With the introduction of the carbon tax in Australia, it has become quite clear that the cost is passed to the consumer in terms of energy costs (Electricity and Gas).
I unfortunately live in a rental property that is the only house in the block with no gas connection. No exaggeration. Origin were surprised when they had no gas meter on record.
So this means I’m stuck with an inefficient electric water heater that guzzles power.
No solar panel for me to offset the electricity cost either.
After the recent hike in energy prices, I decided to purchase two wall socket smart power meters. One to connect to my lounge entertainment system and one for my spare “beer” fridge in the shed.
The particular meter I bought was this one.
http://steplight.com.au/education/monitor-energy/plug-in-electricity-power-meter/
I connected up the meter to my entertainment system and put everything on standby.
Power draw was about 23W.
I then powered each part of my entertainment system up individually to get an idea of much they use when on.
Xbox 360 (On the dashboard)- 70W
PS3 (On the dashboard) – 70W
ASUS Netbook on AC Charger – 15W
Boxee Box – 15W
Panasonic LCD TV – 70W
DroboFS (5 x 2TB Drives) – 55W
I generally turn the TV off at the plug, although I was surprised that it only drew 25W on standby. I was also surprised the TV only drew 70W or so when on.
The Xbox and PS3 seem to draw almost the exact same amount of power at idle. I imagine they draw more when you play a game.
The big surprise for me was the amount of power the DroboFS draws. I generally leave this on all the time! Well no more. I’ll turn it off when not in use now. Sure that may hammer the drives, but they have a warranty,
If you work out the cost of just the Drobo on it’s own, idling for a year, it comes out at anything between $90 and $144 a year (depending on the peak cost bracket you get to). That’s insane.