eBook Introduction
By being electrically efficient you will reduce the amount of power you use;
reduce the need for electrically operated cooling or heating; and of course
save money.
With the cost of electricity likely to rise due to increasing resource costs, carbon
trading and alternative energy requirements there is no time like the present
to start saving. If enough people start saving electricity then new
infrastructure costs in transmission distribution and extra power stations can
be avoided. If national electricity consumption went down instead of up, this
could lead to turning off the worst polluting power stations sooner.
An auxiliary benefit of being electrically efficient is reduced CO2
emissions and water consumption at conventional coal and gas thermal power
stations which is an added bonus for the environment.
You should consider first becoming electrically efficient and then look at
alternative energy sources as it is cheaper to implement electrical
efficiencies. Audit what you have, measure your consumption and then work out a
strategy. Start with the free best practices and then work out which others
will give you a good return on your investment.
To confirm how well any energy efficiency activity works you will first need to
measure before and after the change. This can be at a single power point or for
the whole building. Simple power meters for a single power point can be
purchased for less that $30. They indicate real time power use and power
consumption over a period of time. This is displayed in Watts
or dollars. They can be used to measure one device or a related group of
devices connected on a powerboard. A new building power use monitoring system
will cost around $100 for 1 phase and $150 for 3 phases. An electrician is
needed to fit the sensor and it will take about 15 minutes. With a wireless
link to an indoor display unit, it will display Watts,
dollars, CO2 and will update every 6 seconds. It can also show the
day's total consumption, a week's total consumption and a monthly total. This
type of monitoring is useful for measuring what your total standby loads are.
An interesting exercise is to see what your house or building uses while you
are away. Your large hard wired devices use such as hot water heaters, ovens
and air conditioners are also shown. Each change in electrical use is shown
within 6 seconds which is great feedback. Learn what each electrical device
uses in operation and while idle and then plan your efficiency strategy. For
finer separate measurements for particular power circuits then use an
individual power meters connected to the circuit of interest in the power
distribution box.
A free guide to power consumption for a building is your power bill. From it you
can determine your daily power consumption. If you have off peaks tariff then
your off peak daily consumption is also shown or calculated. Look for seasonal
trends that indicate your heating or cooling consumption. If you have off peak
tariff for hot water then your water heating costs can be determined. Note that
if you implement energy efficiency measures it may take 1 to 3 months for the
results to show up on a power bill.
Before purchasing any electrical device try to find out what its operating power
consumption is and its standby power consumption. Consumer organisation or
magazine reviews can useful in this regard. If the device is in the Energy Star
program, this can be useful for comparison. As a last resort, with permission,
measure power consumption in the shop with your own power meter. The equipment
manuals will often show a maximum power figure which is usually higher than
your nominal everyday power consumption.
