is unaccounted for. Using my trusty Kill A Watt, I can get to the gaming stations, the lamps, clocks, TVs, and phones. But what about the appliances whose plugs I can’t reach? Or the built-ins that hide the plugs and make it difficult to access?

Power Cost Monitor

Power Cost Monitor WiFi

Enter the Power Cost Monitor. This is another electricity monitoring device that allows you to measure electricity consumption for any electrical device in your home, including your central air conditioner, oven, dryer, and any hard to reach electronic or appliance where you can’t access the plug. The Power Cost Monitor sounded intriguing so I contacted Peter Porteous, CEO of Blue Line Innovations, the company that makes the Power Cost Monitor, to find out how it works.

The device consists of two parts — the first part you hook up to your electricity meter. The monitoring unit is compatible with 90% of all electric meters in North America.

The second part is a handheld device that reads changes in electricity consumption when appliances are turned on (“baseline” vs. with appliance on). It will tell you in dollars or kilowatt hours, how much electricity the appliance is using. When I spoke with Peter he mentioned three things about it:

  1. The monitor reports changes in electricity consumption at 30 second intervals. This is the outside amount of time their customers are willing to accept.  Reporting periods longer than 30 seconds lose their relevance because so much can happen in 30 seconds. A few lights can get switched on, someone can turn on the stove, start watching a movie or start a load of laundry, and you don’t know which action has caused the increase in power use.
  2. Now the Power Cost monitor can hook up to your computer using WiFi so you can see your readings in chart form and track your consumption over time.
  3. Kids love to use it because they point it at a device, like a dishwasher, start pushing buttons on the dishwasher like “power scrub” or “heat dry” and watch the numbers on the monitor climb. Then they’ll do the same with the washing machine, adding “hot water” or “second spin” and see the same thing. They learn how behaviour and choices affect the amount of electricity we consume.

You can see how receiving your electric bill once every two months isn’t giving you nearly enough information for you to act on. Having information fed to you every 30 seconds helps you identify how much electricity devices in your home are using, and suddenly you the information you need to start doing something about it.

Discovering what your base load is, that is, what’s using power even when everything is off, can help you take concrete steps towards lowering your consumption. Peter told me that when he first used his monitor, his baseline electricity consumption was 1.1kw/hour. Now, after identifying behaviour patterns, phantom powers and appliances that were using a lot of electricity, he’s been able to reduce his baseline load to 300 watts/hour.

For a dealer near you, see the Power Cost Monitor website.

Or you can order online through Amazon.com

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