Electronics

 HERE ARE SOME NEW-TECH TIPS FOR SAVING ENERGY FROM THE PROS:

• Instead of checking your smartphone whenever you need the time, purchase a solar watch, a self-winding watch, or even a wind-up watch.
• Use rundown timers on window AC units (or anything else in the house) that sees limited use—in a recreation room or guest bedroom, for example. The timer turns the unit on, then turns off after a set amount of time.
• Don’t let electronics haunt your house. Turning off most modern electronics doesn’t stop the flow of electricity altogether.
• Turn the smartphone off before turning in. Any kind of light beyond the red spectrum— blue or white!—p??disrupts your sleep patterns.
• Turn the music down. What parent wouldn’t cherish muting the kid’s stereo in the den, bedroom, or kitchen?

9.1 SOLAR-POWERED MOTION SENSORS control outdoor security lights.

Instead of having that security light on all night, scare them away with a sudden flash of bright light! Some products have a very long range.

9.2 APPLIANCE MOTION SENSORS control TVs, stereos, and even small appliances like a coffee maker, turning one or more items off when nobody is in the room.

9.3 HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS are now 100 percent wireless. No more cables and wires to run all over the house. Door, window, and motion sensors are a snap to install. Instead of having a light on outside all night, you can be even more secure by securing the perimeter electronically, complete with outside motion sensors and instant alarm calls to the security company.

Joule Bug is an app that helps you build green habits. The more you do, the more “green badges” you receive. Announce your progress on Facebook!

9.4 WIRELESS THERMOSTATS give you total control of your heating and cooling system from a smartphone app. You turn it off in the morning then check the inside temperature from work, to see if you need to schedule it back on before the close of business.

9.5 SOLAR-POWERED SOUND SYSTEMS: a “boom box” that recharges its batteries from an integral solar panel.

9.6 REPLACE WINDOW SCREENS WITH STORM WINDOWS.

9.7 AN IPAD CASE WITH A SOLAR PANEL in the back charges the battery.

9.8 A HAND CRANK GENERATOR charges a car battery or smartphone or other 12-volt appliance for emergencies or camping—sun power!

9.9. A PEDAL GENERATOR (similar to the small under-desk cycling machines) can charge a 12-volt battery when your car breaks down or send the power to your solar photovoltaic inverter pack.

9.10 A WIRELESS HVAC DAMPER CONTROL allows multiple zones for a single heat pump, each with its own wireless thermostat. The system adjusts air volume among the zones in a large house to where the occupants need it most.

9.11 SMART ZONE CONTROLLERS for several “wireless HVAC zones” learn the habits of a household to anticipate your space-conditioning needs.

9.12 CORDED ELECTRICAL TOOLS use less power than battery-powered devices because (1) the battery charger has inefficiencies, (2) the battery has standby losses, and (3) the charge is often lost completely over a period of no use.

9.13 AN ECO-CHARGER turns itself off after charging your smartphone, tablet, iPad, or laptop. This eliminates “standby” or phantom losses.

9.14 OLD BATTERY CHARGERS lets you charge up old, burned-out batteries again (regular batteries).

9.15 A 12-OUTLET POWER STRIP/surge protector guarantees you’ll overload the circuit or at least demand enough current on the wiring to increase resistance losses. Resistance equals heat, and also a lower voltage at the outlet, for reduced operating efficiency.

9.16 A SMART WIFI GARAGE DOOR OPENER is another device that sends out a signal all the time, another “phantom load” that wastes power. Whatever happened to that wireless switch you clip to the sun visor in your vehicle?

9.17 ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (EMS) have been around for decades, to control all the devices in large, complicated HVAC systems. That same technology is now available for residential systems. For example, to coordinate multiple heat sources: solar, heat pump, furnace, or even geothermal.

9.18 SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY turns off the lights at night, on at sun-rise, and a myriad of variations in between, to max out your lighting energy savings. A universal dim to warn the kids they have fifteen minutes until lights out. A wakeup blast of light will get the ball rolling in the morning.

