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Thoughts on minimizing electrical usage in apartment (or generating additional?)

M

morkus64

Diamond Member
I'm moving to a new place soon, and it is in almost every way better than my current apartment except one: The electrical system. I live in Chicago, and a lot of these are rather old buildings which haven't had their infrastructure upgraded in a loooong time. I spoke with the current tenants of my soon to be new apartment, and found out that the entire apartment is basically on two circuits - one for the fridge, and the other for everything else. Apparently they have had an issue now and then with the circuit breaker tripping - and of course, we don't have access to it.

So to avoid tripping the breaker too often, I'm trying to come up with ways to reduce energy consumption, or to potentially generate additional energy that I could run non-critical things off of.

Thoughts:

- I don't have a desktop, which is good, but I do have three laptops which are frequently all running at once. I leave them plugged in. Since this is related to my work, it's non-negotiable.

- I'll replace any non-CFL bulbs with CFL bulbs, but I don't actually think there were an incandescent left, except maybe over the bathroom sink.

- The oven is gas, and the heat is radiators, so those at least won't draw power, but Chicago summers get hot and unpleasant. We have one air conditioner (Whirlpool ACQ068MP0, 6000 BTU), but next summer I may want to add a second if it's anything like this summer. I know this might be the trickiest thing.

-Phantom power?

-???
 
Laptops don't use that much juice unless you're doing hardcore stuff. My laptop's a 3 year old i3 and maxes out around 45W when playing an HD video and running other things in the background -- desktop plus monitor and receiver idles at 110-ish.

CFLs/LEDs will help, but to trip a breaker, it's usually some high-load item isn't it? Vacuum cleaner, hot water kettle, toaster, microwave, air conditioner, dehumidifier, etc.
 
Is it going to be you tripping the breakers or your neighbors and beyond your control? What kinds of usage have caused it to happen in the past?
 
15 amp circuit ~ 1700w. So that's your budget.

And you really want to keep it under ~1350 so you have room for little surge demands from electric motors.

I can't find specs on yours, but a Frigidaire Energy Start 6k BTU A/C unit uses 560w, so that's ~1/3 of your budget. Laptops'll be another ~200w prolly.

What other stuff do you have? (a 1000 watt home entertainment system would be problematic, for instance. But a 20" LCD TV and a little DVD player would probably eat like 50w tops.)

Otherwise, just remember to turn off your A/C before you use a vacuum, hair dryer, or laser printer. Or anything else that can draw a lot of current (like an air compressor for a bike pump.)

If you want to make a detailed budget, you can test all your hardware with a kill-a-watt and do a spreadsheet, but I think you'll be fine if all you have is an A/C unit and a trio of laptops, plus the usual odds and ends (electric razor, clock radio, vibrator, etc.)
 
You're at the bottom, and nickel/diming it with cfls and stuff won't get you much more. Use fans to boost the cooling of the ac. A friend of mines cools an old two story farm house with a single window unit, and a bunch of box fans. The fans add clutter, but that would be less of a concern in an apt.
 
lxskllr said:
You're at the bottom, and nickel/diming it with cfls and stuff won't get you much more. Use fans to boost the cooling of the ac. A friend of mines cools an old two story farm house with a single window unit, and a bunch of box fans. The fans add clutter, but that would be less of a concern in an apt.
Click to expand...

Two story with one window a/c unit. Interdasting...
 
Imp said:
Two story with one window a/c unit. Interdasting...
Click to expand...

It works surprisingly well, but there's fans all over the place, and it sounds like a wind tunnel. That's the unit I helped replace the fan on. It's downstairs now, and he's gonna get another unit for upstairs. That should cut down on the clutter and noise.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
15 amp circuit ~ 1700w. So that's your budget.

And you really want to keep it under ~1350 so you have room for little surge demands from electric motors.

I can't find specs on yours, but a Frigidaire Energy Start 6k BTU A/C unit uses 560w, so that's ~1/3 of your budget. Laptops'll be another ~200w prolly.

What other stuff do you have? (a 1000 watt home entertainment system would be problematic, for instance. But a 20" LCD TV and a little DVD player would probably eat like 50w tops.)

Otherwise, just remember to turn off your A/C before you use a vacuum, hair dryer, or laser printer. Or anything else that can draw a lot of current (like an air compressor for a bike pump.)

If you want to make a detailed budget, you can test all your hardware with a kill-a-watt and do a spreadsheet, but I think you'll be fine if all you have is an A/C unit and a trio of laptops, plus the usual odds and ends (electric razor, clock radio, vibrator, etc.)
Click to expand...

