Frugal Friday - Electricity Experiment Results
Hosted by Biblical Womanhood
The results are in! 
Let me recap while I tell you the results.
We took a two week period and set that aside for our experiment. At 11 am on the first Monday morning, we took our first meter reading, which was 8064. The rest of the week we just lived life normally - we used all of our appliances, but left them all plugged in on standby. The microwave was on all the time. The chargers for phones were left it, even if there wasn’t a phone charging at the end of it. The tv and sound system was on standby. Etc, etc, etc.
The following Monday at 11 am, we wrote down the meter reading again. It was 8201. Then we went through the entire house and turned EVERYTHING off at the power points - except the fridge and freezer, and the computer we use as a server. We snuck out to the meter box and looked at the little disc that spins around… it was going considerably slower!!! That was quite exciting, and so our week started. It was fun at first….. everyone kept checking up on each other, making sure lights were turned off the instant someone would leave the room (much to the annoyance of the person who was just getting something from another room and going straight back to his/her room). Lots of giggles….
The microwave was turned off at the power point (we don’t use the clock on it anyway), and plugged in as we needed it. The printers were the same. Only turned on if needed. Other than these small changes, we lived life as normal. We used appliances when we needed to. We used the computer when we needed to, but we didn’t spend a lot of time on it and turned it off right away. As the week wore on, we forgot at times to police each other so intently, and lights were left on a little longer before being discovered, as was the microwave which we actually had to move away from the wall to switch off!
The following Monday at 11 am we took the final reading, which was 8310.
One thing I would like to point out right away, is that our readings were not entirely accurate. Our electricity meter is not digital, it is just one of those number things that turns around and we just had to pick the number it was closest to. Since we only did it over a one week at a time period, I don’t think it would be as accurate as if we had done it over the period of say, one power bill.
None-the-less, it was still an interesting experiment. The first week we used 137 kWh, which, as I compared to our last bill, was on par with using about 19.57 kWh per day. The second week we used 109 kWh which was 15.57 kWh. So, yes, it was less in the second week, as would be expected. Working on 14c per kWh on our bill, we saved $3.92.
Then comes the next question. Was it worth it and what did we learn?! Is saving $3.92 worth saving per week? That adds up to approx $204 a year. Is this worth the hassle of not having things instantly work for us when we press the remote or switch on an appliance? Is it worth the time waiting for your computer to reboot after your last session? I don’t think I can really answer this for everyone. One thing I can say, is that it really wasn’t much effort to turn everything on and off at the power point once we got into the routine.
$204 a year is not a huge savings. But, every little bit adds up. I think to see greater savings, we would have to take more drastic measures. I don’t know the average of most people’s kWh usage. I’d be interested to know, so leave a comment, and if it is way lower than what we are doing, let us know how you did it!
This is very intriguing. Do you know if it matters with non-electronic devices (say an older crockpot, or a kitchenaid)? Also, do you have to unplug from the wall, or would flipping the switch on a surge protector do the trick?
Comment by Queen of Carrots - September 15, 2007 10:20 pm
Hi Joy!, Thanks for the experiment results. I believe if we take care the little things, God will take care of the big things, so yes, the savings you had are important! Today I plan to unplug the “old” refrigerator we keep under the garage for canned cokes, and overflow from the inside fridge. I looked on line and it is probably using $18.00 per month on our electric bill, possibly more, because it is so hot out there! Its been out there for 7 years. If I estimate $15.00 per month, that’s $1,260.00… I’m about to faint. Thanks!!! Debbie J.
Comment by Debbie J. - September 15, 2007 11:55 pm
Debbie, OUCH! The old fridge bit…! I have heard that older appliances take up much more electricity, and yes, if it is in a hot place, it is working extra hard. I’ve wanted another fridge because ours is always soooo full, but I guess I would need to work out whether it really is worth the extra overflow space…
Queen of Carrots, to be honest I have no idea about unplugging the non-electronic devices or the surge protectors! I’m a beginner at this…. I would assume, however, that things like crockpots would not be drawing power even when they are plugged in. I know that things like phone chargers are some of the worst culprits, drawing power when you don’t have the phone charging.. and I do that often, just leave it in the powerpoint. If you find any answers to the surge protectors, let me know, and I will do likewise
In fact, I’ll ask my hubby when he wakes up 
Thanks for commenting ladies
Love,
Joy
Comment by jam - September 16, 2007 8:15 am
Wow - they are quite impressive results. Well done! How are you finding things now that the challenge is over? Have you made new habits? I’m running ours for 10 weeks - hoping that it will help develop new habits in all of us.
Loving your blog so far!!!
Comment by Jodi - September 17, 2007 5:46 pm
Glad you dropped by, Jodi
I think we are making new habits. We are more aware of leaving lights on now when we are not in the room, and since it really doesn’t take much effort to switch the tv off at the power point, we will continue to do that too. Little bit, by little bit.
I’ll be keeping up with your 10 week challenge - that is a very good period of time to track.
Love,
Joy
Comment by jam - September 17, 2007 7:46 pm