What does your house idle at?

[azdave]

I shut off / unplugged all non-essential electronics, set the HW tank to vacation mode and turned the central air / de-humidifier to 74 degrees (normally set to 68) for the duration. That left two refrigerators, a freezer, required electronics and a wine cooler running for the week

That's like a sub-idle situation if you unplugged all those electronics and set everything to un-occupied levels. I consider my idle to be what the home consumes when only the HVAC system is off. The HVAC varies substantially with the seasons but the rest of the loads are pretty much active 365 days a year. The refrigerator, freezer and the pool pump still need to run whether I'm home or not so I average the idle readings recorded over several days away to estimate my base idle which is 12kWh per day.

[Rade]

Interesting topic!

I have a hybrid solar rig that uses a battery backup for the house. I have the system set to use the array during the day to both power our home and charge the batteries. When the sun has set, the inverter will use the power in the batteries until depleted to a point, then switch over to grid power. I monitor the system through an app.

We recently went on vacation for a week, and before leaving, I shut off / unplugged all non-essential electronics, set the HW tank to vacation mode and turned the central air / de-humidifier to 74 degrees (normally set to 68) for the duration. That left two refrigerators, a freezer, required electronics and a wine cooler running for the week.

Our hourly power consumption never rose above 0.64kWh I will accept that as "Neutral" or "Idle" for our home. Regional humidity may have kicked the home AC/D-H to kick on a little more frequently.

Most pleasing was that, during the time we were away, the batteries were able to sustain our home through the entire nights, fullly recharging and supporting the house during the day.

[bcroe]

How does it hold up to running all the time and the temps?
How long have you been using it (w.r.t durability)? I know mine is pretty hot. Is
yours DC or AC unit, BTW?

I built this one around the 12VDC pump to be pretty electrical energy efficient.
Been running close to 2 decades here. There are LM135 temp sensors at the
water heater and the far end of the loop, a quad op amp LM324 converts each
signal to 1mv per degree F, and triggers the pump if the diifferential is too big,
with some hysteresis. A cheap 200mv meter selects reading either sensor
temp or the differential.

You can buy these systems, some cheap ones try to do it without a dedicated
return line. A check valve is needed to avoid a load like the clothes washer
affecting operation. Bruce Roe

[J.P.M.]

I'd suggest it might be helpful to define what "idle" and "vampire" loads are and so the difference between the two.

Since I haven't seen such a differentiation, I'd suggest that idling loads are what we may be aware of but choose to put up with for the sake of necessity, convenience or laziness - things like fridges, medical equipment monitors, outside security lights or lights that won't turn offer.
Vampire loads are what we're unaware of until we go looking for them - like things like appliances that suck bits of power when off, sort of like death from a thousand small cuts too small to notice.

The first one involves some choices in lifestyle. Finding the second ones is a matter of discovery and a little detective work probably only the more eccentric like Bruce and I go looking for because we've got too much time on our hands.

As far as using up any savings from eliminating unnecessary/unknown loads and burning through any savings, I use about 7,000 kWh/yr. and that's been pretty steady but dropping a few kWh/yr. since moving into this house in 2005, including about 1,000 - 1,200 kWh/yr. total for A/C depending on the weather.
I'd estimate I've reduced my vampire load total from about 200 W down to about 50 W or so.
The difference (200W - 50W) * (8,760 hr./yr.) = 1,314 kWh/yr. is about 18+% of the total usage and lower than my annual A/C load.

It's kind of spooky to me to think that in spite of all my miserly conservation efforts in addition to looking for and eliminating vampire loads that my annual usage has only managed to not go up.
I'll be damned if I can figure out how/where my usage stayed about the same in spite of eliminating approximately 1,000 - 1,300 kWh/yr. of vampire/idling and I don't know were the excess has come from.

[azdave]

The best way to calculate your idle electric consumption is to measure it with an electricity monitor or by consulting your electric bill. You should also make sure to switch off any unnecessary items or devices that may be drawing power from the grid, such as TVs and computers in standby mode. Doing so can help reduce your energy consumption and save you money on your electricity bills.

Such a revelation! Who knew you could calculate consumption with a monitor? This member's posts reminds me of those spammers who always come back later and edit commercial product links into their old posts in the hope that no one will notice.

I don't worry about vampire loads. I only have to set my A/C warmer by one degree (81 instead of 80) for a single summer day and will literally make up for months and months worth of idling appliances and wall warts. Even with a pool, our household uses far below the local and national averages when it comes to electricity and water and our home is well below the average size of a single family home in the US so I don't loose any sleep over vampire loads.

[darkskies]

bcroe Interesting to know - I haven't considered that. How does it hold up to running all the time and the temps? How long have you been using it (w.r.t durability)? I know mine is pretty hot. Is yours DC or AC unit, BTW?