9.19 LOW-VOLTAGE POWER SUPPLY “WALL PACKS” convert 120-volt AC to 12-volt DC power (the small box that plugs into a wall outlet). Large electronics that use DC (TVs, computers, stereos) usually have the AC-to-DC power supply built into the unit. They all have standby losses. They all have “phantom loads,” too.

9.20 A POWER FACTOR METER reading of 90 percent means you’re losing 10 percent of the power before it even comes out of the wall outlet.

9.21 INSTEAD OF A SCREEN SAVER, PUT YOUR COMPUTER TO SLEEP. 

Screen savers prevent permanent etching on older monitors caused by a fixed display. That’s not as much a problem with modern devices. Screen savers are mostly for entertainment now. There’s nothing energy-saving about a screen saver. The monitor is still on and drawing full power. Graphics-intensive screen savers can burn twice as much energy. Also, an active screen saver can prevent the monitor from going into sleep mode – when it does save energy.

9.22 ON–OFF CYCLES ARE NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR COMPUTER OR HARD DRIVE. 

Back in the early days of PCs, we couldn’t turn computers on and off frequently. The hard drives didn’t automatically park the heads when shut off, and the hard drive could be damaged. That’s not an issue anymore. Frequent shutdowns don’t affect modern hard drives.

Manufacturers rate modern computers for upwards of forty thousand on-off cycles. It’s not likely to get even close to that number in the average six to eight years you own a computer. You’d have to turn it on and off over one hundred times each day for over ten years.

9.23 MODERN COMPUTERS SLEEP VERY WELL.

It only had to crash once, back in the day, for you never to trust a sleeping computer again. Windows was unstable and tended to crash or wake up with a bad hangover. That’s not a problem anymore. If you still can’t relax, then it’s okay to turn the machine off. Many computer manufacturers ask their employees to turn their computers off instead of using sleep mode.

9.24 “TURN OFF HARD DISK” DOESN’T SAVE MUCH ENERGY.

In the “system standby” options, you can turn off the monitor (saves 30 watts for a 27-inch screen). Turning off the hard disks doesn’t save much energy. A monitor in sleep mode uses one to three watts of power: The screen is black, and usually, you get a brief message “no video input,” and the power light starts to blink.

9.25 YOU CAN STILL ACCESS A COMPUTER REMOTELY IF IT’S ASLEEP.

The power management features in Windows allow remote access if the machine is asleep or in hibernation. So, you don’t have to leave the computer on all the time to gain that access remotely.

9.26 NOTEBOOKS USE MUCH LESS POWER IN STANDBY MODE, TOO.

Laptop and notebook computers still draw 20-30 watts of power when not in use. That drops down to 1-3 watts when asleep or on standby.

9.27 DESKTOP COMPUTERS USE UP TO TEN TIMES AS MUCH POWER AS LAPTOPS.

Depending on the system, a desktop PC can use 80-250 watts. Add 20-40 watts for the monitor, and you have 100-300 watts total, versus 20-30 watts for a laptop. Tablets and iPads draw roughly the same amount of power as laptops.

 9.28 SMARTPHONE CHARGING PADS STILL DRAW POWER WHEN NOT CHARGING.

A charging pad uses around 5 watts while charging a cell or smartphone, but it still draws up to 0.5 watts when not charging. That’s not a whole lot of power, but over a full year, it adds up.

 9.29 MOST ELECTRONIC DEVICES HAVE “PHANTOM LOADS”  EVEN WHEN TURNED OFF. 

Virtually all major electronic devices put “vampire loads” on your power supply. I call them the dirty dozen: wi-fi devices, printers, scanners, battery chargers, TVs, computers, microwave ovens, video game consoles, VCRs, DVD players, variablespeed anything (blenders, fans), and fluorescent lighting.

These “phantom loads” are all in the name of electronic readiness. They keep the TV’s settings in memory; run the clock on the stove, DVD player, and microwave; maintain wi-fi connections when you’re not online; ensure rapid start-up for TVs and computers.

We’re not talking 0.5 watts anymore for a phone charger. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates a TV can draw 35 watts, a DVR 45 watts, a sleeping laptop 55 watts, the cable or satellite TV box 35 watts, a garage opener 5 watts. The monthly toll: ten percent of your power bill.

