The "price" of heat: woodstove blower fan sucking 78 watts... like turning on 7 compact flourescent lamps
For the next week, if you go to your local Crappy Tire store you can buy your very own energy meter on sale for less than $20, including taxes! I first used one of these several months ago when I was shopping for a television. The basic deal with this gadget is that you plug it into the wall outlet, then plug anything that uses electricity into the meter and it will tell you how much power it uses, in amps or watts. I recall walking around the local big-box electronics store, reaching behind TVs so I could plug in the meter to get a reading. The sales guy was a little suspicious (read: worried) at first. But then I explained what it was and might even have impressed him when I demonstrated how adjusting the TV settings affects power consumption. In the end I did also buy a TV… a Toshiba 32” with LED backlight that, with adjustments to brightness and backlighting, sipped a mere 27 watts… not even as much as 3 compact fluorescent bulbs or only half as much as an old-school 50 watt incandescent bulb.
Living off-grid, every watt counts. Especially in the dark months of November – February. When I was TV shopping, I had borrowed a meter from the public library. Now that I have my own, well, I’ll be checking out all kinds of things. Some are surprising how much power is consumed, like the blower fan on the woodstove: almost 80 watts on the highest speed but still 50 watts even on the very lowest! The power adaptor for the laptop I am using to write this uses 37 watts when the battery is charging. Some are surprising how little power they use: 150 LED minilights for the tree use only 8 watts.
Wattage is one thing but what it’s really about is overall consumption over time. So, for example, my coffee grinder uses 150 watts but it’s only on for 15 seconds. The toaster sucks 820 watts but it’s only on for about 3 minutes. That wood stove blower, even at “just” 50 watts, is taking a fair bit of juice out of the system when left on overnight. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore. The meter also records how long a device is using power and will calculate kWatt-hours so you can compare total consumption. In fact, you can even program in the price you pay for electricity and it will tell you how much something is costing you to run. Living off-grid, that’s a moot point since it’s all free <insert smug grin here>.
Those who know me will not be surprised by my fascination with such minutiae. It’s a lot of entertainment value for a $20 gadget. But still not as much fun as my trail camera. Here are some night pictures it took last week:
"Hey, Doerthy, do you hear something?"
"Yikes, it's that guy Buckley, let's scoot!"
"Hey, did you see a couple babes that were here a few minutes ago?"
"Size matters. I've got a bigger rack than the last guy."
