Abstract—The price of residential electricity is soaring. We must find an effective way to cut down the energy usage. I developed an effective procedure to measure the real-time power usage pattern and the annual utility cost to charge my electronic gadgets. After understanding the electric usage pattern, I developed actionable energy-saving steps to lower my household electricity consumption and utility bills. This project was based on a real-life experiment; not on the wattage or electricity usage specifications from device manufactures’ catalog. We found that most manufactory electrical usage specifications are over-optimistic and very conservative. For example, HP claimed that their LaserJet Pro 400 M401dn only use 570 watts while printing; actually it used 30% more, i.e., 750 watts. By changing our family behaviors and life style, we can reduce our electric consumption up to 40%, i.e. over $1,200, per year.
Index Terms—Measure utility, utility management, utility saving.
Angela Liu is with Polytechnic School, Pasadena, CA 91106 USA (e-mail: Angela.ch.liu@gmail.com).
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Cite:Angela Liu, "Residential Utility Management," Journal of Clean Energy Technologies vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 78-82, 2015.
