Electrical

Here are some brief remarks from the experts to electrify your expectations:

• By the time electricity reaches your house, resistance losses in high-voltage lines have consumed 10 percent to 15 percent of the power.
• With an electric blanket on the bed, you can turn down the thermostat at night from 65° to 55° F.

 What uses electricity in your house?

• 50% heating and cooling
• 15% water heater
• 10% clothes washing
• 10% lighting
• 5% refrigerator

Some power companies have a free Energy Saving Kit with light bulbs, power strips, and sometimes even a programmable thermostat.

Turn off appliances when you leave the room: If a ceiling fan, desk light, TV, or stereo are on and you won’t be returning to the room for a good while, turn them off.

Disconnect the electric doorbell.

If you have a big dog in the yard, do you still need a full security system?

Charge up a “battery wall” during off-peak hours (at much lower rates) and run the house off the stored power during peak hours. The battery storage is also there for emergencies during power outages.

Use the battery of your electric vehicle for peak load shifting.

Inspect for breaks in insulation around the electrical service entrance, both indoors and outdoors.

Be sure all appliances have a three-prong ground plug and that the ground in the outlet is viable.

Replace all electric resistance heaters and convectors with more efficient heating systems; heat pumps or gas furnaces are far more efficient than straight-electric heating.

Electric space heaters are for emergencies only. They’re the most inefficient heating sources.

Think twice about using electrical appliances around water. How many movies do you have to see of people getting electrocuted in the bathtub? When I see scenes like that, I always think, “They should’ve used safety outlets.” Put the desktop computer into “sleep” mode.

Phantom loads can add up—television, computer, stereo, VCR, printers, coffee maker, cell phone and other battery chargers, microwave oven. You can put a PCmonitor-printer set up on a power strip, then turn the strip off when you’re not using the equipment.

Put your electric blanket on a timer, so you don’t forget to turn it off in the morning.

A swimming pool pump can consume 25 percent to 30 percent of your electricity in the swimming season. A variable speed pump can reduce that power use by 50 percent to 75 percent.

Energy Star rates TVs, DVD players, sound systems, soundbars, computers, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, dehumidifiers, printers, monitors, etc.

Solar emergency power: a generator set that connects to a solar panel to provide 120-volt household current when the power goes out.

A home “power wall” battery stores energy from solar panels and then powers your home at night. You can also run everything in the house during the day from the “power wall” and charge it up at night to take advantage of lower off-peak electric rates.

Energy loses some of its useful work every time it’s converted into another form: think transmission from a million volts at the power plant, stepped down many times until it reaches 120 volts for your house (then to 12-volts for DC devices).

Put a second blanket over the electric blanket (unless the instructions say not to) to trap the heat and conserve energy by lowering the setting.

Trade-in that old electric guitar for an acoustic guitar, organ for piano, etc.

Extension cords with a toggle switch, a toggle adapter at the outlet, more ways to turn things off when you don’t need them.

Use an inexpensive power meter to measure energy consumption by your most-used appliances to identify the energy hogs and determine the appliances most in need of replacement.

These “vampire” devices use power even when turned off:

• Voltage transformers
• Answering machines
• Cordless phones
• Security systems
• Programmable thermostats
• Anything with an “instant-on” feature

Almost 100 percent of that vampire power is wasted (compared to the electricity used to power-up from being unplugged).

The electric heating coils of a waterbed can be the largest energy load in the whole house. A comforter (insulating the top and sides of the water mattress) can reduce energy usage by 30 percent. Insulate the sides and bottom for another 10 percent savings. Put the heater on a timer and turn it off during the day to reduce standby losses.

An average wind speed of 8 MPH is enough to run a small wind generator. Given the same investment, a wind generator produces more electricity than solar photovoltaics.

 Wind turbine sizes (rotor)

• 25 kW micro 9 (2 – 4 ft.)
• 5 kW mini (4 – 10 ft.)
• 15 kW household (10 – 33 ft.)

 Micro and mini wind-turbine systems usually charge DC batteries. Household units can connect to the grid. A four-foot diameter “hobby” micro-turbine on a tower at a suitable location can generate 500 kWh per year.

Replace the fan motor in the air handler with an ultra-high efficiency motor. Ditto for the fan in a forced-air furnace.

The load on the two phases of the electrical system (i.e., the two bus bars inside the main panel) should be balanced to within 10 percent to be sure the neutral wire does not carry a large current. (Neutral current goes to ground and is lost.)

Do you have a stream on your property, with a steady flow of water – maybe even a sizeable vertical drop? Channel some of that water through a micro hydroturbine to generate some free electricity.

 11.1 DANGER AHEAD – ELECTRICAL!

We all take electricity for granted. And then a storm hits, and the power goes out for a few days. What do you do? If it’s the middle of the summer, you close the blinds and curtains to keep the heat out and the cool in.

You stand in the refrigerator door the absolute minimum of time (and pig out on all the frozen steaks that have thawed). You take quick showers to save hot water.

You wash the dishes in cold water and air-dry them. When the hot water runs out, you might even curl up a black hose on the roof, fill it with water, then wait until sunlight heats up the water inside.

Do we appreciate electricity now?

 11.2 YOU NEED A LITTLE SCIENCE TO FATHOM ELECTRICITY.

If you want to save on your electric bill, it helps to understand why the different suggestions reduce energy usage, especially those regarding harmonics and “dirty power.” We need to learn a little bit about electricity and where it originates. So, let’s start from the very beginning: at the power plant!

11.3 ROTATING TURBINES CREATE ELECTRICITY.

You’ve seen hydroelectric dams, using the power of falling water to produce electricity. There’s a large dam across a river with a lake on one side and enough water coming out the other side to keep the river full: the exit water turns a rotor inside the waterworks to rotate a generator to create electricity. The electricity leaves the power plant via high-voltage power lines.

Electricity created in this manner is in the form of a sinusoidal wave. If you fix a point on a rotating circle and project that point, it moves like a sine wave. That’s the mathematical profile of electricity.