9.30 PUT YOUR ELECTRONICS ON POWER STRIPS TO VOID  PHANTOM LOADS.

The only way to stop all the vampire loads on your electrical system is to put the “dirty dozen” on power strips (or unplug them). A $15 power strip can pay for itself in only a few months. It also protects your valuable electronics from power surges.

Ironically, surge protectors have a small phantom load as well, 5 or 6 watts.

9.31 YOU MIGHT USE LIGHT– OR MOTION–SENSING POWER  STRIPS MORE OFTEN.

There are several ways to automate surge protectors. They’re available with an integral motion or light-sensor (runs only during the daytime). Or you can plug the surge protector into a light-sensing multi-outlet electrical extender. If a nearby power outlet is on a light switch, you can use that as your on-off switch.

9.32 FLUORESCENT FIXTURES ARE VERY ELECTRONIC–INTENSIVE.

Charged voltage ionizes a gas inside the bulb, causing it to fluoresce: light. It takes more than just raw voltage to ionize the gas and to keep it ionized for a steady rate of illumination.

The two-foot-by-four-foot overhead fluorescent luminaires ubiquitous in office and commercial environments have a cigarette-pack-sized ballast, which (1) accumulates sufficient voltage to start the device and (2) after that modulates the current delivered to the tube-shaped lamps. There is one ballast per fixture, controlling the power for up to six lamps. If the lamps are switched separately, there is one ballast for each switched circuit.

Magnetic ballasts are powered by the standard 60-hertz electric service. The flicker rate is twice the charging voltage: 120 cycles per second.

The light intensity of fluorescent lamps with a magnetic ballast varies from 35 percent to 100 percent with each flicker. People don’t often notice the flicker until the bulb’s getting old or the ballast fails. Electronic ballasts have a much higher flicker rate, up to 5,000 hertz.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), originally curly like a pig’s tail but now shaped like regular incandescent bulbs, have a much smaller, electronic ballast built into the base. They flicker at a rate of 20,000 cycles per second (hertz).

All those sophisticated electronics mess up the power supply and cause all other appliances on the circuit to operate less efficiently. In commercial buildings, all lighting is put on a separate panelboard, completely isolated from the rest of the power supply. Unfortunately, that’s not possible in residential applications.

 9.33 LED BULBS ARE EVEN MORE ELECTRONIC IN FUNCTION.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) function by the inverse principle of solar photovoltaic panels. Instead of converting sunlight into electricity, LEDs transform electricity into light. They flicker at a rate of four hundred to three thousand cycles per second, but between 10 percent and 100 percent of the rated output. Any misfire in the device and that flicker can be noticed by the human eye.

LEDs are also dependent upon the standard 60-hertz electrical service. Electronic circuits increase the light-circuit frequency into the non-visible range. LEDs don’t just have an electronic ballast like CFLs but an entire mini-circuit board, which is even more electronic-intensive than the “dirty dozen.”

 9.34 ELECTRONIC DEVICES CREATE HARMONICS IN AN ELECTRICAL  SYSTEM.

Electrical power is usually a smooth, uniform sinusoidal wave. Three-phase power has three such waves 120° apart. Electronic devices such as the “dirty dozen” manipulate the power supply. LEDs and CFLs, for example, switch the power on and off hundreds, even thousands of times each second. This manipulation propagates backward into the circuit so that the electricity delivered to other devices is no longer a smooth, uniform sinusoidal wave.

Harmonics is the engineering term for the trash created in the power supply by electronic equipment. It causes other devices to operate less efficiently. Sometimes this “dirty power” shows up as static or random noise in audio systems.

 9.35 CLEANING UP DIRTY POWER ISN’T ECONOMICAL ON A  SMALL SCALE.

A large office building with many fluorescent lamps, computers, printers, and other electronic devices suffers significant electrical losses because of the cumulative harmonics distortion. There are many ways to clean up a commercial power supply: power factor correction, voltage stabilization, harmonic filtering, and power conditioning. These are all expensive solutions that are not viable on a small scale.

