What Tools And Tricks Do You Employ To Reduce Power Consumption?

10 responses to “What Tools And Tricks Do You Employ To Reduce Power Consumption?”

1. 

   Rick

   January 28, 2011

   Turn off ducted a/c at the breaker switch
   in the off seasons. Some of them have standby
   power usage of over 100w.

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2. 

   Nodeity

   January 28, 2011

   Hmmm,.. Well the 2.5Kw of solar panels on my roof help a little… :}

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3. 

   XYZ

   January 28, 2011

   I use varying remote controlled (RF) home automation systems to turn off all power to the entertainment cabinet for example.

   The cabinet consumes 72W in total in standby mode alone and that’s a lot of power to waste when you’re not using it for a majority of the day.

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   1. 

      Hugh

      January 28, 2011

      How much power does the automation system use in standby mode? 😉 Seriously though, how much?

      Also, would you care to share the details of your system, how you set it up, how it works, etc?

      I just have an outlet timer for my printer (the outlet is hard to access) and manually turn off all my other entertainment/charging outlets at the wall whenever they’re not in use. About the only things that stay on “standby” are the fridge, microwave, alarm clock and wifi modem.

      I’ve thought about getting a rainwater tank in our little courtyard — the last few weeks of torrential rain would have gone a long way! — but as I say, the courtyard is quite small…

      Cheers,
      -Hugh

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      1. 

         XYZ

         January 28, 2011

         Sure thing Hugh,

         It’s approximately 50-100 mW range of consumption for the HomeAutomation devices during low power mode. It does use a little bit of power when using RF to remotely control.

         I use the WinPlus Home Automation system. No need to embed a massively extensive I2C into the walls if you don’t need to.

         Since a lot of stuff in the house is on powerboards, It makes life much easier to switch off an entre board at once.

         I also noticed in the supermarkets a $70 powerboard that senses when there is a dramatic drop in consumption on the ‘Master Outlet’ of the powerboard, and it automatically switches off the secondary outlets.

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         1. 

            Hughhh

            January 29, 2011

            Thanks, I’ll look into WinPlus to see if it’ll work for me.

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4. 

   MarioC

   January 28, 2011

   What i usually do, is notebooks, chargers, computers and networking switches, at home (yes im in IT) I like to turn them off when they aren’t being used, no point of them being on if they aren’t being used, never leave anything on standby really, there is no point.

   In the summer months, i like to keep the place nice and dark, that way the a/c works more efficiently, and ive installed those door things that closes the gaps at the bottom to stop draughts (spelling?) from entering the house, they are awesome, works in winter as well, but in winter, i like to let the light shine thru, nothing like the natural power of the sun to warm up the house.

   Water wise i’ve installed water saving shower heards and sinks, you can buy kits at bunnings to cut the flow of water to make them more water saving friendly, outside ive got a small, 200L tank, plenty to wash the car, water for the fish tank and water my plants. Every little bit counts 🙂

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5. 

   Andreas Koepke

   January 28, 2011

   Hopefully everyone is using energy efficient lights in their homes. If not, why not?

   Also people need to remember that those 12v halogen downlights are NOT energy efficient. Low voltage does not mean low power use.

   Go CFL or LED wherever possible. You can even get CFL floodlight globes for use outside.

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6. 

   David

   January 28, 2011

   Using CFL Globes plus putting computer/non essential stuff on a power board attached to a timer switch that turns off at night has worked really well for me.

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7. 

   James

   May 7, 2011

   Virtualization is key. This Power Consumption Calculator shows how much it can save.

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