The same technology works on a small scale to generate electrical power from a flowing stream in your backyard. Small generators typically create direct current, which can charge a 12-volt battery. If the power is to be used in your house, it has to go through an inverter, which creates 120-volt alternating current. Up to 25 percent of the energy is lost in the inverter.

To understand why so much power is lost in a “simple” conversion to alternating current, you need to know a little more about AC and DC power.

11.4 ALTERNATING CURRENT VS. DIRECT CURRENT.

Direct Current (DC) is a uniform flow of electrons, like water in a pipe. Voltage is equivalent to water pressure, and watts correlate to the volume of water. The mathematical equations for DC and water pressure are identical, so this is more than an analogy.

Alternating current is much more complicated:

The standard three-phase Alternating Current has three sine waves spaced 120° apart (3×120° = 360°, a circle). The standard in the U.S. for domestic use is 120 volts at sixty cycles per second: sixty repetitions of the full sine wave each second. The shorthand for cycles per second is hertz.

In three-dimensional space, AC is a spiral wave, a helix (similar to DNA molecules, a “double helix”). Electrical current inside a wire actually propagates as a 3D helix; since it’s three-phase current, it’s physically a “triple helix.”

How do you transform a uniform flow of electrons into a complicated spiral? Consider the water analogy and a rotating sprinkler that jets water upward out of several arms, forming a shifting helix in the air. It’s a great way to distribute the water, but you lose a lot of water pressure (voltage).

Conversely, consider the many DC appliances that need a small Power Supply to use AC out of a wall outlet: computers, LED bulbs, stereos, TVs, even electric blankets. The power supply has to squash the intricate triple helix down to a flat, uniform electrical current. All that complexity, the intermingled electromagnetic fields, is lost: hence, from 10 percent to 25 percent of the power is lost.

Solar panels supply DC. Solar electricity is compatible with a 12-volt battery, which suffers no loss when used in DC electronics. Also, if you charge a smartphone or laptop off a solar battery, no harmonics get into your house’s main electrical power supply.

11.5 WHY IS ELECTRICITY MADE AS ALTERNATING CURRENT  IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The first electrical grid in America was a DC system, created by Thomas Edison. Nicola Tesla and George Westinghouse teamed up to create an AC system. The problem is that it’s very hard to convert DC to higher or lower voltages. This is important because very high voltages lose much less energy to resistance losses. Hence the “high voltage” powerlines and the transformer on the pole outside your house, to step down the voltage.

The other factor in the 1800s “Current Wars”: electric current is created inside a generator by rotating a magnetic field inside a conductor. When you deliver that electricity to a motor, the rotational aspect of the electric current causes the motor’s magnetic coils to rotate.

You can see the symmetry of a rotating generator, creating an electrical sine wave, which is a linear projection of a rotating circle. That “rotational” electrical current is very effective in turning a motor (which is the same configuration as a generator but working in reverse). Having three phases of the electric sine wave per cycle means the motor runs smoothly with a steady series of power peaks with each rotation (3 cycles x 60 cycles per second = 180 sine waves per second).

AC won the “Current Wars” and was the standard for all electrical devices until the electronic revolution, when harmonics started causing problems, especially in large commercial systems. Except for solar photovoltaics (which output DC), all electrical power is still generated just like Tesla and Westinghouse’s original AC generator, using the hydroelectric power of Niagara Falls.

Note: Even commercial-sized solar panel “fields” must convert the DC output from the photovoltaics into alternating current for transmission over long distances. Likewise, with rooftop solar panels, for up to a 25 percent loss in power in the inverter, unless you have separate 12-volt wiring in your house (except: all electronics are standardized on AC.)

11.6 STEAM TURBINES CREATE ELECTRICITY IN CONVENTIONAL  POWER PLANTS.

To review, rotating turbines create all electricity (other than from solar photovoltaic panels). Hydroelectric power turns the generator blades directly. Nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants all create steam, which rotates a steam turbine that, in turn, rotates the generator to produce electricity.

Every power plant has one or more steam turbine-generator sets. These systems operate at a fixed speed. A large power plant may have several generator-sets so that at least one is always running, while other generator-sets are down for repairs or maintenance. There can never be a situation where no generators are online because then the utility couldn’t deliver any electricity to its customers.

A power plant with a single turbine-generator set online creates a fixed output of electricity 24/7. If there are three turbines, a power plant can generate power in increments: 1/3, 2/3, and full-power.

Electrical demand varies a great deal day-to-day and throughout the year. It’s higher during the day, lower at night, and both night and day usages are lower on weekends. The baseline demand is higher in the summer because of air conditioning and lower in winter when other energy sources (natural gas, heating oil) satisfy much of the heating load.

In other words, the power plant must have the capacity to supply every home and business in its service area when electric demand is simultaneously the greatest (i.e., the highest utility bills).

11.7 UTILITIES WANT TO MATCH THEIR POWER GENERATION  TO THE DEMAND.

A utility has a fixed capacity to create electricity. Ideally, power companies want the electricity they supply to match the demand, for 100 percent utilization. That can never happen, but with three (or more) generators they can bring online, the system can more closely approximate the load.

I repeat: Utilities must have the generating capacity to satisfy the maximum summertime load: on the hottest day of the year, when air conditioning demand is the greatest. If they cannot fulfill their customer’s needs for this peak late-summer demand, there are rolling brownouts: people or businesses without power.

In the winter, the peak demand might be half or even a third of the summer peak. Instead of operating all three turbine-generator sets, they only need one. And at night, when the wintertime demand drops, that one generator is producing more power than they can sell: they lose money.

Conclusion: our hypothetical power plant operates at 100 percent efficiency only a few weeks each year. One week when the load equals the output of all three generators, one week when the output equals two generators, and one week when the output equals a single generator online. Of course, the utilities could have “rolling brownouts” as they do in California when demand outstrips any capacity levels. Imagine all the class-action lawsuits! And so, the utilities have patched together an interim solution:

11.8 UTILITIES HAVE RATE STRUCTURES TO HELP SPREAD OUT  THE DEMAND.

Commercial customers have a complex electric fee structure that penalizes businesses for electric use during peak hours. Utilities want to reduce that summertime peak, so they don’t need that very-high-capacity at the power plant. They want to shift that load to other times of the day, so they lower their rates–sometimes by 50 percent or more–during off-peak hours.