This is the kind of post that makes me with we could rep people on anandtech. Thanks!

We're probably not the most power hungry people - As far as stuff that is always plugged in, there's the three laptops, a 32" lcd tv, a few lamps, two clocks, three cell phone chargers, a small ipod speaker (logitech s715i - 20 watts), an inkjet printer, two cordless phones, a small paper shredder, toaster over, stand mixer, food processor, coffee pot, small coffee grinder. We don't have a microwave. As far as power hungry temporary things, there's the hair dryer, and our vacuum is from the mid 80s (Electrolux Discovery II - best vacuum ever). Listing it all out it seems like we'll probably be ok.
 
I'd call the landlord and ask him to add a second circuit where you'll use the AC. Since you don't have access to the breaks I'd trip it repeatedly until he tires of coming to fix it.
 
lxskllr said:
It works surprisingly well, but there's fans all over the place, and it sounds like a wind tunnel. That's the unit I helped replace the fan on. It's downstairs now, and he's gonna get another unit for upstairs. That should cut down on the clutter and noise.
Click to expand...

It's been so hot in Chicago this summer, I nearly built one of these:
http://gajitz.com/coolest-hack-ever-cool-water-pipes-fan-diy-ac/

If I wouldn't have had to temporarily leave my seat directly in front of the A/C, I probably would have. 🙂
 
Midwayman said:
I'd call the landlord and ask him to add a second circuit where you'll use the AC. Since you don't have access to the breaks I'd trip it repeatedly until he tires of coming to fix it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if that would actually work - it's a big management company, and I'm not sure how much say the maintenance guy has over those things. But if it really does become an issue, I'll deal with them.
 
I suppose you could get timers for your laptops and set them up so that only one is charging at a time and the others don't run out of battery..
 
Amxk0DK.gif
 
morkus64 said:
This is the kind of post that makes me with we could rep people on anandtech. Thanks!

We're probably not the most power hungry people - As far as stuff that is always plugged in, there's the three laptops, a 32" lcd tv, a few lamps, two clocks, three cell phone chargers, a small ipod speaker (logitech s715i - 20 watts), an inkjet printer, two cordless phones, a small paper shredder, toaster over, stand mixer, food processor, coffee pot, small coffee grinder. We don't have a microwave. As far as power hungry temporary things, there's the hair dryer, and our vacuum is from the mid 80s (Electrolux Discovery II - best vacuum ever). Listing it all out it seems like we'll probably be ok.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I'd double check the max watts on the paper shredder. When they're overloaded, they can draw.

Googling, it looks like stand mixers can use a couple hundred watts and toaster ovens can actually draw 1000+. So be careful with those - I'd put them in the same "power hungry temporary things" list as the hair dryer and vacuum. (And the coffee pot)

Or just make toast on the stove.

The rest of the stuff you mentioned should be fine.

This might be useful.

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/usage_chart.html

You might want to just put the A/C unit on a timer. Make sure it's off when you're more likely to be doing other things.
 
The devices which draw a ton of power:

Microwave
hair dryer
electric skillet
vacuum

Don't use more than one of these at teh same time and you should be fine.
 
Oooh, good call. Just took a look and the toaster oven says 1000W, and the stand mixer says 250W.

I know W=V*A, but will appliances list the actual operational or...? The shredder is 2.2A, and the food processor says max 5A.

So given the 1350/1700W max - I basically can't run the toaster oven and the stand mixer at the same time with normal operational stuff. I may well be in for tripping the breaker repeatedly until they bring in an electrician after all.

dave_the_nerd said:
Hmmm... I'd double check the max watts on the paper shredder. When they're overloaded, they can draw.

Googling, it looks like stand mixers can use a couple hundred watts and toaster ovens can actually draw 1000+. So be careful with those - I'd put them in the same "power hungry temporary things" list as the hair dryer and vacuum. (And the coffee pot)

Or just make toast on the stove.

The rest of the stuff you mentioned should be fine.

This might be useful.

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/usage_chart.html

You might want to just put the A/C unit on a timer. Make sure it's off when you're more likely to be doing other things.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Audit your apartment using a Kill A Watt along with the circuit breakers. Find out how much each electrical device uses as well as which outlets belong to which circuit, turning one breaker on at a time.

Also make sure the electricity meter is dead when everything is turned off. Apartment buildings are notorious for sh!tty wiring and inter-connecting different accounts as well as connecting building services to one's account, such as the hallway lights and other sh!t.
 
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