Do-It-Yourself Electrical Energy Audit
Right now, I like many others are looking for ways to save money on energy costs. I feel okay about how my car uses gas, but I've been uncomfortable for several years now on how my home uses electric energy. To make things worse, a home's electrical energy usage is a lot more complex than my car's. With my car, I can fill up my tank, zero out the trip meter, drive a bunch of miles, feel up my tank again and then calculate miles per gallon. Easy. Right!
With the home, I've got LOTS of electrical appliances. So how can I find out what is potentially using too much energy? Well, this morning, I'd had it! No more beating around the bush. I've already contacted energy auditors over the years, been to energy saving seminars and such. They all seem to be selling something like electric attic vents, which I bought a few years back. Then they proceed to tell you the most common causes of high utility bills such as insullation, energy star rated appliances, weatherstripping, solar screens, gas-filled windows, soffet vents, roofing and such. All are good ideas -- somewhat stale, but good nonetheless.
What I'm about to share is troubleshooting the spinning wheel type of electric meter. I'm no expert and I hope I don't get in any trouble sharing my experience.
Something simpler always seemed obvious to me. Why didn't anyone talk about troubleshooting and identifying exactly WHICH appliance or device was making my electric bill so high. I have even asked several energy advisers this very question. What I have now done twice, with success, is watch the electric meter spin when I thought it shoud not be spinning so fast. It takes just a little experience to get an idea of how fast it should spin. Example -- trust me on this one, especially if you are in Texas -- is to wait for the air conditioner to turn on and then watch the meter. It's my opinion, that in my home the A/C is the biggest electric usage I have. Notice how fast the meter spins. This gives you some type of benchmark. When the A/C turns off the electric meter's spinning wheel slows down.
My first time performing a do-it-yourself electrical energy audit was in 1987-ish. Back then, I was experiencing HUGE electric bills. I called the landlord to let them know and they were no help, probably because my high utility bill didn't affect their bottom line. Then, I called the electic company to find out if there was a mistake. They said, "No." I was desperate. I had no extra money at the time and had to solve the mystery. What I did was to take a scientific approach at solving through process of elimination. I did this alone too. I went outside looked at the spinning meter. Then, went inside and unplugged one appliance at a time. Eventually, I thought I unplugged everything and the meter was still spinning at a good clip. I went through the apartment one last time, when I saw that I had my waterbed heater still plugged in. I unplugged it went outside and the meter stopped. I was surprised. I went ahead and replaced the waterbed heater, which let me just tell you is no easy task. Since that replacement, my electric bills went down significantly. It turned out my waterbed heater had a short. Who knew? How could I know? It was still working and I wasn't fried to a crackly crunch. But, the mystery was solved and that's what mattered.
Fast forward, I don't know if I should say this, but two months ago my electric bill was $800, give or take a nickel. This morning I awoke feeling inspired to tackle this energy hog. I knew the air conditioners were off and went outside to check on the electric meter's spinning. Hmm, I thought to myself, this seems to be running quite fast for no A/C units running. Time to start the process of elimination. These days, I have a bigger home and lot more appliances using electricity. The approach I took this time was to use the electrical breaker box to shut down electrical areas to identify the enerty hog. I found two breakers when turned off, significantly affected the spinning. One was the refrigerator. Well, that makes sense. It's only about 2 years old, so I'm not so concerned about the fridge just yet. The second offending breaker was the pool equipment. This usually has to run about 8 hours a day. I always heard the pool equipment should NOT use but about $75 worth of energy. Where I am right now is that I'm questioning a few things around the pool. The pool repairman has mentioned in the past, more than once, that my relay switch board was going out. Maybe that's the culprit. So I will be making an appointment with my favorite American Pacific Pools serviceman Gary to come check it out. I am truly hoping that I identified the energy waster. I also plan on getting a new downstairs air conditioner this winter when the prices are more reasonable. At least I feel better about knowing what besides the Air Conditioner was contributing to the high electric bills.
I intend to update this article as I learn more about the pool equipment.
Remember that you CAN help reduce your utilities without professionals and spending a lot of money. As the Nike slogan goes, "Just Do It!"
Signed...
Self Trained Energy Auditor Suzan