The goal of utilities is to match the electric demand to their capacity at the power plant. Their primary tool is a peak demand charge, a fee in addition to the flat-rate usage fee. The peak demand is the highest electric usage during any fifteen-minute period of the day.

The largest, industrial customers pay (1) a flat usage fee, (2) much higher prices for usage during peak hours 4 to 6 P.M., plus (3) a penalty for the highest peak demand during the day. These multiple charges encourage commercial customers to lower their usage from 4 to 6 P.M. and to reduce the maximum demand overall during the workday.

How’s that for an incentive? Shift your power to off-peak, and your electric rate drops by half!

11.9 ABOUT 15 PERCENT OF UTILITIES OFFER RESIDENTIAL  OFF–PEAK ELECTRIC RATES.

Traditionally, residential customers pay only the flat-rate usage fee, averaging $0.15 per kWh (kilowatt-hour) in the United States. When you only read the electric meter once a month, you can only charge that bulk rate.

Some of the larger utilities offer new residential rate structures, which lower the electric rate by up to 50 percent during off-peak hours. Customers need a smart meter at their house to qualify. Those new meters have a broadband connection to the utility company that allows them to (1) read the meter remotely and (2) track your hourly usage through each day. Smart meters now enable residential customers to benefit from off-peak electric rates.

11.10 POWER COMPANIES THINK CONSUMERS ARE IDIOTS.

The utilities don’t offer these alternative rate structures to residential users because they’re convinced people won’t understand them and will not take advantage of the lower off-peak rates. Excuse me, but what happens when you tell people they get half-price gas from 2 to 3 A.M.? There’s a line starting at midnight.

They’re called “public utilities” for a reason. We, the public, are supposed to be in control (especially co-op electric power companies). If we want a new rate structure, we can get it.

 11.11 UTILITIES KNOW IT’S CHEAPER TO CONSERVE ENERGY  THAN TO BUILD NEW CAPACITY.

Utility company reports show it’s 65 percent cheaper to get consumers to conserve electricity than to build new capacity to meet rising demand. That’s why they offer rebates for more efficient HVAC systems, solar power projects, even adding insulation in your attic.

If it’s “65 percent cheaper,” where’s the other 65 percent going? Profit for the shareholders? Higher executive salaries? How about giving that 65 percent to the consumers, in the form of more and better rebates, or new and more creative rate structures?

11.12 THE ELECTRIC SERVICE TO YOUR HOUSE IS 240 VOLTS.

The cable from the power line into your house has three large wires inside, two hot wires and a neutral. The voltage between the two hot wires is 240 V and from either of the hot wires to ground is 120 V.

Some appliances use 240 V directly: electric dryers, the AC condensing unit, an electric stove. Each of these has a double circuit breaker, which has a connection to both hot wires. Instead of one hot wire and a neutral going to those major appliances, 240-volt wiring has two hot wires (plus a ground wire).

The cable enters your electric panel, where each hot wire bolts to one of the two busbars running vertically inside the panel. The neutral wire from the electric service bolts to a small multi-connection bus bar inside the panel. A second multiconnection bus bar bolts to a heavy metal rod in the ground nearby: the ground connection for the whole electric service.

When you leverage a circuit breaker into the panel, it latches onto one of the heavy-duty busbars. The cables that lead out into the house, to outlets and lights and switches, have three wires. The green “ground” wire connects to the ground bus. The red or black “hot” wire connects to the busbar. The third white wire connects to the neutral bus.

The two flat prongs of an outlet plug connect inside the wall box to the red or black “hot” wire and the white “neutral” wire for 120 volts. The third, round, plug (ground) connects to the green wire. Some very old houses only have two-wire wiring, and the ground wire of a plug connects inside the wall box to a nail or screw into a stud.

Why is all this important? Because any time the current in the two busbars isn’t equal, there’s current in the neutral wiring, and that current goes directly to ground. It’s lost! Commercial buildings go to great length to balance the current between the two busbars – and sometimes even use the neutral current to run a direct current motor to save even more energy (and to drive the power factor to 100 percent).

11.13 CIRCUIT BREAKERS PREVENT WIRING FROM OVERHEATING.

If you plug a 3,000-watt space heater into an outlet only rated for 1,500 watts, the circuit breaker opens the circuit and prevents current from flowing. If you’re listening to the radio in the bathroom and the radio falls into the bathtub, the circuit blows, but not before you receive a significant shock.

The wiring from the main-panel circuit breakers can only carry 15 or 20 amps (for 15- or 20-amp breakers, respectively, which have different size wiring). Any more current, the wires heat up, and you’ve got a fire hazard.

 11.14 LOOSE CONNECTIONS ANYWHERE IN THE ELECTRIC  SERVICE CAUSE CURRENT TO FLOW.

Every connection inside the main panel should be tight and secure. A circuit breaker that makes a loose connection to a bus bar can cause arcing, which leaves black carbon deposits on the metal bar. Eventually, that arcing can physically deform the bar, causing a deep pit in the metal. Ultimately, the demand for current in that circuit causes the entire connection to explode.

Just to be clear: Arcing, sparking, carbon deposits—anything as such—is a power loss to the system. “Tight and secure” electrical connections aren’t just safe; they save electricity.

 11.15 240-VOLT CONNECTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL APPLIANCES  NEED TO BE TIGHT, TOO.

Outside, as part of the electrical service to the HVAC condensing unit, there’s a metal box on the wall. Inside that box is a switch that disconnects all electrical power to the unit. That way, the AC technician can do repairs without having to go inside to throw the main breaker. If a little dirt or water gets into that disconnect box, a short can cause problems with the AC cutting out; as the intermittent shorting gets worse and the connections inside the switch deteriorate, the plastic matrix for the metal fittings can melt and destroy the whole switch.

A loose wire, connecting the circuit breaker to the home run leading to outlets in the house, first manifests as an intermittent circuit. Eventually, it can cause the breaker to open. Tighten the connecting screw, so the circuit wiring is secure, and you won’t have any more problems.

