[Noisebridge-discuss] PG&E Bill

[Jonathan Foote]

Purely out of my a**, the modest efficiency gains from going to
solid-state ballasts are not worth it -- it will take a long time to
recoup any costs. Even old-school transformer ballasts are not that
bad (and miles better than incandescents).

Plus, the minute I bring in a little space heater so I can get
something done in the chill I will blow any savings for decades. ;)


On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 10:40 AM, Rachel McConnell <rachel at xtreme.com> wrote:
> Jim, do you have any sense as to the power efficiency or lack thereof of
> the current fluorescent ballasts?  It seems worth at least doing some
> math to figure out if replacing some or all of them would be worth the
> cost.  The math should of course include the significant additional time
> required.  I can do a first pass at this math if you can help me with
> starting points for the current ballasts.
>
> Rachel
>
> jim wrote:
>>    probably good to start a lighting thread.
>>
>>    one conceptually easy fix is to separate the
>> existing flourescent lights and switch each on or off
>> separately.
>>
>>    we've estimated something like 1.5 Amps for each
>> eight-foot fixture. also, it's possible that fixtures
>> without bulbs are leaking some power.
>>    i'm for LEDs but suspicious of the current crop of
>> socket-ready lamps, mainly wrt mechanical aspects.
>>    CFLs are probably more efficient, but we have only
>> a few fixtures that'll take them.
>>    note that there area bulb sockets in the ceiling
>> that are likely switched--we'll have to do the PITA
>> hunt to figure the wiring out.
>>
>>    maybe we can come up with a mix of LEDs for
>> low-level general lighting and flourescents to
>> illuminate particuar working areas.
>>
>>    as to other power aspects, the cold season is upon
>> us, and it looks like "the kitchen" is coming
>> together: both suggest greater power bills.
>>    what's the possibility of using propane or similar
>> room heaters? and what's the possibility of
>> controlling the kinds of cooking and refrigeration
>> appliances we add? also, we should be aware of the
>> efficiencies of ventilation systems ("fart fans" in
>> the toilet rooms, darkroom vent fan, others).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 2009-12-06 at 15:46 -0800, Jeffrey Malone wrote:
>>> Rather than starting a new thread, I'll just revive this one.
>>>
>>> We have received our new PG&E bill for the period of 11/4-12/4.
>>>
>>> The bill may be viewed here:
>>> http://tehinterweb.com/PGE/PGE120609.pdf
>>>
>>> To summarise,  the bill is for $353.73, a drop of about $115 from the
>>> previous bill.
>>>  We used 2214Kwh over the period, at 71.4 per day, as compared to the
>>> 73.6 we used for the previous billing cycle.
>>>
>>> The reason for the drop is due to a power rate drop. If you compare
>>> the bills, you'll see the cost per Kwh in the last billing cycle was
>>> approx $0.187880254, whereas for the most recent, it was approx
>>> $0.131825327 -- about 1/3rd less.
>>>
>>>
>>> I would still encourage us to look into what we can do to help reduce
>>> power usage.  The lighting, I believe, is still the largest drain and
>>> one of the most unnecessary ones.
>>> The amount we're using is about $11.41/day or $0.48/hour, which seems
>>> small, but if we were to cut out half our current lighting, we'd
>>> likely cut our power usage by as much as a third.
>>>
>>> Anyone have any ideas on lighting?
>>>
>>> Jeffrey
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 12:49 AM, Jeffrey Malone
>>> <ieatlint at tehinterweb.com> wrote:
>>>> At some point I'll have a better method of posting these, but right
>>>> now I'll just throw this out there since I'm sure people are curious:
>>>>
>>>> http://tehinterweb.com/PGE110509.pdf
>>>>
>>>> In short, it's $468.44 and we used 2136Kwh (that's 73.6Kwh per day and
>>>> 3Kw per hour!).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, read it if you're curious, bitch if you think we're using too
>>>> much, whatever.
>>>>
>>>> Jeffrey
>>>>
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>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>
>>
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