I compared my last year's usage and costs to this year's (Jan 2007-Sept 2007 vs Jan 2008-Sept 2008)
A savings of $724.20 and 1957 KWHs. 15% reduction is usage 24% reduction in cost. In 2008 total costs have been less then $200.
Finished my light switch occupancy sensor project I have one more switch and one remote sensor left but, I am not sure where I am going to put it yet. Now approximately 2/3s of my lights are auto shutoff.
I am not sure what else I can do with the lights to help.
Aaron
Nice postings, How much and what type of switches do you buy?
Posted by: McCheap | November 07, 2008 at 10:54 AM
I used the Leviton’s IPP15-1LW Decora Occupancy Sensors.
I started with 10 and then bought 8 more.
Shop around prices vary a lot the first group of 10 was bought on Ebay for less then $10 each. They latter ones were bought for less then $25 each.
Aaron
Posted by: Aaron Baranoff | November 07, 2008 at 06:26 PM
Thanks, I just bought one at homedepot for $25. It is the one with one button to turn on the lights and will auto turnoff after 30 minutes if unoccupied. It does not have any adjustment to set your own shut off time. Did yours? I also bought a kill a watt gadget to measure the wattage usage arount the house. My one year old frig uses 2.6 KW-hours a day, so roughly .25 cents a day to operate. I will post what I measure for my other power hungry things around my house.
Posted by: McCheap | November 11, 2008 at 02:58 PM
Mine has an adjustment. If yours is the same it is under a panel between the IR sensor and the switch button.
Note: One pull it off after you have the cover plate over the switch removed otherwise there is not enough room to pull it off.
Posted by: Aaron Baranoff | November 11, 2008 at 09:28 PM
I just pulled of the little panel on mine and it does not have any adjustments or dip switches. I guess that is okay, 30 minutes seems to be fine. How many minutes do you have your switches set for? I just checked my garage fridge (10 year old unit) and after 215 hours it used 20.85 KW-Hours- averaging 2.3 KW-hours a day. Better than my newer kitchen fridge which was 2.6. Both my fridges are 25 Cubic FT side/ side. Even tho my fridge in the garage is older it does not get open nearly as often, which I guess makes the most difference.
Posted by: McCheap | November 11, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Many are set at the default 30 minutes some are set at 5 minutes (bathroom vanities - lots of lights).
My garage one is newer then my in-house one and is a top bottom and is energy star and slightly smaller.
Posted by: Aaron Baranoff | November 12, 2008 at 09:26 PM
I was just figuring out how much I would save by installing these switches. If the switch controls 250 watts of lights and saves 1 hour of on time a day, it would take 1000 days to get my $25 back.
Posted by: McCheap | November 13, 2008 at 01:31 PM
The pay back depends on where you live and the cust of electricy. Here in southern California electricity is expensive plus the cost of the light is only part of the issue the cost cooling because of the heat generated by the lights are also a factor.
Aaron
Posted by: Aaron Baranoff | November 13, 2008 at 11:18 PM
My electric rates are not too bad, 8 cents kWH under baseline, 12.5 cents kWH over base line. plus all the misc charges. Total paid divided by total used comes out to 13.9 cents kWH. Measured computer usage. while surfing the net it uses 80 watts, when computer is put on standby 52 watts (more than I would of thought). When I put the computer on hibernation is used only 6 watts.
Posted by: McCheap | November 14, 2008 at 03:02 PM
By comparison our highest rate is almost 31 cents/KWH and our average is 20.9 cents per KWH last month. Hence our payoff is about 400 days.
Posted by: Aaron Baranoff | November 14, 2008 at 05:32 PM