20 Minutes for Monitors

Working in energy conservation, I frequently get the question “how long before I should turn my computer off?” People are wondering when it becomes most effective to turn your computer off for periods of time. Should you turn it off if you plan to be away for 15 minutes? 45 minutes? 3 hours? 24 hours? I’m here to give you the scoop.

However, before I go into the conservation part, let’s take a look at the technical one first. There are 2 parts to the majority of computers - the monitor and the tower. It’s much easier to turn the monitor on and off than it is to turn the actual computer. And knowing how much energy each one uses is important to answering this question. When thinking about turning your computer on and off, we need to assume that your computer and monitor are on a power strip. If not, the monitor and computer can draw ‘phantom load’ which means that the device is using energy, even when it’s not on. When your devices are plugged into the power strip and you turn the strip off, that means the computer and monitor are completely turned off.

According to the Department of Energy, the general rule of thumb is…

Turn off the monitor if you aren't going to use your PC for more than 20 minutes, but turn off both the CPU and monitor if you're not going to use your PC for more than 2 hours.

Also, the DOE mentions that most computers have a sleep mode.

Many PCs available today come with a power-down or sleep mode feature for the CPU and monitor. ENERGY STAR® computers power down to a sleep mode that consume 15 Watts or less power, which is around 70% less electricity than a computer without power management features. ENERGY STAR® monitors have the capability to power down into two successive "sleep" modes. In the first, the monitor energy consumption is less than or equal to 15 Watts, and in the second, power consumption reduces to 8 Watts, which is less than 10% of its operating power consumption.

It is important to note that the DOE does not consider screen savers to be energy savers. In fact, many screen savers can use more energy than not using one.

Fueling the Auto Industry with Electricity

A new type of vehicle is rolling off of production lines - one that is fueled by electricity. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are quickly becoming all the rage, with many wondering if their commuting lifestyle could be accommodated by a plug-in vehicle.

All eyes are on this new technology and Dominion is taking another step in supporting the arrival of plug-in electric vehicles. On January 31, Dominion proposed a pilot program which offers time-of-day pricing options to encourage off-peak charging of electric vehicles.

Dominion believes that the electric vehicle market has the potential to grow to 5% of all vehicle sales in our Commonwealth, for a total of 86,000 electric vehicles, by 2020. If everyone came home and plugged-in on peak, these vehicles could lead to an increase in the amount of peak-demand electricity that the company must supply.

Two experimental rate options are proposed and if approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the pilot program would offer reduced rates for overnight charging and higher rates during peak times to our Virginia customers.

These rates are:

• Electric Vehicle only - this option is for charging the electric vehicle only. A second meter would be installed and would measure the electricity used specifically for the electric vehicle. It could cost about 35 cents on this rate to re-fuel for the average 40 mile trip.
• Whole House - this option allows for the homeowner and electric vehicle owner to take advantage of lower prices for many household activities. The pricing would change during the day and night to encourage off-peak charging of electric vehicles and other elective household chores. It could cost about 33 - 41 cents on this rate to re-fuel for the average 40 mile trip.

You can learn more about what Dominion is doing on our website.

Red, Pink, White…Green?????

Walking into your local store, it is probably pretty easy to guess what holiday is upon us. Red heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, plastic roses, stuffed animals that make cute little noises…etc. etc.

Every year it seems like they’ve added more useless stuff to the current pile of junk we will buy in the spirit of the holiday but never use.

Example - One year I received a teddy bear on a swing with a pink puff paint heart. I remember thinking, not only does this scare me, but what the heck am I going to do with this?

What about giving a gift that is not only useful (and yummy), but doesn’t add to the landfills?

This year, make your special someone or your friends (Singles Awareness Day!) an environmentally-friendly dinner.

For starters, be green by eating greens! Load up on fresh ingredients- try to use locally grown and in season fruits and veggies.

For your main course, try making a hearty one-pot dish like Vegetable Soup or Beef Stew. Use more locally grown veggies, and if you want to add meat, use local, organic grass-fed beef.

Leave the oven off tonight by making a no-bake dessert. The Energy Conservation Team’s favorite is listed below- it will taste like you baked for hours! Enjoy!

Chocolate Éclair Delight

• 1 box of graham crackers
• 1 big box of instant vanilla pudding- prepared as directions on box
• 1 container cool whip
• 1 container chocolate frosting

Arrange graham crackers on bottom of 13x9 pan covering entire bottom. Whip cool whip and prepared pudding together on top of graham crackers. Add another layer of crackers and pudding mixture and, lastly, top with graham crackers. Microwave the container of frosting for 10 seconds or so (you want to melt it until you can pour it). Pour the chocolate icing on top of your graham crackers. Place in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Mythbusters, Should you keep the lights on?

The other night I was flipping through the channels (on my energy efficient TV) and stumbled on one of my favorite shows, Mythbusters.

Mythbusters is one of those shows I stop on, watch, flip during the commercials, but always come back to see if the myths being testing are BUSTED, PLAUSIBLE, or CONFIRMED.

The episode that was on was called “22,000-Foot Fall”, which originally aired in December 2006. In this episode, they were testing multiple myths, but one that caught my attention was a popular energy conservation myth:

Myth: Leaving a light on will save electricity.

The Mythbusters crew, led by Jamie, tests this popular myth. The myth followers believe it takes more energy to turn the bulb back on each time you turn it on, and the surge is so great, that you should keep the light on - all of the time.

Jamie and his team created an inductive current loop, which captures and measures how much current is going through the wires to turn the light bulb on (the surge), and how much energy it consumes while turned on.

They had a inductive current loop set up and generated the tests of a 90W incandescent bulb, a 10W CFL, a 70W halogen bulb, and a 1W LED bulb.

Furthermore, they brought up the concern about turning the light on and off will shorten the life of the bulb. What’d they do? They set up a system that turned each light on and off every 2 minutes for 6 weeks straight! That’s a lot of on and offs!

So, what’s the verdict? Is it more effective to keep the lights on, or to turn them off? Will it wear the bulb out?

Verdict: BUSTED!

According to Wikipedia, “The MythBusters calculated that the power surge from turning on a light would only consume as much power as leaving it on for a fraction of a second (except for fluorescent tube lights; the startup consumed about 23 seconds' worth of power). Furthermore, the wear and tear of turning the light on and off repeatedly did not reduce the bulb's total life expectancy enough to offset the increased electricity usage. Therefore, it is far more economical to turn a light off rather than leaving it on.”