Again: that loose connection loses power constantly. Fix it!

 11.16 LOOSE WIRES INSIDE WALL OUTLETS, IN APPLIANCE  PLUGS – ANYWHERE!

Where there’s a loose wire, a wobbly circuit breaker, or a loose screw tying a wire to an outlet or light fixture in the ceiling, you have current flowing. You’re losing electrical power.

Any time an electrician works on your main panel, ask them to tighten all of the connections. Likewise, for any trouble circuit in the house, whenever somebody installs a new 240-volt appliance or any other electrical work, ask the contractor to tighten all the connections.

If you work on any circuit yourself, be sure to have a voltage meter or a simple circuit tester. Even after a breaker is closed, test the wires with the circuit tester to be sure they’re not hot– current leaking from a loose connection! If you do any work inside the main panel, throw the main breaker and test the wiring afterward, to be double sure there’s no current. (If the main breaker is bad, stop right there: call an electrician!)

11.17 SAFETY OUTLETS.

A new kind of electrical outlet, where you have to press hard to get the plug into the outlet, is a “safety outlet.” They keep a young child from inserting a paper clip or other object in the plug. Zap! (I can still remember when that happened to me.)

Building codes require circuit-breaker outlets (there’s a little button on the outlet that pops up and turns red with a high current) on a countertop anywhere near water (kitchens, bathrooms) and at all outdoor locations.

How do safety outlets save energy? Every time I mow the lawn with my electric mower and run over the cord, the power cuts out when the circuit breaker in the outlet kicks and all that electricity isn’t lost to ground.

 11.18 DO THE MATH.

If you want to lose weight, you count calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol. If you’re want to save on gasoline costs, you count miles per gallon.

If you want to lower the utility bills, you need to start counting watts. You’ve done it already, comparative shopping two light bulbs, two refrigerators, two shop heaters.

“Wow! Three thousand watts of heat- that’s toasty.” (Just wait until your power bill arrives; you’ll chill down fast.)

 11.19 GET GRAPHIC.

If you’re math-phobic, try signing up with your utility company to receive monthly energy-use graphs. My utility sends out a one-page report each month (via e-mail or regular mail) that graphs my usage for the past twelve months versus similar houses in the area. The orange line is my house, the blue line is average usage, and the green is an energy-efficient property. My house is always way below the green line. There’s nothing like getting positive feedback.

“OMG, this stuff really works! I have proof!”

Feedback is essential because it shows that your efforts are paying dividends.

 11.20 GO SMART.

The utility installed a new “smart meter” for my house a year ago. I can now log onto their website and see all my current electrical usage data. The plot shows energy used and the average outside temperature for every calendar day.

“Look, there’s a spike on hot summer days.” There’s a spike on sunny days, versus cloudy days at the same temperature. “I can see the difference when I close all the blinds and curtains, or when I close the blinds and stuff insulation in the windows.”  “Good grief, Charlie Brown, I really can lower my power bill.”

 11.21 WATTS IT ALL ABOUT?

Mathematically, watts are a unit of electrical power. The wattage of a 120-volt light bulb depends on the amps of current it draws:

watts = volts x amps.

The actual light that an incandescent filament produces is caused by resistance.

The resistance limits the current that flows by the relationship:

 voltage = current x resistance. 

 This resistance to the flow of electricity heats the filament, which turns bright red, emitting light in the visible range. Red hot?

That red-hot is “electric strip heat,” straight electricity heating up an element and on the oven, on the stovetop, from an electric space heater. The brighter the red, the more energy you’re using up.

Note: if a breaker goes bad in my electric panel and too much current goes through the wires—red hot! Plastic casing melts, house catches on fire. If ever in doubt about a faulty breaker, replace it. ASAP.  

11.22 TRANSMISSION LOSSES IN ELECTRIC WIRING SHOW UP  AS HEAT.

If you’ve ever maxed out the current on an extension cord, you noticed the cord got warm. The longer the extension cord and the bigger the load (for example, an electric mower or table saw), the more electricity is lost to heat.

That’s why the higher-rated extension cords are heavier; they have larger cable inside the plastic binding.

Hint: Do I need to explain how that “heat” is wasted electrical energy? That any time your extension cord gets warm, you need to switch it out for a heavier cord with a higher rating?

 11.23 THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS AN ENERGY–EFFICIENT  SPACE HEATER.

Metal filaments heat up in space heaters because of resistance. Space heaters are rated by watts, a unit of electrical power:

power = voltage x current

 The voltage is fixed; so, if you want more power out of a unit heater, you need more current. 

Given a 15-amp circuit breaker and 120-volt system, the most power the breaker will let through is 15 x 120 = 1800 watts. Any more power than that and the breaker will throw and interrupt the circuit.

A space heater converts almost 100 percent of the electrical power input to heat. (There are always losses, from a fan, etc.) That’s a utilization factor of 1.0. Heat pumps have a utilization factor of 3.0 to 6.0, depending on the outside temperature.

Thus, heat pumps deliver three to six times as much heat as a space heater for the same electrical input. So: if you can get heat from a heat pump instead of a space heater, do it.  

 11.24 EMERGENCY HEAT = HUMONGOUS POWER BILL.

Heat pumps become less efficient as the outside temperature gets colder. At around 0°F, the utilization factor (or coefficient of performance) is 1.0. The heat pump can no longer leverage the refrigerant to do any better than straight electric strip heat.

The decrease in COP is linear: at 60°F, it’s 5.0; at 20°F the COP is 2.5, and a 0°F 1.0. If the heat pump for your house maxes out on heat output at, say, 25°F outside, any further increase in heat demand (the outside temp drops to 18°F) is satisfied by “emergency” heat: pure electric “strip heat.”

 Outside Temp vs. COP

• 60° F = 5.0
• 45° F = 4.0
• 30° F = 3.0
• 15° F = 2.0
• 0° F = 1.0

Conclusion: once the outside temperature gets into the teens, it’s time to crank up the wood-burning stove for some supplemental heat. Put your long johns on. Turn the thermostat down. You’re in the “emergency heat” mode on your heat pump. That dial in the electric meter is spinning like a top!

