BMW Ad

BMW have a new advert for the back of buses which goes something like...

If you were waiting behind this bus in a BMW with Auto Start-Stop you could be using no fuel and releasing zero emissions.
Thank you bus.

I find this amusing. I'm waiting for the local bus company to put another advert below that reads something like...

If you were sitting on this bus instead of in a BMW with Auto Start-Stop you'd take a whole car's worth of fuel and emissions off the road.
Thank you bus.

Green Toys

I want one of these. It'll charge my phone, my PDA, my wife's phone, several things around the house, and all for free. Well, apart from the initial cost.

In fact, I'd like to shove some solar panels on the roof... not for electricity, but for heating our water. And probably also a geothermal heat pump. But, since the exterior of our property is listed, there's no way I can do that. Ah well, I'll have to stick with charging appliances from the sun.

Timely Results

Thanks to Frank at work, I was able to save myself the cost of buying a power meter that I'd use once or twice then stick in a cupboard to gather dust for eternity. Just as well I didn't invest in one (at least the one I was looking at, which is what I borrowed) as it's not really accurate enough to get real data about the power consumption of the electronic timers I'm trying to check...

According to the power meter, a TS-EE8 7-day electronic timer requires ~0.01 amps, ~1 watt. However, as these are the lowest values the power meter can record, I guess these figures are probably +/- 50%.

There are two appliances that I want to use these timers with. Both look like they consume fairly low power themselves. The manuals for both give power consumption at ~30 watts. I guess this is the peak consumption, as measuring them with the power meter gives normal consumption of 5 watts and 9 watts.

If the consumption was ~30 watts, and if I assume that the timer actually consumes 1.5 watts, then I'd need to ensure the timer turned the appliances off for more than 1 hour 12 minutes per day to save energy. Not long really. With the normal power consumption figures these times go up... More than 4 hours per day and for the 5 watt appliance and more than 7 hours 12 minutes per day for the 9 watt one.

I can do both of these quite easily, but it's just not going to give quite the saving I was hoping for.

Ah well. I guess I'll just have to go rip out the central heating and replace it with something more efficient instead. Say a geothermal heating system. Now that would save some energy.

Trying to save the planet...

Ah, the initial burst of enthusiasm... second post within hours!

Anyway...

I'm not quite at the tree-hugging stage yet but, like most people I'm sure, I'm becoming more aware of how much energy I use and how much I could save. I've been replacing bulbs with more energy efficient ones as and when I can find equivalents. I found a great selection here, but I'm still struggling to find some bulbs, like striplight and MR16 halogen replacements that have equivalent wattages to those currently in the flat. I'm switching off appliances like the oven & microwave at the wall when they're not in use - I really don't need 5 digital clocks in every room! And I'm already noticing the difference in the electricity bill - so it's worth it for anyone, even if you're not worried about the planet.

My latest idea was to install timer switches for some of the appliances that have regular usage patterns. Like the broadband router - we don't need it on when we're asleep, and we don't need it if we're at work. So I paid a visit to that temple of gross consumerism, Argos, to invest in some timer switches. Problem is, the type of timer switches I want (electronic, 7-day schedule) don't specify anywhere what the power consumption is for the unit when it's in normal operation. There's no use in plugging an appliance into it in order to save energy if the timer itself consumes more watts than the appliance itself!

I guess I'm going to have to invest in one of these to find out.

So, manufacturers, please let us know what the power consumption of your devices are. And everyone else... before I go get a power meter, any idea how much power a TS-EE8 7-day electronic timer consumes?