Fairhaven, The River

US Wind Energy Milestone

A recent milestone is the US passing the 20,000 MW wind energy capacity level.  More amusing is the variations of measurements.  At the moment, Germany is world leader by one metric (generating capacity), while the US is the leader by another metric (annual electricity generated).  (The US locations have better winds.)  This could shift again if re-rated to electricity delivered for use.  The recent large US gains have been from locations like Texas, where the regional electrical transmission facilities are especially bad.  Unlike some other parts of the country, there has been little improvement for the Texas large capacity long distance electricity transport.  So the transmission losses are much higher than they should be.

APS Report

I haven't gotten into checking analyses and references, but the APS Energy Effficieny Report looks good.  Unlike the McKinsey report, this one explains the analysis and sources.  More later (probably much later) when I have had time to read and examine it in detail.

Another power meter tidbit

I went through the struggle with kitchen layout and power cables for the microwave and got my first surprise.  The microwave is going dominate the power consumption because it chews up a steady 3 watts  when idle.  I need to put it onto a switched outlet.  It also consumes 30W when the door is open.  That's the interior light.  After a few months I'll have aggregate numbers that include other use.  My guess is that the biggest single power saving will be that from putting it onto a switched outlet.

Those 3W steady consumption are already 60% of the total power consumption for the other small kitchen appliances.   These little power meters usually provide a penetrating glimpse into the obvious, but this time it's been informative.

(And for ROI fanatics, the cost of putting it on a switched outlet is just my labor.  So it has a fabulous ROI.  It just won't save much real power.  I've been spending a few dollars per year on it.  Now I will stop.  Savings, about 24KWh/yr for relocating to a switched outlet.)

Aggregate small appliance power use

I've accumulated  several months  of recording of power consumption on the kitchen outlet that I use for bread machine, toaster, coffee grinder, rice maker, and food processor.  It reveals that these are not significant power consumers.  This time period includes a variety of travel and vacation.  If I adjust for that, I end up with a power consumption of  0.100 KWh/day.   This is consistent with the specific readings for cooking a loaf of bread or a load of rice.

I'm not sure what to measure next.   The two smaller appliances that I've not measured yet are the coffee maker and microwave.  They are on a different outlet that is physically inconvenient for the monitor.  Or it may be time to shift to something entirely different, like maybe the DVD and television.