 11.25 HEAT STRIPS ROB YOU BLIND.

I say again: Heat strips are bundles of wire that heat up bright red with an electric current. “Strip heat” is the trade term for heat derived solely from these heat strips. You’ve seen the bright red heating elements in an oven or a space heater. That’s pure electric heat at work.

You may be tempted to disconnect the breakers to the emergency heating elements in the air handler. Don’t do that! The unit needs that electric heat source to defrost the outside condensing unit when it freezes over.

Observe that you’re now in the peak heating range of your system. If this happens in your area a lot, you might think about a different supplemental heat for your heat pump; for example, a small natural gas furnace.

 11.26 SMART HEAT PUMP CONTROLS.

I asked my AC contractor to disable the electric heating elements in my heat pump, so they never come on when the unit calls for emergency heating. (The heat strips still work for the defrost cycle.) My advanced, multi-stage heat pump has computer controls built into the thermostat. The AC technician can adjust settings inside the controls, setting the emergency heat to come on at say 0°F (the absolute lowest it gets around here is 10°F).

When it’s in the teens outside, and the heat pump stays on non-stop, I build a fire in the wood-burning stove as my “auxiliary heat source.” Down goes the thermostat, and out comes a “pet heating pad” for Oscar the cat (it heats up when she lies down on it).

 11.27 WHY CAN BIRDS SIT ON HIGH VOLTAGE POWER LINES  AND NOT GET HURT?

It’s not the voltage that kills but current. If a big bird grabbed a power line with one foot and a metal tower with the other foot—zap! Dead bird.

That metal tower is a ground: a highly conductive channel for current to flow. Unless the voltage has a “place to go” (the ground is zero voltage), no current flows, and the big bird is okay.

If you get between that conductor and ground, well, just don’t. Some fears are good for you, and a mortal fear of an electrical SHOCK is one of them.

 11.28 THE IDEAL LOCATION FOR THE ELECTRICAL PANEL.

Every breaker inside your main electric panel has a “home run” to the outlets and lights on its circuit. The panel location that minimizes the total distance of all those home runs is in the middle of the house. It’s more convenient for homeowners to have the panel inside the house. The electrical system also costs less to install in time and material.

Longer circuit runs mean more power lost to resistance inside the electrical cables and (slightly) fewer watts available at the point-of-use. Electricians will continue to install the panel in the garage (they make a fair bit more money per job) until somebody tells them otherwise. Tell them!

 11.29 APPLIANCES DON’T OPERATE ANY MORE EFFICIENTLY  AT 240 VERSUS 120 VOLTS. 

Major appliances that draw a lot of electric current (clothes washer, stove, AC condensing unit, water heater) often operate at a higher voltage. Why? Because more power can be delivered through a smaller wire.

Power lines operate at multiple thousands of volts so they can transmit millions of watts over long distances. Transformers step the current down gradually until the power lines going into the transformer on the pole outside your house feed your service entrance with 240 volts. (Three hot wires with 120 volts between each pair.)

There’s no ground in the entire power-distribution system until it reaches your electric meter (a heavy cable attached to a metal rod pounded in the ground). Just think: how much current can a stout rebar like that carry? Don’t let your body try to do better.

 11.30 HIGHER VOLTAGE CIRCUITS = LETHAL DANGER.

Assume your body has a fixed resistance. If you have one foot in a puddle, so the water soaks to the skin, and you touch an exposed wire on a frayed extension cord—zap! Current flows because you’ve provided a ground to the (U.S. standard) 120-volt electrical circuit.

If, instead, you touched a live 240-volt circuit, twice as much current flows.

The higher the voltage, the greater the lethality, and the more care you need to take.

Please. Let your contractor do the 240-volt stuff. It’s just too damn dangerous.

 11.31 WATER FLOW AND ELECTRIC CURRENT ARE SIMILAR IN  MANY WAYS.

Not to purposefully mix water and electricity, but water flowing in a pipe operates by the same equations as electricity in a cable. Imagine a fixed water pressure: the smaller the hose diameter and the longer the hose, the lower the pressure at the sprinkler. Those are resistance losses.

Now, imagine a fixed electric voltage (equivalent to water pressure). The smaller the wire (hose) and the longer the circuit, the lower the voltage at the outlet. Why? Because of electrical resistance losses in the wire.

Those “resistance losses” manifest as heat in a stove or oven element. That’s the heat that makes your stereo box or laptop warm. Heat = loss of power = lower efficiency.

 11.32 DO NOT CUSTOMIZE ANYTHING ABOUT ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS.

Please remember: (1) all electrical wires have resistance losses, and (2) those losses are manifested as heat. Overload a circuit, the wires inside the wall heat up, and you have a potential fire hazard. Hence circuit breakers limit electrical flow to (typically) 15 A or 20 A.

That 15-amp circuit is designed according to the National Electrical Code. It specifies the size of wire for a maximum 15-amp current. That wire heats up, but not enough to be a fire hazard. The wiring is good up to 14.9 amps. (The metal wire heats up, but you also have a plastic casing, a little paper insulation around the plastic, and then all that surrounded by a thick, plastic coating, more than enough insulation against heat to keep you safe.)

And, no, no! if a circuit keeps cutting out, you cannot change it out for a higherrated circuit breaker. Why? Because the wiring isn’t rated for the higher current, and you’re risking an electrical fire.

When the fire inspector investigates and finds that non-standard breaker you installed, your home insurance will not cover the losses.

 11.33 ELECTRICAL SAVINGS COMES FROM THE APPLIANCES  YOU HAVE AND HOW YOU USE THEM.

Leave any and all modifications from the electric meter to the breaker panel (240 volts) and from the panel to the outlets (120 volts) to qualified contractors. At most, you can switch out a faulty circuit breaker with one of the exact same rating. Anything beyond that, just don’t.

Likewise, for appliances that are hard-wired (no electric plug). Call your contractor. Let them take the risk. If something’s not working, it’s a good bet that there’s an electrical short somewhere. You sure don’t want to get between that short and ground.

