Another brief update: oddly both the Sense and Smappee were reading about the same total consumption level, but when I was looking at some individual circuits and devices I couldn't reconcile the numbers. So I took pictures of the meter over the course of a few days and it turns out both devices were only reading ~1/3 of the real load. The Sense because the clamps couldn't close all the way on the main 400a line and the Smappee for some other reason (I suspect it's set to 3 phase incorrectly or somesuch - their tech support is trying to figure out why). So, while disappointing, that means my bogie isn't what I thought, but it's still a bill that should be in the range of $3k to $5k (depending on summer A/C) vs the $6k I've actually been getting.
Had one big surprise and one wakeup call; there is a fume hood over the range which is silent and vents to a spinning fan in the roof. You can't tell if it's on or not. As it turns out though, it consumes 3,000W when it's on, which is 1 out of every 4-5 minutes. It probably also takes heat out of the house and causes the furnace/ac to work harder. So disconnecting that at the breaker is worth it. I'll switch it off and see if anyone notices. The wake up came as I saw my chandeliers in dining and kitchen running real-time on my sense app. All in they are about 1000W when on. Those are going to LED bulbs. They already would be but I don't like the asthetics of the candelabra bulbs with the half-plastic base. I found out now they have the filament style now so problem solved - have them on order to ship next week. Other LED bulb will cut another chunk, and switching off the broken security cameras and related computer is another chunk while not compromising my security system.
So all in maybe 10,000kwh per year savings with guesstimate hours of consumption, or about what I was hoping for.
The next challenge is the appliances; hard to compare the existing ones to what the latest and greatest in that space are doing energy wise. That said, since they're all about 15 years old, and expensive to replace when I don't otherwise have to, I suspect only the two refrigerators run often enough that you'd make up the savings for it to make sense to replace them.
Had one big surprise and one wakeup call; there is a fume hood over the range which is silent and vents to a spinning fan in the roof. You can't tell if it's on or not. As it turns out though, it consumes 3,000W when it's on, which is 1 out of every 4-5 minutes. It probably also takes heat out of the house and causes the furnace/ac to work harder. So disconnecting that at the breaker is worth it. I'll switch it off and see if anyone notices. The wake up came as I saw my chandeliers in dining and kitchen running real-time on my sense app. All in they are about 1000W when on. Those are going to LED bulbs. They already would be but I don't like the asthetics of the candelabra bulbs with the half-plastic base. I found out now they have the filament style now so problem solved - have them on order to ship next week. Other LED bulb will cut another chunk, and switching off the broken security cameras and related computer is another chunk while not compromising my security system.
So all in maybe 10,000kwh per year savings with guesstimate hours of consumption, or about what I was hoping for.
The next challenge is the appliances; hard to compare the existing ones to what the latest and greatest in that space are doing energy wise. That said, since they're all about 15 years old, and expensive to replace when I don't otherwise have to, I suspect only the two refrigerators run often enough that you'd make up the savings for it to make sense to replace them.
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