Comments on: Knowledge is Power http://river2sea72.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/knowledge-is-power-2/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:40:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Mollyh http://river2sea72.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/knowledge-is-power-2/#comment-1752 Mollyh Tue, 27 May 2008 21:07:39 +0000 http://river2sea72.wordpress.com/?p=110#comment-1752 Steve, good point about standby on electronics. I plug mine into a power strip that I can turn on/off at will. Other sneaky power suckers are chargers for mobile phones, digital camera batteries, etc. Most of them use up energy when they are plugged in even when they aren't charging anything. Steve, good point about standby on electronics. I plug mine into a power strip that I can turn on/off at will. Other sneaky power suckers are chargers for mobile phones, digital camera batteries, etc. Most of them use up energy when they are plugged in even when they aren’t charging anything.

]]> By: steve http://river2sea72.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/knowledge-is-power-2/#comment-1740 steve Tue, 06 May 2008 17:13:26 +0000 http://river2sea72.wordpress.com/?p=110#comment-1740 It turns out that you buy energy - there are a variety of units, but calories, BTUs, and watt-hrs are the most familiar. Power turns out to be the rate at which energy is used. Familiar units are horsepower and watts. So a 100 watt light bulb uses 100 watts of power. If you run it for an hour it used 100 watt-hrs of energy. For a day it is 2400 watt-hrs or 2.4 kilowatt-hrs. A person who burns about 2300 calories of energy a day is the equivalent of 100 watts of power --- so most people use power at the rate of a 100 watt light bulb. It is good to understand these things so as to know how much energy you are using. We did a careful audit in our about and about 10 percent of the power was being used by the "standby" feature on electronics around the house. By putting all of our electronics on power switches, replacing our old refrigerator, replacing our desktop computer with a laptop and moving to CF bulbs in most of the house, we were able to drop to about half of our previous usage. It turns out that you buy energy - there are a variety of units, but calories, BTUs, and watt-hrs are the most familiar. Power turns out to be the rate at which energy is used. Familiar units are horsepower and watts.

So a 100 watt light bulb uses 100 watts of power. If you run it for an hour it used 100 watt-hrs of energy. For a day it is 2400 watt-hrs or 2.4 kilowatt-hrs.

A person who burns about 2300 calories of energy a day is the equivalent of 100 watts of power — so most people use power at the rate of a 100 watt light bulb.

It is good to understand these things so as to know how much energy you are using. We did a careful audit in our about and about 10 percent of the power was being used by the “standby” feature on electronics around the house.

By putting all of our electronics on power switches, replacing our old refrigerator, replacing our desktop computer with a laptop and moving to CF bulbs in most of the house, we were able to drop to about half of our previous usage.

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