I have a P3 Kill A Watt power meter. I’m fascinated by how much energy my devices take up. Here are the results of my testing. Dollar values are based on my electricity rate: $0.0836 per KWH.
- Digital Picture Frame: 20-22 Watts during boot, 19 Watts after the drive stops spinning. ($15 for a year of 24×7 usage)
- Christmas Tree Lights: 280 Watts ($15 for 16 hours a day, 40 days).
- HP Pavilion ze4900 laptop, not charging the battery, sitting idle, screen on: 22-23 watts ($16 for a year of 24×7 idle time usage)
- Compaq nc6220 laptop, not charging the battery, sitting idle, screen on: 33 watts
- Compaq nc6220 laptop, not charging the battery, sitting idle, screen off: 28-29 watts
- AV Rack (with TV, Receiver: Kenwood VR-7070, VCR, CD Changer, DVD player, PS2 and Gamecube) while all components are “off”: 18 Watts, or $13 per year.
- AV Rack (above) while receiver is on, listening to the radio at normal volumes: 78 watts. Therefore the receiver alone is drawing 60 watts while on. At high volume levels, the receiver will draw 130-140 watts, varying greatly with the level of bass in the music (I don’t use a powered sub-woofer).
- AV Rack (above) watching a DVD (TV, receiver, and DVD player on): 233 watts. Therefore watching the complete Lord of the Rings Extended version DVDs would cost $0.15.
- AV Rack just watching TV: 160-164 watts.
- Washing machine: 0.22KWh per large load, or $0.02 per load. This does not include the power required to heat the water.
Please add comments below with your measurements using the P3 Kill-a-Watt!
Today, Nathan won his first Cub Scout race. This is his third year in scouts, and he’s done pretty well so far: 2nd and 4th in the pine wood derby, 3rd in a regatta. But this is the first official First Place. He won the pack Rain Gutter Regatta. The regatta starts with a balsa wood sailboat kit given to the kids a few weeks before the race. The kids and parents then assemble, modify and paint the boat as they like. The boat is then placed in a rain gutter with both ends capped, and the boys race the boats by blowing through straws at the sails.
Last year, Nathan’s friend Dante won the regatta with a new (to our pack) boat design. His father had helped him turn the standard sailboat shape into a catamaran. Dante won easily last year because the catamaran solved all the weaknesses of the standard design: it was more stable, it tracked straighter, and it wasn’t top heavy.
I liked the design so much, this year I went searching for plans, and found one I liked. It wasn’t hard to build. Nathan did a majority of the cutting and sanding. I glued the pieces together, and he put on all the paint. The only deviation from the design is that I had to use the mast. Our pack didn’t like that Dante’s sail was attached directly to the boat, and so they made a rule that the sail cannot be attached directly to the hull of the boat. So we cut the mast in half, and made it double masted for more stability.
This year, Nathan won every heat, and beat Dante (with a new catamaran) in the finals. Fortunately they were both absolutely ecstatic to finish 1-2.
We pray for peace, we pray for rain
And now we pray for John McCain
We pray with everything we’ve got
And once again… it won’t do squat.
I’m not sure if this guy wrote it, but he posted it in a comment on a blog I read, so I’ll give him some credit. He very well might have since he’s got quite a bit of other original poetry on his blog.
Updated: See comment below. Digital Cuttlefish wrote this. Thanks for sharing!
For the third year in a row, we’ve gone to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. I’ve found it interesting in the past, but this year I’ve finally come to realize that not much changes year-to-year. For example, the main performers: Daniel Duke of Danger, The Mudde Show, and the Washing Wenches have all been the same act every time we’ve been. For example, compare these two shots from the Mudde Show: 2006 vitctim, 2008 victim. In fact, the 2008 victim was so prepared for what he was in for that he upstaged the performers. Or these shots of the characters 2006 vs 2008; 2006 vs 2008. I wasn’t even trying to duplicate the shots.
Don’t get me wrong–the kids have fun and we laughed and cheared and tipped the performers. But $60 for a family of four to get in the door, plus tips at most performances, plus $34 for lunch–feels like a bit much only to see the same shows and and shop at the same merchants. Anne and I are currently planning on skipping next year. We’ll see how that flys with the kids.
