My electric bill comes in about $80 during the winter and $115 during the summer. I’d love to lower it.
I’m wondering blog-loud if I should get one of those wattage meters that you can hook up inline with a device and see what the culprits are. Do I stand there in my underwear with the fridge open for too long? Is it my server farm?
MetaEfficient posted these really neat LED light replacements that only draw 1W, but are equivalent to a 25 W incandescent bulb. The only problem is they are still specialty items that run $18.95, but should last at least ten years. I just convinced myself to try it out, maybe on my bedroom reading lamp that I keep knocking over and breaking the bulbs.
That 25 watt equivalant is a bit deceptive. LED bulbs project their light straight out, so that 25 watts would be right above the bulb. Move to the side a ways and you have the brightness of a night light bulb. So you really need to compare apples to apples, and you just can’t do that with LEDs. They will be getting better and better in time, and given their long life(50,000 hours or more), and low energy comsumption we definatly will be seeing a whole lot more of them. I bought a couple from http://www.shop.donsgreenstore.com , they seem to have just about the best price on these dim bulbs. I got a couple 30 LED cool white bulbs for $12 each, and the shipping was FREE. In another 5 or 10 years this type of bulb should be showing up in stores. Right now they are sorta an techie and early adopter thing.
As far as the watt meter goes. I think that they are over rated, just turn your frig over and see how many watts its rated for on the bottom plate!!…Jason