electrical consumption

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knabe

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Feb 7, 2007
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13,639
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Hollister, CA
here's an interesting graph highlighting electrical consuption.  not really saying we don't need to improve cars, but that buildings seem to be a big draw for energy.  more and more i see motion detectors for light switches at workplaces.

After a little tinkering around, we discovered that each of our large copier/printers consume between 100 & 150 watts each while waiting for use. With 5 appliances in place, that amounts to over 5kw needlessly consumed each night! Our solution was to place the printers on timers. This single addition saves us 1.8 megawatt hours annually in consumption.

how many copiers are left on 24/7 in the US?

this graph to me represents the opportunity for passive solar design and geothermal.
 

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vc

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Jul 24, 2007
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So-Cal
UC Davis is working on this very issue. The theory is that it would be allot cheaper and faster to reduce wasted energy from buildings than it would be to create new ways to produce green energy. In Europe the hotels and other like establishments have motion sensors in the hallways and bathrooms, hallways do not light up until you enter them and as soon as you leave they go dark again. I think they said with different lights and sensors they can cut somewhere between 40 to 60 percent of the energy use in buildings.
 

linnettejane

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Mar 6, 2008
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Location
eastern ky
not sure if this is exactly what you are talking about, but thought it was neat....there's a new walmart in our area and there are probably 3- 4 rows of frozen food/freezer section...well the lights are off in the freezers until you start walking down the isle....as you walk by they come on and a few seconds after you are past they go back off.... and they also have tons of skylights in the ceiling.....i was noticing that it didn't seem quite as glaring white bright as the other walmarts i had been in and when i looked up i could see the cloudy sky!  they had put in big square skylights throughout the whole store...of course they have the lights on at night or if it gets too cloudy during the day.....pretty neat i thought....
 
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