Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain

On 5/1/2025 2:54 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

We tend to have a lot more -- and a lot larger -- "static" loads.
>
I suspect I have 100W in "Energy Star" appliances (< 1W while idle).
Dishwasher, refrigerator (with compressor OFF), stove, washing machine,
clothes dryer, 3 TVs, cordless phones, furnace, thermostats, freezer
(compressor off), microwave oven, garage door opener, etc.

 Do you not have a realtime display of your power usage? It can be quite

"Smart Meter".  But, I've not been particularly interested in the
specifics.  I figure my ballpark estimate is close enough.  The
monthly bills seem to confirm the "1KW average" (in the "off months")

informative. I got one decades ago when they first became available. It paid for itself in about a year. I also have one that sits between a wall socket and an appliance - that also paid for itself PDQ.

I have a /Watts Up/ to check individual loads.  My plan is to instrument
the load center when I update it (200A service and solar/genset provisions).
There, the goal will be to try to infer WHAT is being powered (and when)
to better guesstimate the occupants' activities.

Main vampire loads were several abandoned old transformer based wall warts behind furniture warm to the touch.

I have all of the "appliances" that don't have hard power switches.
Monitors, workstations, servers, etc.  It's just not practical to
"unplug" them to get them off the mains.  (Replugging them when later
needed would be a hassle)

Worst offender by far was the TV which kept its TDVT decoder on power continuously by default consuming 40W rather than 4W in standby. A delve into the maze of twisty passage all alike that passed for its settings menu sorted that out once I knew about it.

We have an OTA DVR and media computer (external disk) associated with each
(of 3) TV.  I will be replacing them with "network tuners" behind switched
mains power (under control of system to power them up when needed)

My 24/7 base load for fast internet connection is about 30W. White goods, electric clocks and other IOT hubs take another 30W. Alarm is 10W. I have smart load based switching so that the main entertainment system is only powered up when either TV or main amplifier is on.

We don't have a "stereo" connected to the TV; the "theater experience"
not being particularly important.
But, the future system delivers audio to "network speakers" scattered
around the house so audio/video content can "follow" the occupants.

Garage lights which are old fluoros are the last remaining power hog - they clock in at 500W when they are on.

Our "normal" garage lighting is ~100W.  If we're doing something important,
we can bring another 200W online.
I've installed a 100W RGBW LED floodlight as a "visual indicator" to
attract the drivers' attention when entering or exiting the garage
("Why are the walls around me flashing red?")

Add to that the equipment I have that "sleep" (instead of a galvanic
power switch):  three scanners, two digitizers, a dozen monitors,
a dozen UPSs (that likely consume considerably more than 1W even with
no load), several OTS NASs, six eight spindle servers acting as
NAS/SAN/ESXi servers, six workstations, 17 monitors, three media
computers (one for each TV), two dedicated ESXi servers, etc.
>
Damn near nothing has a HARD power switch, anymore -- if it's plugged
in, it's drawing SOME power (my office looks like christmas when
the lights are off -- all these little red/yellow/blue pilot lights
scattered around the place.

 Most of them with modern soft power switches are reasonably efficient. The odd one isn't - my previous PC sound system unless run *very* loud used the same amount of power whether it was "on" or "off" and it used a physical switch. I never bothered to look how they messed that up!

The servers tend not to be designed with "sleep mode" in mind -- as they
tend to be deployed in 24/7 environments.  My workstations have 1100W
power supplies.

Most homes have at least one refrigerator-freezer and a second refrigerator
OR freezer out in the garage or some other utility room.  I think our kitchen
frig/freezer is 23 cubic feet and the freezer adds another 16.  We tend to
keep things on hand instead of frequent trips to a store to "be fresh"

 Again UK tends to be much smaller 6-8 cubic feet being a more normal size. We have a couple of 10 cu ft freezers one in the garage.

We have 6 cu ft of fresh oranges in the refrigerator.  In addition to
our regular foodstuffs.

As a calibration point my base load is 100W with no computers on and twice that with my main box on and idle. I have a lot of electronic gadgets running 24/7 too so most homes base load ought to be less!

>
Note my "vampire load" is likely comparable to your base load.  I will
admit to having more "toys" than many.  But, I also don't have kids with their
own TVs and computers in their bedrooms, etc.
>
I think the monitors for one workstation easily exceed that.  And, the
workstations definitely so (dual GPUs, 4 spindles, additional PCI
cards, etc.)

 Unless you do a lot of 3D rendering it is worth trying out the performance of Intel on chip graphics - for 2D work (apart from video transcoding) they are often as quick or quicker.

I use the GPUs for "compute" operations, as well.  And, need them to get
to "3 monitors per workstation".  I try to keep all 6 workstations
with largely identical hardware just to make maintenance easier.
[Each workstation has a different set of applications as Windows is
a dog when you try to install lots of competing applications on it]

Why? We don't have any aircon and in the daytime so the only serious loads are the fridge and the freezer for a few minutes per hour.

>
A frig is typically opened dozens of times in a day.  Each time runs
the risk of calling for cooling (we have three evaporators in our
frig so any compartment can call on the compressor).  Kettle (tea)
is 1000W, ditto (bread) toaster, hair dryers, microwave oven, etc.
Oven/stovetop vary -- based on usage (e.g., when I'm baking, its
on for several hours with frequent door openings -- to swap out
cookie sheets)
>
A *small* "whole home" generator is about 14KW.  OK if you are
careful with your sequencing loads.  A normal home service is 24KW.

 That is about the same in the UK for modern build. I tried to bribe the installer of my smart meter to replace my original 60A fuse with a 100A one but he said he was obliged to replace like with like. Upgrading to 100A circuit to support at home charging of an electric vehicle is one of their profit centres so they won't do it for free!
 Our peak domestic load seldom goes above 6kW (immersion heater and kettle at the same time) - unless I am arc welding as well.

The starting current for the ACbrrr "spins the meter".  And, my frequent
baking has longer term activity (3/4/7KW depending on which ovens are
in use).
Domestic hot water is via natural gas.  A 1KW "kettle" for my tea
(and her coffee) -- but, that's only three or four times a day.