No, not breaking into them! Automating them and reducing the power that they use…
Current Cost Meter
Phase I is already underway, as we now have a current cost meter installed (get yours here thanks to Southern Electric’s discount). Setting it up took about 10 minutes. The unit has already paid for itself by identifying a few unsuspected power-hogging devices - our ambient power consumption has already gone down from 700 Watts to under 350 Watts. The kids want to get it under 200, and are now militant about turning every unused device off - in the case of my middle son that also includes power sockets with nothing in them, bless him.
Current Cost Sensor Unit
Our peak-burst power usage is around 3Kw for very short periods, so it may be feasible for us to go off-grid, at least from an electric perspective. The next step is to do a wind survey and see if that could supply our ambient power needs.
Later this month I’ll be heading along to homecamp, a UK gathering of home hackers, and will hopefully pick up some good ideas there…
Sphere: Related Content
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