The only defense a homeowner has against harmonics is to take the problematic devices out of the circuit. Turning it off doesn’t suffice. It has to either be unplugged or turned off (isolated) by a power strip. Hence, one more reason to use surge protectors: not just to eliminate vampire loads but to increase the efficiency of the electric service itself.

 9.36 RX FOR ELECTRONIC NOISE IN A POWER CIRCUIT.

A weak signal is not always the reason for nuisance noise or static in radio and TV reception. It can be harmonic feedback caused by other electronic devices operating in the same circuit. Single out all the power outlets on that circuit by throwing the circuit breaker in the main panel. Then turn the breaker back on and unplug all other electronics from that circuit, to find the culprit.

Failing that, try a clean power adapter: a small device you plug into the outlet, then plug your trouble device into the adapter. These inexpensive devices “clean up” the power so that the alternating current is more uniform.

 9.37 POWER ADAPTERS PROMISE TO “CLEAN UP” YOUR SINE– WAVE POWER SUPPLY.

Inexpensive “clean power” devices promise to lower your utility bills by 50 percent. That’s not likely to happen because “dirty power” problems caused by modern electronics are rarely that severe in a residential setting. At best, they might save 1 or 2 percent, hardly noticeable on your power bill, much less enough to justify buying the device.

A good indication of the severity of your situation is the Power Factor (PF) reading on electric meters. Businesses are penalized if their PF falls below 90 percent. Very few residential customers suffer that penalty, so even if you did correct your PF, it wouldn’t save you much money.

Note: electrical motors (clothes dryer, AC condenser) cause the most changes in PF. When those motors aren’t running, you’re okay. If you correct the PF globally, it works against you when those motors aren’t operating.

If you believe you have a harmonics problem, have a qualified contractor put a meter on your system to measure the power supply problems. Your problem might be poor power delivered to your house by the utility company or a single major appliance with internal shorts or a bad circuit board.

 9.38 DIMMER SWITCHES DON’T WORK ON MOST CFLS AND  LEDS.

Electronic dimmer switches give some insight into this “dirty power” problem. These devices “dim” by turning the power on and off multiple times per second. If you modify the power supply to a light bulb that itself turns the power on and off many times a second, you end up with a noticeable, flickering light. Many CFLs and LEDs are labeled “not dimmable.”

In the context of harmonics, the dimmer delivers “dirty power” to the fixture. It’s not uniform sinusoidal waves but waveforms that are chopped up and nonlinear.

9.39 INCANDESCENT BULBS ARE DIMMABLE.

Incandescent light sources operate by electrical voltage heating a thin filament that glows, producing light. Even though they’re not very efficient (95 percent of the electricity ends up as heat), they dim just fine. The rapidly cycling on-off electrical current from the dimmer heats the filament a little more or a little less. It keeps on glowing, and the minuscule variations in intensity aren’t manifest as flickers, much less down to 10 percent or 35 percent of light levels, as with LEDs and CFLs, respectively.

Incandescent lighting is clean. When it’s off, it’s off. There are no phantom loads. There’s nothing electronic in an incandescent bulb, so it does not contribute any harmonics to a circuit.

Future Tech!

 9.40 IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AN ON–OFF SWITCH AT THE  MAIN CIRCUIT BREAKER PANEL. 

Main panels have a service disconnect, but you can’t turn it on and off every day, to nix all the phantom loads in one “swell foop.” Maybe one day, they’ll have “smart breaker panels” that you can operate from your smartphone and turn everything off but the AC and the security system.

9.41

Or, better yet, they can manufacture “dumb” TVs and appliances that have zero phantom loads.

9.42

Some major appliances (notably HVAC compressors) have Power Factor Correction (PFC) built into the electronics. This is very common for commercial systems but not so much for residential operations. As more and more utilities offer timeof-day rates that penalize you for power factor issues, manufacturers should build PFC into their equipment.  

9.43

“Dirty power” has until recently been the industry’s ugly little secret. Now that it’s getting a lot more publicity, consumers are concerned. Why should we have to buy power strips and automated on/off tech to take all these high-harmonics devices out of the electrical circuit? Manufacturers should clean up their technology and solve the harmonics problem before it even leaves their factories.