Hey it's David from the redneck garage working on cleaning out the garage there's a big surprise
me and I came across something that I bought a while ago called the Kill A Watt and I thought
it would be interesting if we talk today a little bit about electricity remember when
you were a kid your parents said stupid stuff to you like every time you turn on and off
a light switch it cost a nickel today were going to debunk why that isn't really true
hahaha that was cleaning out the garage I found my Kill A Watt which is a meter and
it's got a lot of cool features on it that we're going to go over but basically what
it's going to do is it's going to tell much power something uses and then from that we
can kind of gauge on how much it cost that's helpful because this week I kept telling my
kids to turn off their lights in their rooms when they left and I thought to myself wonder
how much it really cost when they leave a light on all day weather in school and I come
home and the lights are still on so we're going to answer that question and how much
is coming out of your pocket every week when your kids can't turn a stinking light ball
off this is your electric meter it is not your friend hahaha look at that thing spinning
what is going on with that okay let's take a look how the Kill A Watt works it has a
lot of different measurements right now it's measuring 122.4 volts it will also tell you
the amps there is no amp draw on it right now because there's nothing plugged into it
what should be 00 on the voltage Hertz 59 hertz whatever that one is I don't know there's
your kilowatts per hour and a timer okay so I'm going to plug in the fluorescent light
and we're going to take a look now I'm looking at the fluorescent light and one thing about
lighting is it is a constant draw it's not like it goes up or goes down so I don't have
to be concerned about measuring the kilowatts per hour because that's basically for something
that has different variables and you're doing it over time because you can't figure out
how much it is using all I really need to know is the wattage okay and I'm going to
show you how to figure that out in just a minute but for instance 28 what is what this
fluorescent bulb set is using okay 28 Watts constant 28 once so that's cool that's all
I need to remember at this moment now let's say I want to look at my new LED shop light
which is super cool super bright and I measure it and its plugged in its taking up 46 watts
so it actually use more power than the fluorescent which I did not know I thought it would be
more energy efficient but because of the number of LEDs it uses more than that fluorescent
bulbs themselves I'm going to take my fluorescent bulb which is one of the bigger ones I'm going
to plug it in and see what it actually does so we'll plug this in
the fluorescent bulb takes 23 wants and we've got one more test to do before we move on
to deciphering part this is the old standby this is what we grew up with this is what
everybody used up until the advent of the compact fluorescent bulbs that are probably
mercury Laden and kill you if they break and all that but this is a 60 watt bulb what what
did you say a 60 watt bulb maybe there is a clue in there we're going to go ahead and
plug this in to our light and there it is and how many watts do you think a 60 watt
bulb would pull 61 whites so there you go that's kind of the deal on that balm okay
so we have our numbers off of our appliances next thing you have to figure out is what
you are being charged for electricity when I went to Middle Tennessee Electric Membership
Corporation to look up the kilowatts per hour see what you are paying every month right
it said we had some of the lowest rates in the US and its from TVA you know some of our
powers done by hydroelectric couple of nuclear plants but anyway I was surprised to find
out that my electric green was 8.46 Evans per kilowatt our then the more interesting
thing in is when I started looking up other areas of the country there is a huge variance
Electrical pricing in the United States of America truthfully where do you think the
highest would be that's right California where all those green freaks are right we've got
to save money we can't have a power plant don't make any nuclear yeah well they're paying
for it all the growth they've had in California and they don't build power plants jacks up
the price of their energy that's right it's just tears them up let's just say 8.5 for
all intents and purposes here in Franklin Tennessee I'm paying 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour
you move to Los Angeles your average is going to be 22.3 cents per kilowatt hour in the
United States where do you think the highest cost for electricity would be Hawaii 37.
3 on average can you imagine what our electric bill would be in Hawaii holy crap you would
not want to do anything out there average across the United States is 11.88 per kilowatt
hour so there you go so I've got my number the 8.5 roughly and I'm going to do some figuring
on this if my child left his light on 45 hours how much would it cost me on the different
lights so we'll go through that in just a second so I am just going to the Internet
an this is rapidtables.com you can go anywhere you want that has tables basically so watts
to kilowatt hours are calculator which is super cool okay so we're going to put the
power and the Watts will just say the fluorescent light first and that is 28 watts is what it
was pulling right and let's just use as an example of just one hour cuz that will give
us a base and our number is going to be this is math 2028 now I'm going to go ahead and
figure out the rest of them optimal wattage figures and then I'll be back okay so I'm
all done with my figures and I have my result just one quick note on the Kill A Watt the
way we used it today was just looking at the Watts of how many watts it takes if you really
wanted to get an idea of let's say you want to know how much power your kid is using with
his TV and Xbox and everything else you could put a power strip in here and hit on 20 Wow
and hit it on kilowatts per hour and then give it a measure like a week and it would
pretty much tell you how much you burn during that week because that's a variable
but with lighting constant okay so here's the figures on the lighting an incandescent
bulb if you rent it for five hours a day for 30 days would run you $0.78 if it was an LED
or compact fluorescent really it would be $0.30 a day the fluorescent bar out in the
garage would be $0.36 a day and the LED light bar would be $0.59 wow so the other thing
that's really amazing if you compared Franklin Tennessee to Los Angeles California where
are the free liberals are can't have a gun have to be green people live I would be paying
$0.30 at the end of the month and they would be paying $0.79 so you can imagine what their
electric bills must look like after a month compared to mine what that would tell me is
the South rules haha so if your kid leave the light on in his room once then you know
it's not that bad but what that does tell you is that you need to be looking at all
your lights and try to bring them out as much as possible and that will reduce energy usage
but the true energy savings is this boys and girls your number one user of electricity
in your home is what your HVAC unit if you can turn your thermostat up during the summer
and down during the winter you'll save money the second largest user of electricity in
your home is what any guesses your water heater so he had three teenagers and their in the
shower taking a 2 hour shower until all the hot water is gone your pain at the butt for
hot water so you need to start shutting that down that will save you a lot of money and
in the third highest cost of electricity the third-largest is refrigeration refrigerators
freezers things like that then everything else falls in between if you get one of these
kill a watt you can go back through and you can see kind of experiment on what is the
biggest energy user in your home Mine is teenagers I'm pretty sure hahaha hope you enjoyed it
today you know what we just hit 1200 subscribers and I just wanted to take a second to say
thank you foe being a subscriber of the Redneck Garage appreciate it.
It's been fun so far we'll just keep on keepin on keep turning wrenches