[bcroe]

I've got pretty high usage compared to folks here. With three adults in a smallish (2100 sq ft) ranch), I see about 800-1000W steady state this time of year without furnace running.

Being a ranch, the second bathroom is far from the H/W tank, the house has a pump that runs to circulate hot water from to a point near that bathroom. The pump draws 54W and I'm thinking of just turning it off (my mom won't care, if there is a delay).

With a similar layout here, the water circulator is considered essential.
I am not a fan of cold showers, and do not care to spend time running
cold and warming water down the drain. I found a 12V circulator pump
that claims only 3W (I measure 5W). It works because there is not
rotating seal friction the motor must overcome. The rotor is in the water,
the mag field outside a copper cover. Also guarantees no leaks. A
sensor at the end triggers it as needed.

It still suffers loss of heat from the well insulated pipes. Needing a bit
of heat here the majority of the year, I consider it another heating
element, that is less efficient than my heat pumps. Solar covers it.
Bruce Roe

[darkskies]

I've got pretty high usage compared to folks here. With three adults in a smallish (2100 sq ft) ranch), I see about 800-1000W steady state this time of year without furnace running. I have some required electronics (like my wife's CPAP machine that runs all night, fridge and freezer), and being a software weenie, I've got servers, camera system, and numerous computers, some all the time.

However, I've been doing some work this year (our second year in this house) to check power consumption to see if there are some easy things to do to improve things. I have an inexpensive watts meter, and use my PV system's monitor for whole house numbers.

It's been an interesting exercise though. Here are some things that stood out:

• I have an old file server that is continually on, and it uses about 42W. I'm thinking of getting a newer system (likely a NUC) to reduce that usable.
• I have another development server that uses 87W, and with the laptop that I have now, I don't use it much. Turned it off, and am getting an IP controlled outlet to enable. May replace with a newer, low power unit.
• For my home theater system, there are three amps. Two are brand new and draw 3W, when off (they are triggered, by the surround system). One though, is very old and draw 157W when OFF! I'm going to use the same IP switch for this unit.
• Being a ranch, the second bathroom is far from the H/W tank, the house has a pump that runs to circulate hot water from to a point near that bathroom. The pump draws 54W and I'm thinking of just turning it off (my mom won't care, if there is a delay).
• Refrigerator uses 44W, and full sized freezer 49W.

I have some laser printers, several TVs, and other electrical items that I want to check, especially to see what they use when idle (or off). I want to get an understanding of the well, mini-split, furnace, and A/C units as well and may get something to monitor circuits. Most of are lighting is LED, there are some fluorescent bulbs.

Even though I have a PV system, I want to try to reduce any really bad consumption items.

[Annlodge12]

The best way to calculate your idle electric consumption is to measure it with an electricity monitor or by consulting your electric bill. You should also make sure to switch off any unnecessary items or devices that may be drawing power from the grid, such as TVs and computers in standby mode. Doing so can help reduce your energy consumption and save you money on your electricity bills.

[peakbagger]

Not sure of my numbers but I do have two security cams with built in IR illuminators that are on 24/7. I run a surplus so live with it but if I needed to reduce, they would probably get uplugged.

[GridWorks Green]

My solar system dumps most of the loads directly grid after hours but about 350 watts of electronics and lights run 24/7 on the new FET directly driven PV system. Internet, computers, lights.

Have recently improved after hours secondary seamless power support from 600 watts to 800 or 1200 watts.

Check main threads for all the details.

[J.P.M.]

Hello...i am new and on the hjnt for the vampire loads...so far mh house sits on about 500w static base load...which i cludes my cable modem, router , switch, nas, some phine chargers and such...
does anyone if you use per breaker hole house monitoring?
I was flirting with the emporia vue2 thing to monitor them all at once single by single

I don't. I chased and cut down vampire loads - that is, unknown loads vs. loads I know about but can't or choose not to do anything about - with a kill-a-watt meter and some meter reading.
Less the fridge, my idle load totals about 50-60 W with probably about 10-20 W of that unknown.
I believe Bruce has done something similar.

[darkyputz]

Hello...i am new and on the hjnt for the vampire loads...so far mh house sits on about 500w static base load...which i cludes my cable modem, router , switch, nas, some phine chargers and such...
does anyone if you use per breaker hole house monitoring?
I was flirting with the emporia vue2 thing to monitor them all at once single by single

[GridWorks Green]

Before my recent expansion to power the fridge and mini split the normal load was around 700 watts daily, none of the 240 volt things are on solar and the whole house is now operating at around 3000 watts full load.

[solarix]

300 to 400 watts at night, 8kW when the EV is charging.