 11.34 EVERY POWER OUTLET ISN’T ON ITS OWN INDIVIDUAL  CIRCUIT.

Remember that several power outlets (and lights if hard-wired) are on each circuit in the house. When you open a breaker, notice all the outlets and lights that lose power in your home. That’s the circuit.

So, if you have several power strips and multiple things plugged in over a couple of nearby outlets, they may all very well be on the same circuit, and using them all at once increases the current at the breaker closer and closer to its design limit.

The higher the load on a circuit, the higher the resistance losses and the more power you lose to heat.

 11.35 ELECTRICAL WIRING IS DESIGNED BY CODE FOR EFFICIENCY  AND COST.

Just as it’s more cost-efficient to have several outlets on a circuit, wiring size is also optimized. Nominal, small resistance losses are assumed for all electrical wiring. The losses are small enough that the cost of increasing the size of the wiring cannot be justified by the energy saved.

General rule: use heavy-duty extension cords for major appliances, especially yard tools like mowers and weed eaters.

 11.36 ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION CAN BE MADE MORE  ENERGY–EFFICIENT.

There’s not anything you can do to improve the wiring and reduce electrical losses in your house, but there are methods that are helpful in larger buildings. The larger the building and the more complicated the power-use profile, the greater the electrical-services losses, and the more you can do to reduce them.

The best you can do at home is to choose Energy Star appliances. Don’t overload circuits with a ton of items plugged into the same outlet, all on at once.

 11.37 THE POWER SUPPLY CAN BE DISTORTED AND MADE LESS  EFFICIENT.

Distortions in the power supply caused by computers and other electronic equipment (1) imbalance the three phases, (2) cause electrical power to be lost to the neutral, and (3) “dirty up” the whole of the power supply to the rest of the circuits, which makes electrical devices on all the rest of the circuit operate less efficiently.

It’s challenging to balance the phases for (1) above in a house. However, the dirty power problem of (3) is manageable on a small scale, with individual appliances.

 11.38 WHERE DOES “DIRTY POWER” COME FROM?

Technically, dirty power harmonics are caused by nonlinear loads, drawing power from a source in short bursts. (Electric strip heat is a linear load: the heat output is directly proportional to the current input.) Brief, abrupt pulses distort the usually smooth sinusoidal waveforms and cause distortions, and these distortions propagate backward into the circuit. 

Everything electronic (as opposed to purely electrical, like strip heat) causes harmonics in the power supply. For example, dimmer switches, which constantly modulate the power supply in a circuit by switching the power on and off many times a second.

Don’t think dirty power is a big deal? Ever had loud static on the TV or radio reception that resolves when you unplug an old appliance? Happens just when the AC condenser is running? That’s harmonics in your system: mucking up the whole power supply. It’s power lost, inefficiency.

11.39 ANOTHER SOURCE OF HARMONIC DISTORTIONS IS LEDS.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are just like the photoelectric cells in solar panels. The electronics in LEDs convert electricity to light. (Solar cells convert sunlight to electricity.) Given that LEDs are purely electronic, they add many harmonics to the power supply.

What happens if you try to dim an LED? The dimmer turns the power on and off many times a second. However, an LED expects a constant, uniform electric current. Consequently, the LED bulb flickers, even more noticeably than the notorious fluorescent-lamp flicker (fluorescent bulbs have an electronic ballast). Why?

Fluorescent lamps flicker from 35 percent to 100 percent of light output. LEDs, however, dim to 10 percent before returning to 100 percent. Hence, the LED flicker is quite perceptible to the human eye. (You’ll notice that some descriptions of LED bulbs say “non-dimmable.”)

 11.40 INCANDESCENT LIGHT SOURCES VS. ELECTRONIC.

Incandescent lights put a strictly linear load on the circuit. They work by sending current through a filament. When the filament heats up, it emits thermal radiation, which we perceive as light because the radiation is in the visual spectrum.

Since the incandescent bulb’s light is coming from a glowing filament, a dimmer turning the electrical current on and off many times a second doesn’t cause any noticeable flickering. The glowing-red filament may dim slightly, but not enough to cause a visual change in the light emanating from the fixture.

Thus, incandescent lighting doesn’t cause any harmonics in the power supply.

 11.41 THE DIRTY DOZEN ELECTRICAL DEVICES.

LED and fluorescent bulbs aren’t the only devices that cause harmonics or distortion in the power supply. Additional dirty power culprits include: Wi-Fi devices, printers, scanners, battery chargers, TVs, computers, microwave ovens, video game consoles, and variable-speed anything (blenders, fans).

These devices all manipulate the power supply, turning it on and off (many times a second) as a way to use less power and be more efficient. These manipulations muck up the power so that all the other devices in the whole house operate less efficiently.

What’s the solution? Endeavor to purchase top brands that advertise clean use of electricity. Even then, limit your use of the dirty dozen in your household. (Put them all on power strips and keep them OFF when not in active service.) And, please, nix the “screen saver.” Just put the computer in sleep mode.

Ironically, smart electric meters also introduce a lot of harmonics into the power supply.

11.42 DIRTY ELECTRICITY FILTERS CAN REDUCE NOISE.

Yes, there are widgets on the market that claim to “clean up your electricity” and cut your utility bill in half. Yes, they may help, but only a little. But, no, this is not a project for anybody but a licensed contractor.

Qualified contractors are the only ones with the equipment to measure just how dirty the electricity is in your house (and interpret the data readout), and who can estimate how much a “clean power” solution can save you.

Call their references first, and other residential customers who have had good results.

11.43 DOES “DIRTY ELECTRICITY” ACTUALLY COST YOU MORE?

What’s the payback for a $25 clean electricity filter? Sure, you can buy a meter yourself, measure the electrical characteristics, plug the filter in, measure the new power profile. “OMG, the power really is better!”

Well, how much does it save you on your utility bill?

At the very least, only consider this kind of tech for devices that you use a great deal. For example, if you have a home office and you’re on the computer all day. (Hint: If these devices really did work as advertised, there would be more than a couple of manufacturers, don’t you think? Or, perhaps they do work, but in third-world nations where the power supplied to customers is screwed up.)

