Engineering News

Alright. Another excuse to justify that watt/volt/amp/Pf/kwH meter I bought last year.

Just wait till my wife sees me actually testing something around the house with it.

That'll show her it wasn't just another frivolous toy purchase.

I need to get one of those. My wife and daughter both leave their phone chargers plugged in all of the time. Besides, I would love to know exactly where our phantom load is coming from.

We leave all our chargers plugged in. The consumption is totally down in the noise to the point of unmeasurable. If the fridge(s), dryer, or the A/C isn't running, the meter is for all intents and purposes is virtually stopped. Here are the biggest consumers of electricity roughly in order of consumption for most households:

1) Air conditioning (if you need it, like we do in the humid south and mid-Atlantic states, not to mention the scorching southwest)

2) Hot water (if electric)

3) Clothes dryer (if electric)

4) Refrigerator (even though it may only be a couple hundred watts when the compressor is running, it's plugged in 24/7 and running some relatively constant duty cycle)

Be careful of cheap watt meters. They can give false power readings. Some folks think their chargers are consuming more power than they really are because of the poor power factor of many small electronic devices and the el cheapo watt meters just multiply the current by the voltage and give you apparent power which is only true power for purely resistive loads.

I use the "hand" test to see if I have a power "vampire". If nothing is plugged into the charger and it doesn't feel warm to the touch, then it isn't wasting enough power for me to even worry about. There are those who swear by these power meters but they may just be wearing the emperor's new clothes.

If I had electric hot water, I would seriously consider thermal solar collectors and an 80 gallon storage tank in series with the standard hot water heater to knock off some of those kW-hrs. That situation probably has the fastest pay-back of any of the systems.

The new Kalifornia measure is just a bunch grandstanding because most new chargers and wall-warts are very energy efficient. These folks seem to get off by throwing their weight around and piously spouting how efficient they are, damn the torpedos and full speed ahead without really understanding the situation or even the true effects of their measures. But it makes them feel good.

Cheers !

There is no way that they are going to save 13% (as per the article) of their power usage with this law. A rare household might be that high in parasitic usage but not the whole state. I will be really surprised if they save even one percent for state usage.