 | Mike Goebel
has been involved in the construction and home improvement industry for more than 40 years and is currently the Senior Vice President of the Home Center Division at Star Lumber & Supply Co. Inc. You may contact Mike by e-mail at mgoebel@starlumber.com or by phone at (316) 942-2221. |
Home Improvement
2003-07-01 10:56:00
'Watt's' it going to cost?
: How much does it cost to leave a light or an electric appliance on or running as opposed to shutting it off?
ANSWER: That's a great question and one more people should know and understand the answer. I have a rule of thumb that says it costs about a dollar per watt for the electricity to operate an electrical device all year. So, it costs $75 to burn a 75-watt light bulb all year. It costs $150 to leave a 150-watt computer turned on all year.If this is enough information for you, you can stop here. If you're a glutton for punishment, let me give you a few more tidbits that may help you. The amount of money pouring into the air while you leave electrical gadgets on creeps up on you over time. For making tradeoff decisions on the spur of the moment I find it useful to be able to quickly estimate how much electrical devices cost to operate. I use a quick rule of thumb to figure out how much I'm paying to operate these devices, as well as shortcuts you can use to make quick cost tradeoffs. Again, a device costs about $1 per watt if it's left on all year. So, it costs $100 to leave a 100-watt bulb on for a year, plus the cost of light bulbs. If you turn it off in the daytime it will cost you half that, or $50 a year. Several of my neighbors have 2 or 3 dual 150 watt flood lights they leave on all night. This costs them three to four hundred dollars a year. 2 bulbs x 150 watts = 300 watts. 300 watts x 2 fixtures = 600 watts600 watts x $1 per watt = $600Night only ==> $600 ÷ 2 = $300 a year for 2 dual floods left on all night You could pay an extra $10 apiece and get the motion activated kind that only operate a fraction of the time even with the neighbor's cat triggering them occasionally. I estimate it costs about $30-$50 a year for 2 dual fixtures (4-150 watt bulbs). Say they're on for an hour a day… (most liberal). That's one-twelfth the neighbor's on time. Say one-tenth for easy arithmetic. So, mine costs about one-tenth of my neighbor's $300, or about $30 a year. I saved the extra cost of the motion-activated feature in the first month of operation. This of course does not consider the issue of whether motion activated or continuously on security lights give greater security. One of these neighbors told me, "I bought 3 because they were so cheap. I got all three for only $36. At that price I'm thinking about getting a couple more for my daughter." If she does, they'll be paying about $900 a year to operate them all, and giving her daughter an expensive gift -- expense for her daughter, that is.Still wanting more? Read on. If you have two computers that are turned on 16 hours a day, every day, including printers and other peripherals, they use about 500 watts. This will cost about $333 a year:500 watts = $50016 hours is 2/3 of the day (16 ÷ 24).
