A Different Drummer: I sing the house electric

We have been receiving monthly letters from PG&E that say, “Shame on you.” Apparently, we are using more electricity than average homes. This year we are doing something about that. We have already put on a new metal roof, had all our attic vents replaced, new insulation blown in, and a Next thermostat installed.
In addition, I purchased a Kill A Watt detector from P3 International and worked my way around the house plugging it into various appliances. I programmed in Benicia’s cost per kilowatt hour of $.1559 and the Kill A Watt tells me exactly what each device cost per day, week, month, and year.
Here are some of my meaningless findings. Our 45-year-old washing machine would cost us $264 per year, if it ran all the time, which it doesn’t. My Joker Poker pinball machine from 1978 would cost $72.37 a year if I left it on, and my Tommy (1994) would cost $197 a year if it ran non-stop. I don’t.
Here are some significant findings. Our kitchen refrigerator cost $4.51 per month or $54.95 per year. Compare that to the old, used garage refrigerator for storing craft beer that I bought for $25 on Craigslist from a guy in Vallejo who didn’t want to cart it to the dump. That grizzly bear is costing me $14.10 a month, or $171 per year. I’m shopping for an alternative.
We also have a top-loading freezer in the garage that costs us $40.20 a year so we can save grocery money by buying bulk from Costco.
Some of the above dollar amounts may be suspect. They may be too high. The Kill A Watt says that the longer I leave it plugged into a device, the more accurate the reading will be. They said a mouthful. I did all my original readings in one day, leaving the meter plugged in for about one hour per appliance. Then I ran a longer test.
The original one-hour reading on my top-loading freezer said I was spending $174 a year. So, I left the meter plugged all the next day, and the amounts dropped. So I left it plugged in for 25 more days, or 605 hours, and took the reading again just now. After a 605-hour test, my top-load freezer is only costing $40.20 a year. So if you buy one of these Kill A Watt devices it could take several months of record keeping to get accurate measurements.
One thing it did make evident is how many of my small appliances leak electricity when turned off simply by being plugged in. I found leaks in my coffee pot, coffee grinder, blender, juicer, and lamps. You don’t need to buy a Kill A Watt to know to pull the plugs on power strips on small devices.
Our March usage is down close to the average home according to the analysis tools at pge.com. We hope it’s an ongoing downward trend.
Electricity problems have been haunting me in other current ways. Someone offered us a brand-new free clothes dryer that was given to them that they didn’t need. We accepted it and got rid of our ever-reliable 45-year old GE dryer, which we’d been clinging to because we don’t trust new appliances. A week after installing the new dryer, it lost heat. It kept spinning, but no heat. We called a dryer repairman who after a close $20-inspection told me, “There’s nothing wrong with your dryer. The problem is in your home electrical wiring.”
About the same time our hot tub stopped working. It was running fine, I drained it, refilled it, and when I flipped the breaker, the panel lights flashed for a few seconds and powered off. I tried again and again by flipping the breaker. Each time I got only a flash of numbers. I called a hot-tub repairmen who after a close $97-inspection told me, “There is nothing wrong with your hot time. The problem is in your home electrical wiring.”
About that time a panel of four electrical outlets in our kitchen went mysteriously dead. Arg. This is where we charge phones and plug in crockpots.
I called Brian, a former student, who wired my hot tub. He found the tub’s dedicated backyard breaker had fried. It’s buried under some clinging geraniums and likely a geranium vine slipped inside the housing during the heavy rains and arced a spark.
I called Evan Carr of Easy Jobs Electric, a parent of former students, to troubleshoot our dryer problem. He found a worn-out 45-year-old breaker in our main panel and replaced it.
Now everything works again. Even the kitchen outlets mysteriously came back on.
I still have one more electronic hurdle ahead of me. I’m trying to Bluetooth my Samsung Smart TV because these fancy new wide-screen televisions have crappy sound because the whole front is dedicated to screen and neat lines, and the speakers are point directly downward into nowhere, leaving me with one good ear across the room straining to hear and squinting to read the subtitles.
I bought both a Bluetooth transmitter and a Bluetooth receiver. I plan to connect the transmitter to my television and the receiver to my old stereo receiver that is mounted in our front hall closet with eight pairs of speakers around the house and yard. I’m hoping I can get my television audio blaring in full stereo so that I can finally hear it.
Mostly, I just want to go fishing.