So, after being inspired by Ted Turner’s keynote at the Solar Conference in Long Beach (he swears he runs around his giant ranch house turning off lights that people leave on) I decided to tighten up World HQ.
Previously, I’ve left the kitchen lights on much of the day, knowing they were low-wattage flourescents, but a quick audit revealed 6 fixtures each rated at 15 Watts. 90 Watts an hour from around 6 AM to 10 PM or so is more than a kilowatt used, and the lights are really only needed during the dark hours of the day.
So now they stay off much of the day – and with PG&E’s ‘marginal rate’ for power (charged much of the day this past summer) at $.45 per kilowatt – that can mount up. We have CFLs almost everywhere now, as well, or low wattage-low voltage work-area lights – 3 fixtures @ 20W each as seen above. We’ve also taken a rack of computers in the garage off-line and are reviewing the other CPUs for optimal ’sleep’ strategies…Â
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That’s the spirit. There seems to have been a real fashion in this country in the past few years for putting in loads and loads of lights. The costs scare me.
Next will be our own solar array… at $.45/kilowatt solar is viable….
Chris, how do you properly dispose of CFLs? Historically, you weren’t supposed to put flourescents in the trash. So, how do we dispose of these heavy metal carriers without transferring pollution from the atmosphere to the land and the water?