[Noisebridge-discuss] PG&E Bill

jim jim at well.com
Mon Dec 7 21:29:13 UTC 2009


   other than satisfying curiosity, i don't think 
it'll be worth the effort to measure the power used 
by the eight-footers. that said, i'm curious and 
will probably try to measure them. we'd estimated 
about 1.5 Amps per fixture (and i think that's 
likely high). 
   there'll be a difference in cost between 
* using a lot of the eight footers 
and 
* using a fewer number of CFLs or some CFLs along 
with a small number of separately switched eight-
footers. what might be significant is the costs of 
fixtures for CFLs--puts the imperative on getting 
freebies. 


On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 10:40 -0800, Rachel McConnell 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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> >>
> > 
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