We are electric powered. We wake to a clock radio. We go to the kitchen and switch on the light, the coffee maker and the radio. We take the jam from the fridge and the bagel from the toaster. We think of supper and grab food from the freezer to thaw. We take the cell phone from the charger and head outside where we unplug the car’s block heater or head to the station to take the light rail to work.
Streetlights and traffic signals assist our trip. At work, we turn on lights, computers, welders and medical equipment. We put our lunch in the fridge and later microwave it.
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At the end of the work day, we head home and turn on the electric stove to cook supper. We turn up the heat or the air conditioner. We take the cordless phone off the charger and return the calls from the answering machine.
We move the clothes from the washer to the electric clothes dryer. Ambitious, we get out the electric iron. To make the job less boring, we turn on the television and the video recorder that recorded shows when we were away.
Before we head for bed, we turn on the dishwasher and reload the coffee maker for the morning.
Electricity is everywhere, from static electricity in the cat’s hair to the field of influence between two magnets.
However, electricity as we know it began when Thomas Edison created an electric generator in New York in 1882. It is less than 130 years old and we are lost without it.
Like love, we are often only aware of the importance of electricity when it is denied to us. A protracted power failure finally makes us notice how important it is to our lives.
Electricity seems straightforward to us in the developed world. We plug things in and they work. At our end of the cord, there are no emissions and use is 100 percent efficient.
However, there is more to it than meets the plug.
Electricity is typically generated far away from where it is consumed. Diesel, nuclear, coal fired, natural gas fired generators, hydro-electric dams and wind turbines all feed the grid.
Each has its own negative characteristics, such as radiation and disposal issues, carbon dioxide and other emissions. These all disrupt ecosystems in some way.
Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories produce relatively clean hydropower for at least 70 percent of their consumption.
Other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, rely heavily on less-clean coal power for about two-thirds of their electricity.
And then there are the high-voltage transmission lines that make footprints across the countryside to take power from point of generation to point of consumption.
Electricity is often explained using water, which is a reasonable analogy. Electrical wire is likened to a hose, volts are compared to water pressure, amps to water flow and the watts to litres. Watts are considered a description of power, essentially what gets accomplished.
The equation for electrical power is volts x amps = watts. An average household circuit is 110 volts and is controlled by a 15 amp circuit breaker, which means it is capable of delivering 1,650 watts.
An average toaster or kettle takes about 1,500 watts, so it is easy to see why adding anything else to that circuit causes the breaker to trip.
On the other hand, a light bulb may take only 20 to 100 watts, so many of them can be used on one circuit.
An electric clothes drier uses 220 volts and a 30 amp breaker, which means it can use a maximum of 6,600 watts. Similar consumption occurs with an electric stove.
It is easy to see which loads are minor and which are not. Nevertheless, do not discount the power consumption of small appliances.
Power consumption for an individual appliance is measured in watts, but electrical bills mention only kilowatt hours, which is watt-hours x 1,000.
A typical household uses 15 to 25 kilowatt hours per day and significantly higher if there is an electric furnace or electric baseboard heaters.
Reaching 25,000 watt hours per day requires a lot of electrical use.
Our daily consumption is made up of all those things that we ask electricity to do: electric toothbrushes, interior car warmers, unnecessary lights and block heaters that are on all night.
There are also phantom loads: idle phone chargers, digital clocks and standby video equipment. They relentlessly consume power, hour after hour, day after day, and many of
them can be reduced or eliminated by the judicious use of switched receptacles or power bars.
There is often a disconnect between using electricity and knowing our electrical consumption. In fact, most of us never see the electrical meter because it is read by a third party.
Power consumption drops by 25 percent when power providers install total house meters with inhouse monitors. Knowledge leads to action.
We can rethink new electrical appliances and whether we really need them. If we do, we can make sure they are Energy Star rated.
We can educate ourselves by using a power meter to document electrical draws for existing electrical devices. The meter is plugged into a receptacle, an appliance is plugged into the meter and the meter shows the electrical draw.
The more sophisticated versions have a memory and can calculate the electrical rate per kWhr to determine the cost of operating that appliance.
A whole house meter is also available to measure total power consumption with wireless connection to a monitor screen mounted inside the building.
Some even have computer connections so that information can be tracked over time.
Our use of electricity has become ubiquitous, but it need not be mindless. Maybe someday we will choose to invest in renewable energy such as photovoltaic or wind power. But in the meantime, living consciously can mean living conscientiously.
Will Oddie is a renewable energy, sustainable building consultant with a lifetime interest in energy conservation. To contact Oddie, send e-mail to energyfield@producer.com .
