Thoughts about an electricity usage challenge

kgd

kgd

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Feb 28, 2007
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I went into work this morning and got there a bit earlier than usual. One of my co-workers was there and we started chatting. It soon lapsed into our usual bitch-session about our teenage kids (something we both have in common). Not a bad bitching, just the kind of good natured roll your eyes at the stereotype behaviors that we in fact witness.

The one thing we were both bemoaning is the difficulty of instilling an appreciation for energy conservation. You know the usual little things like turning off lights, leaving the (my gosh) computer on constantly so it can file-sharing-network your prescribed bandwidth all to hell, leaving the hair dryer on.

Just the other day, my son was telling me about those e-cars that are built in Canada - the ones they won't let on the roads because they are too slow. Anyhow, he tells me that this car would be great for him because it would be free to drive. FREE! I called him on it and explained to him, no, its not free. You would be plugging that thing into my outlet and I would be paying the power bill. I'm sure this thing would be cheaper to drive than gas, but the point I'm trying to make is to my son (who is 17 btw) he did not view electrical power (or my paying the monthly bill) as a family expense. It simply was not real to him. For him, any appliance that plugs into the wall is 'free' to operate. Whereas portable things that have batteries have consumable expenses.

So getting to the point of this thread. My colleague and I were brainstorming how to drive home the electrical usage point. Make them think about not only how much power different items use, but also to consider a mind set of - 'what if there was only so much power you had access to in a day'. We thought we came up with a pretty good demonstration exercise. You would have to be a real ballbreaker of a parent to actually implement this, but I think it would work. I even thought - this might be a good thing to try on my own sometime - like when the kids are off and using the FREE power at their grandparents or something.

So the challenge. First you have to get rid of the outlets - or at least de-wire them leaving only a single centralized (guarded) outlet that remains hot. Second I would also dismantle the light fixtures. Each person in the family gets their own battery backup. These are the portable car-battery thingies with the AC converters on them. Each person is allowed to charge up their car-battery at night so they start the day with a fully charged one. They get to drag this thing around wherever they want. They make make their personal choices about how to use that power. Want light - then plug in a lamp. Want internet - well that requires plugging in the computer. You can tweak a bit more time if you turn off the lamp while doing so. Want to blow dry your hair? Well you better think about that one pretty carefully....

Okay - the first couple of days would probably be hell. You'd probably be running out of power right off the bat as you made the wrong decisions about power requirements. Obviously I'd still allow major appliances like refrigerator, water heater, and oven, but I'd still get rid of the toaster ect.

So does my little thought experiment have merit? Would it be useful to do for survival purposes - i.e. feedback on what you need and what you could get away with with limited power (generator ect.)? Is a single battery way too little power (even keeping the major appliances) to sustain a somewhat normal lifestyle? Am I just a cheap bastard of a parent?
 
interesting thoughts...

alot of people don't seem to realize that electricity costs quite a bit, and that electricity has to come from somewhere, which is often based on burning fossil fuels or other substances, which pollute the atmosphere on their own. its not as bad as individual cars...maybe...but it is still pollution and it is still being paid for.

i don't really use that much electricity in a given day...i would say my largest consumption of power would be the computer. in a long day i spend probably between 3-4 hours on the computer, in busy days i am lucky to get on for 1 hour. but if i somehow had limited power supplies here at home i could use the local library's computers.

another big use of power is the belt sander and bench grinder. i also charge my cordless drill's battery...i always have one of the two in the charger so even when full they are still drawing power. i could go entirely stone age and do it all with handtools (my preferred method when woodworking) but when working with metals it really pays to use power.

i think it could be a fun experiment. by lamp batteries do you mean the 12V? i don't know if that would provide enough power to run a decent number of things on...i wonder about a larger battery like a car battery though (have been sorta researching how to get my 1x30 belt sander to run off of a car battery so i can make it portable)

interesting experiment...i would say don't unwire all the outlets though, just tape over them or something...if you catch anyone cheating take away their battery for the day and flip the breakers. i don't mean to insult, and i don't really know, but it sounds like your kids probably wouldn't be able to find the breaker box if they tried.

i say go for it and let us know the results (pics are always good!)
 
I was about eight before we had electricity so I remember it well. Even then we had no power in the out buildings at the farm. I remember my folks trying to read at night while sitting one on e ach side of a kerosene lamp. We had Kerosene lanterns in the milking barn and any other place we had to have light. We had a propane refrigerator and a wood cook stove. Of course there was no TV or video games or anything like that. I quess I probably appreciate those things having not had them as a youngster. It wouldn't hurt anyone to learn to live without it for a while as in a real emergency it's often the first thing to go.
 
siguy said:
i don't really know, but it sounds like your kids probably wouldn't be able to find the breaker box if they tried.
Click to expand...

LOL probably not. They are not stupid, they just don't really think about it. Nor most times do I really think about it. I could probably go around and read the power draw's and simply time my usage of different items, but I thought this type of experiment would force a really fast learning curve.

BTW - last year I did switch out all the light bulbs to low wattage fluorescence ones, upgraded the original 30 year-old furnace to a 92% efficient one, went through an energy audit for the home and did the crack-filling things. On the whole it saved about 15% of our yearly energy bill.

This little exercise is admittedly more extreme. But the difference in dynamic is that the battery holds a finite amount of power. You run out..then your out. The consequences are immediate and therefore the learning curve steep. Our energy audit and alterations in behavior did turn out to be worthwhile - but it took a year of data to figure out that it was worth the effort (It will still take a few years of energy savings to pay off that furnace though).
 
Interesting Udtjim. Not many folks it seems these days could make that claim.
 
I've done this- When we lived on the boat, I had to rig the whole shebang from scratch when redoing the electrical.

a few things we discovered:

1: you'd be surprised how much power one 20 watt solar panel and one big battery provide when you don't use a ton. We had a part time peltier for the icebox, some lights, running lights, one laptop, and the radios. Never a problem. oh- and we splurged on an electric pump after a while. PRESSURE water!!!!! luxury.

Adding a microwave would have KILLED the power setup fast, though. Or a belt sander.

2: You'd be surprised how little power that single panel actually produces in regular terms. 130 watt hours a day, give or take a bit. that's ONE modern 15 watt CFL for about 9 hours a day.

I don't know how to solve your problem. It's interesting, and something i may have to go through eventually - though as radio crazy as my 5 year old already is he may understand electrical loads better than I do by the age of 10
 
You could also use the Kill a Watt measuring tool. It can measure energy usage real time and even calculate cost when you input the kw/hr charge. Much cheaper since these are $20 a pop and the battery chargers are usually quite a bit more.
 
I gotta admit, the good old days could be shocking, Like the out house seat when it was 20 below zero!!!!! We didn't have a indoor bathroom until I was 15. Rural Western SD was quite a few years behind most places.
 
these days i get my battery chargers for free, so i didn't even think of that. (people love to get rid of their old UPSs which are just battery chargers and inverters in a box)
 
Interesting thread!
This is kinda related, try looking up "vampire appliances" on google.
Apparently even when your appliances are switched "off" they are burning substantial amounts of electricity due to stand-by mode.
I have a chart here somewhere... hold on a sec
Here it is.
008_vampire_energy.gif
 
I charge my batteries on other peoples circuits........ :) (ie: work, inverter in the company truck, neighbours lawn lights plug that straddles my property, etc)
 
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