When reviewing power use with my Emporia Energy Vue I realized one highly overlooked power consumption item in homes – motors.

Motors are everywhere – ceiling fans, attic fans, sump pumps, furnaces, air purifiers, bath vents, etc. They’re easy to overlook but really should not be overlooked if you care about power use.

Take for example the ceiling fan. A common builder grade unit can draw 60 watts of power and while that’s still more efficient than an air conditioner and can help distribute cooling/heat in a room – its not very efficient. Look for an Energy Star ceiling fan with a DC motor and you’ll draw about 20 watts for the same air moving effect.

Obviously for occasional use that 40 watt difference isn’t a big deal. Run it constantly and you’re looking at about 350kWh difference a year – that could cost you on average $45 extra per year ($28-$122 depending where you live).

Once you take care of the obvious home stuff (LED lights, etc) motors may be one of the best ROI items for swapping out. Be sure to look for DC motors and/or Energy Star logos when buying things for your home with a motor, you’ll save a lot in the long run.

In my past article about home power use I recommended the Kill-A-Watt to monitor individual device power use rather than a whole home unit like Sense. I figured the big stuff was obvious to change (water heater, lights, etc) and the small stuff couldn’t be worth $300 plus professional install (optional but recommended) given the low cost of power in the Northwest.

Since then Emporia Energy has come out with the Vue starting at $50 to monitor just the mains, or $99 with 8 individual circuit monitors. While you still have to consider install, it is DIY capable for most handy homeowners. Needless to say, this is a bit more Eco Friendly Cheapass friendly, so I bought one.

So what does Vue get you that a Kill-A-Watt doesn’t? First off 240v devices and hardwired devices you might not otherwise see like your furnace blower, ceiling fans, dishwasher, etc. You also will see loads you never considered like an attic fan.

Unlike Sense, Vue doesn’t try to identify individual devices only circuits. So I still think a Kill-A-Watt is useful to identify where power is going once you identify a circuit using a lot of power (for circuits with multiple devices on it).

So what are my results? After my first few weeks of trying it out I made a few adjustments which helped cut around 200kWh (about $20) off the December bill.

Aside from that I actually gained a lot of comfort with knowing where all my power was going. I now know 45% of our December power goes to the cars and now when bills fluctuate I can see if that’s related to driving patterns or other home use. The old dishwasher from the last homeowner I was worried about only uses a bit over one kWh per cycle (more than new units, but not enough to be worth changing). I also discovered an unknown power draw of 60 watts which I’m still hunting down.

The biggest downside is that home power meters help identify usage but not unusual use or areas for improvement. So for example you can see your beer fridge is using 300kWh monthly, but you need to do the research to realize that’s more than triple a new fridge’s power consumption.

However I hope this won’t dissuade you from the idea of a home power meter, rather set expectations you’ll have to do some legwork yourself to make the most out of the data you collect.

Interested in trying out the Vue? Grab one here and support the ecofriendlycheapass.com blog!

I’ve long believed in the idea that most electronics power saving modes are very low power and left the stuff in my office on when not in use. However I decided to challenge that belief with my kill-a-watt power meter and was surprised to find enough power use to change my habits.

To start out I separated my power strips into two sections – things that need to stay on like the cable modem and router vs. things I only need during work hours like the PoE switches, printer, usb hub, etc.

Once I did that split it was easy to review the power use of the “work hours only” equipment. What I found is power saving modes do work, there was a 20 watt reduction when things went to power saving mode. However that still left about 40 watts being used by stuff I didn’t need outside of work hours.

While turning off stuff when not at work seems trivial (I’ll just be there the next morning) work hours are only about 1/4 of a year. So 3/4 of the power I was using was wasted. Turning off the power to that equipment in my case saves 263kwh annually, or about $34/year for the national average power rate and nearly 400lbs CO2.

If you happen to be the forgetful type you can pick up a smart plug for about $25 which can automate the scheduling and can be overridden as needed with a touch of a button or an app.

Even if you don’t have a home office this can apply to any number of things – your living room electronics for example can have a gaming system, set top box, etc wasting your power when you’re not using it.

Every month you get a power bill but chances are you have no idea what most of the devices in your home cost to run. While that might sound nitpicky to understand, by knowing where your power use goes you can make smarter choices about upgrades and appropriate settings to reduce use.

For example in our previous article about beer fridges it turns out a 90s fridge uses so much power you can save hundreds a year by replacing it. The same can be true for old AC units, some set-top boxes, older plasma TVs, etc. Rooting out power hogs can have a huge impact.

I’m sure you’ve already heard about LED lights, but I’m in awe how often I still see incandescent and halogen bulbs around. There are a few common reasons people give such as color, dimming, and cost – but I think they’re outdated concerns with the latest LED bulbs.

People understandably like the warm glow of incandescent bulbs, however LEDs have come a long way. The Wirecutter says the Cree bulbs “look as good as incandescents” and dim all the way to zero without humming.

I also hear people say they only use their bulbs a few hours in the evening, but when I made a calculator I was surprised to find an LED bulb will often pay for itself in the first year with just an hour of use a day. Not to forget changing out the lights in a living room alone can save hundreds of pounds of CO2 annually.

Check out the calculator below, its preloaded with some average defaults but you can also tweak the numbers to your needs.