I think I have a noisy house. Before we turned on the AC, I was using no less than 150w overnight. I keep my cable modem and one wifi node up overnight, but most other large devices are on a smart plug. I’m trying to figure out what’s using all this load. Here’s a list of my devices on overnight, but I’m curious what Always On devices you have.
-Newer LG refrigerator (Kasa Smartplug)
-Apple HomePod
-Apple HomePod mini
-(5) Honeywell thermostats
-(2) IKEA Qi phone chargers
-No lights on overnight
-Older basement fridge is already Sense detected
Unfortunately now that AC is on, it’ll be very difficult to figure out how to get this number down until the fall.
It’s funny, I never really thought about my always on, until I got sense. While I only have 250w, which I think is pretty good, I do have a lot of waste.
2 porch lights, on all day also, but they only take about 11w each
1 night light in kitchen, also on all day, about 15w
2 cable box, 1 cable gateway,
UPS. These are hard to track, but I have three of them, so I know its a little
Emergency lighting. In 5 outlets around the house. Would only go on if the power went out, but they probably trickle 1-2w all the time.
Cat fountain, LOL. It is only 1-2w, but it is all the time.
I’ve noticed my big appliances (microwave, electric range) leak power somewhere, as if I click off their breakers, 10-20w go away. Even when not in use.
Electric smoke detection, these took a while to figure out, but they are in every room of the house and hard wired in. At least 5w, maybe more.
I’ve never noticed if my heat or AC are always on with a trickle, but I’ll check into them.
Good catches and, as you’ve discovered, lots of modern devices “leak power” all day/all year. One example I have with my geothermal HVAC is the controller draws 46 watts, 24hr/day, 365 days a year, whether or not the geothermal system is running. That doesn’t seem like much but it adds up to about 400 KWH per year, or $72 up here in NH.
We had a Keurig that drew amost 80 watts, even when “off”, and replaced that with one that draws 7 watts when off. My “always on” runs almost 400 watts (lots for my multiple computers), so your 250 seems really good.
I put dedicated circuit monitoring on my two mini splits. They use 12w always and have no heating element in the winter. Each is projected to use $7 of electricity. I’ll be turning those breakers off next fall.
I’ve finally logged 94% of my Always On usage and the devices. I have nothing more to check or add. I’m only short by 3 watts. This is mostly because I’m always rounding down.
I just went into every room and looked to see what was plugged in. In some cases like in my bedroom we leave the overhead fan on 24/7 so I included it.
I took a picture of the device model number, sat at my computer and went through the pictures finding the power consumption online for each device. For those I couldn’t find I used a kill-a-watt and for those 240 devices I used a clamp meter at the panel and did the math.
I do have many devices on z wave power meters, like landscape lighting, my dryer and the list goes on. So I was able to see in Hubitat/ha the power consumption of those as well. It just took some dedication.
What I found was that it was very enlightening how much I’m actually using. Some devices, like the toilets, I turned off the heated seat, since it’s summer and 110 out, which lowered the consumption from 54w to 8w per device. I consolidated some switches and unplugged things I no longer use.
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