 11.44 THIS TECHNOLOGY WORKS VERY WELL—COMMERCIALLY.

People have a weakness for technology. Especially tech with cool graphs and buzzwords. There’s even an odd logic to it, even for non-engineers. However, this dirty power solution is only cost-effective for large-scale operations.

A large building with hundreds of computers has a ton of harmonics and a very dirty power supply indeed. Transforming to “clean power” can gain quantifiable savings, enough for a reasonable payback on the investment. This kind of “snake oil solution is simply not viable for individual homeowners.

 11.45 THOSE GIZMOS DO VOID OUT NOISE INTERFERENCE.

There is anecdotal evidence that these dirty power filters can eliminate static (on your TV, radio, or cell phone) caused by individual appliances. The first thing you should do is be sure the two devices aren’t on the same circuit. You also need to be sure exactly which appliance is causing the static or noise: unplug all electronics, then plug them in one by one.

If all else fails, talk to a qualified electrical contractor with experience solving such problems, or purchase a new appliance (with a warranty).

 11.46 ANY HEAT SOURCE IS BETTER THAN ELECTRICITY.

Heating fuel (which is the same as diesel) and natural gas (via fixed underground service) are much cheaper than electricity for heating water. Propane (stored in a big tank on the premises) is the most expensive of all. My house has propane, but I use it only for the stovetop (the oven is electric).

When it comes time to get a new water heater, I’ll stay with electricity (or perhaps an electric” heat pump” water heater) because propane is so much more expensive.

If your home has a furnace, if and when it needs replacing, consider a heat pump water heater, even for cold climates.

 11.47 A KWH SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED.

Electricity use is measured in units of 1,000 watts, or kilowatts, per hour. The formal way to designate this unit is kW-hr. Watts are a unit of power, and power x time = energy And so, kWh (as it’s abbreviated) is in units of “energy.”

When you use fewer kWh, you use less energy. The going rate for electricity in the

United States averages $0.15/kWh (up to $0.24 in Alaska and Puerto Rico, $0.32 in Hawaii).  So, technically, a kWh saved is a little over a dime earned.

Note of caution: Time is important in electricity calculations. A smartphone charge-pad that uses 5 watts when not in use may not seem so bad. Multiply 5 watts x 24 hours x 365 days = 44 kWh = $6.50/year.

 11.48 TIME MATTERS—OR NOT.

Observe that one kWh is 1,000 watts used for one hour. If your goal is energy conservation, you always need to consider the length of time the electrical device is working, especially if it’s not on very much.

Consider a storeroom closet (basement, attic, mechanical room) with a 100watt incandescent bulb that operates only for a minute or two a couple of times each week. Why switch it out for an LED bulb? Sure, you save energy, but is that a wise way to spend your money?

 11.49 JUSTIFY YOUR DECISION USING PAYBACK CALCULATIONS.

Payback equals the cost of the project divided the energy saved per year. For the closet light example, the value of the replacement bulb is $2. The power saved is 80 watts (a 20-watt LED offers similar illumination to a 100-watt incandescent bulb). The time is one minute multiplied by three times per week multiplied by fifty-two weeks equals 156 minutes, rounding up to three hours.

So, the energy saved is 80 watts times three hours equals 0.24 kWh times the going rate of $0.13/kWh equals $0.03 per year. The payback, then, is $2/$.03 = almost seventy years.

 11.50 PAYBACK IS CONTINGENT ON THE EXPECTED LIFETIME  OF THE PROJECT.

A major appliance or water heater can last ten to fifteen years. So, your decision to justify the incremental increase in cost for a more efficient model should have a payback of at most three years.

If you have a limited energy-conservation budget, spend it on projects with the shortest payback first. Although, if you’re going to live with something for fifteen years, that’s a good investment, too. Another factor to consider: Will you be moving within that time frame? Can you bring it with you?

 11.51 PAYBACK CAN BE YOUR PRIVATE PONZI SCHEME TO SAVE MORE AND MORE.

Notice that once the project’s payback period is over, the energy you save is pure, 100-percent profit—cash money in your bank account. Bundle up several projects or iterations of the same one (e.g., efficient bulbs in several of the most-used fixtures in the house), and soon you have a fast-growing sum of money to spend on even more projects.

The long-term goal is to lower your utility bills so much that, for example, you can put a couple of photovoltaic panels on your roof and zero out your utility bills altogether.

 11.52 UTILITIES WILL PAY YOU FOR ANY EXTRA POWER YOU  SEND BACK INTO THE GRID.

As your “green” bank account grows (after you zero out your power bill), and you double the size of your solar array, you can sell extra power back to the utility. This system is called net metering. They give you a choice of getting credit for that power or cash, at the wholesale rate.

If you take the cash, be sure to use the wholesale kWh rate in your payback calculations. And, please, don’t go splurging on electricity-hog appliances because you have all this free energy on your hands.

 11.53 NEW RESIDENTIAL RATE STRUCTURES.

Utilities are anxious for people to shift their electricity use to off-peak hours (4 to 6 P.M.) and, if possible, outside of business hours altogether. Check to see if your utility has a residential rate structure that rewards that kind of behavior. If so, your nighttime (6 P.M. to 8 A.M.) electricity rates could be half what they are during the day. How do you shift your electricity use to the low-rate hours?

Wash clothes in the evening, run the dishwasher, dry clothes in the electric dryer. You can even put the water heater on a timer to cut off at 8 A.M. and back on at 6 P.M. These changes to your domestic modus operandi might take some effort initially, but the reward when your utility bill arrives will be tangible.

Utility companies want to offer this new peak demand rate structure, but they’re convinced that nobody will take advantage. Why? Because “people won’t ever understand how it works.” I’ve even read anecdotal reports that half of the utility company executives themselves don’t understand “peak demand” issues.

How much are we paying these people?

 11.54 THE QUINTESSENTIAL PEAK DEMAND RATE STRUCTURE.

If you’re a small business owner (or work for any type of commercial establishment), they all have the regular usage charge for kWh but also a peak demand charge for the maximum amount of electricity used during any fifteen-minute interval. What this two-tiered billing system means is that what you save for any given project you do at home is doubled if you do them at work.

Modifying equipment to save energy is one thing–it costs good money–but changing behavior to save money? Game on!

Example: The fast-food crew who turns on the lights, AC, deep-fat fryers, grill, ovens, exhaust fan, all at once as soon as they clock-in for the breakfast shift. Major electric peak! One at a time, please, at least fifteen minutes apart.

 11.55 MILK THE DEMAND CHARGE FOR ALL IT’S WORTH.

If you’re a small-business owner (or work at a small business and want to get in good with the boss), study your daily electricity demand profile and configure it where possible to minimize demand charges. (Take regular readings at the meter and plot them on a graph—great visual for the boss.)

If your facility has a high outside lighting demand (such as for security or parking), wait for those lights to go out before starting up high-use appliances inside.

Night cleaning crews love to turn on all the lights on the whole floor during their entire shift. Ask them to work in one area at a time.

 11.56 CALL THE GHOSTBUSTERS.

The same dirty dozen appliances that create a harmonic load on an electrical system also contribute phantom loads. That is, they keep drawing a small current even when they’re turned off. The big culprits are TVs, computers, stereos, DVD players, and even telephone answering systems.

The solution is to put all these devices on a power strip(s) and turn the power strip off when they’re not in use. You can buy power strips with a timer built-in (great to limit kids’ TV or video game time) or even motion sensors (ideal for the workplace).

 11.57 THE CURRENT TRUTH.

Some smartphones and cell phones keep drawing a little phantom energy even after they’re at full charge, but still plugged in. That means it’s best not to keep them charging overnight.

If you use a smartphone a lot and it’s not inconvenient to have your device on a charging pad during the day, a solar-powered charger is a great idea.

 11.58 RENEWABLE SOURCES FOR ELECTRICITY.

There are two ways for a homeowner to create your own electricity: solar and wind. The most common by far is solar, via photovoltaic panels on the roof. Solar panels have a decent payback almost everywhere in the country, even in the cloudy northern states from Maine to Washington state.

Wind turbines are more limited. You need an average wind speed of 7 MPH before the turbine turns (think the high plains in the Midwest United States).

Both solar and wind systems generate electricity that has to be processed into alternating current before you can use it in your house or send it back into the power grid for a credit. This processing is done by an inverter, one of the most expensive parts of the system. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a windy area, you can use the same inverter for both the solar and wind systems, and save on the installation cost.

A useful resource for the average wind speeds available at your location is the website weatherspark.com. They also have a plot of the average cloud cover during the year: solar works best if the winter cloud cover is no more than 40 percent. However, the northern states with more clouds than this also have much longer days in the summertime when you can harvest more than average solar electric watts and average a net positive over a calendar year.

On the plus side, in cold climates, even though solar panels only generate 1025 percent as much electricity when it’s cloudy, they’re 1 percent more efficient for each 1° F below 77° F. 

So, if the average temperature in Maine is 25° F during the three cloudy winter months (coastal New England gets a fair bit of sunshine all winter), that’s a 50 percent improvement in efficiency = 50 percent more electricity. That makes photovoltaic panels viable almost anywhere in the United States.

Note: If your winter is very cold and also sunny, like in the mountains of Colorado, you’re talking some serious solar electricity all winter long.

11.59 MOTOR ECONOMICS

Electric motors consume more than half of all electricity in the United States. The historical norm is single-speed motors that run at full speed no matter what the load is.

There are many motors in your house, or the equivalent: exhaust fans, the air handler fan, the motor in the washing machine and clothes dryer, the condenser motors in the fridge, freezer, and heat pump. These are all single-speed motors.

A two-speed motor on a system with a variable load uses much less electricity because you can match the motor more closely to the load. (Motors are sized to meet the maximum possible load, not the average or even the expected load.) Variable-speed motors are a fair bit more expensive but can save even more energy.

Dare I ask: The price of solar panels has dropped dramatically, not because of technology but because of demand (mass production). What if the same demandside economics happened with variable-speed motors? They’d become far cheaper, and the efficiency of all our appliances would increase dramatically in one fell swoop; every heat pump system would almost double in efficiency and consume half as much electricity. O.M.G.

What if we all demanded variable speed motors everywhere?

 11.60 EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL UTILITIES.

If your employer has people working from home, either temporarily or even a couple of days each week, put a price tag on their residual utilities. If dozens of employees are no longer in the office, burning lights, running computers, using up heating and cooling energy, the business saves a tidy sum on their bills each month.

Meanwhile, your bills go up when you’re at home all day working. You should be compensated for that, and then some (because businesses pay not just electric usage fees per kWh but also peak demand costs, which doubles their utility costs).

 11.61 SMART CHARGING.

If you have an Electric Vehicle (EV), be sure to charge it overnight when the electricity demand on the power grid is lowest.

Check with your utility to see if they offer a residential rate schedule that charges less for off-peak electricity (you might save as much as 50 percent, which will double your mileage).

Some utilities offer a rebate to offset part of the cost of installing the EV-charging equipment in your home.

  Future Tech! 

11.62

All utilities should offer time-of-use rates to residential customers. Contrary to what the utilities say, I think people will figure out the peak demand structure pretty damn fast. Half-price electricity? Where? How?

11.63

Since 85 percent of all electricity generated in the United States is used to power motors, that should be the Number 1 research priority: more efficient motors of every type and size.

 11.85

Utilities have only a limited number of steam-generator sets. That means a stepresponse to power demand: several levels of optimum operation, outside of which efficiency drops dramatically. In high-density population areas, can several utilities combine their capacity to have a full-power response to electrical demand, to provide power in a uniform band of capacity, at full efficiency throughout that range?

11.86

A smart house with a separate 12-volt wiring system, supplying all the dirty power electronics in the household, isolates all harmonics from the 120-volt electrical wiring. Of course, manufacturers need to externalize their power supplies (like they do with some of the mini-desktop computers) so that the equipment plugs directly into 12-volt USB outlets in the house.

11.87

This 12-volt house is ideal for a solar panel installation, connected directly to the 12-volt batteries used to store the power. Ten to twenty-five percent of the solar energy wouldn’t be lost in the inverter.