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The Rural Missouri NEWS Service January
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March 2009 Radon: Danger in the basement Is there danger lurking in your basement? The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services wants you to find out. Many homeowners do not know that radon could be leaking into their homes, harming their loved ones. One in five homes in Missouri has elevated levels of radon gas. A simple test, using a free radon kit from the department, can help determine if your home is affected. Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas formed by the natural radioactive decay of uranium in rock, soil, and water. Naturally existing, low levels of uranium occur widely in the earth’s crust, and can be found in all 50 states. Once produced, radon moves through the ground to the air above. Some gas remains below the surface and dissolves in groundwater. Radon gas further decays into radioactive particles that can get trapped in the lungs. As these particles decay further, they release bursts of energy. This can damage lung tissue and lead to lung cancer over the course of a person’s lifetime. Not everyone exposed to elevated levels of radon will develop lung cancer, and the amount of time between exposure and the onset of disease may be many years. The EPA estimates that radon causes about 20,000 deaths lung cancer, second to cigarette smoking. Fortunately, the level of radon exposure in homes, schools, and other buildings can be determined through a simple, inexpensive, and effective test. If elevated levels are detected, proven mitigation techniques can be used to lower the levels. Free radon test kits can be ordered on-line from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Radon Program at www.dhss.mo.gov/Radon or by calling 573-751-6102 or 866-628-9891 toll free in Missouri.
Phantoms revealed: hidden energy busters in your favorite electronics Are there phantoms in your house? You bet. We’re not talking about ghosts but about energy: the electricity used even when your TV, VCR, DVD and CD players, computer, printer, microwave and phone are turned off. Here are some startling facts:
How do you know a phantom is in your house? Look no further than equipment or a charging device with a cube-shaped transformer on the end of its cord. Depending on the product, it’s sipping or sucking electricity even when not in use. The best advice for ridding your house of phantoms is to:
Banish phantoms: how to reduce hidden loads How many electricity phantoms are hiding in your house? As many as 25 come from home electronics, according to Energy Star, and that’s growing as consumers buy more gadgets. Admittedly, it’s not convenient to unplug appliances and electronic devices every night or when not in use. And some devices need to stay on in a standby mode to work properly. But unplug the obvious offenders, plug others into power strips and buy energy-efficient products that advertise low standby wattage. To reduce house phantoms, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends:
Also consider using a power meter to find out how much electricity an appliance or device uses. Plug the meter between the appliance and wall socket to measure its electricity use. Home meters from Kill-a-Watt, Watts Up, Power Cost Monitor and The Energy Detective are available for as low as $25. Visit www.powermeterstore.com or www.amazon.com for reviews and ordering.
DVRs/TiVos – According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), DVRs and TiVos use 37 watts in standby mode and consume 363 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year on average. Laptop vs. desktop computers – As reported by ACEEE, in standby mode a laptop uses 1 watt of electricity compared to 4 for a desktop. In a year, energy consumed averages 83 kWh and 255 kWh, respectively. Phone chargers – Unplug phone chargers when not in use. Arthur H. Rosenfeld, commissioner of the California Energy Commission, calls these zillions of little black boxes “…energy vampires, sucking the life out of our grid one watt at a time.” TVs – Some larger plasma TVs consume as much energy each year as a new refrigerator, says Noah Horowitz, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. They’re like electronic SUVs! For example, one 50-inch plasma, high-definition model consumes 679 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year; that compares to just 209 kWh for an older 34-inch analog TV. Reducing the brightness of your TV and controlling light in the viewing room are tips for lowering TV energy use. According to www.homepowermonitoring.com, your turned-off TV consumes, in some cases, 10 percent of the power it uses when turned on. Reduce this standby usage by plugging televisions and monitors into a switched surge protector or a wall outlet controlled by a switch. Energy Star-rated TVs use about 30 percent less electricity than standard TVs and use fewer than 3 watts when in the standby mode. How to cut computer phantoms: tips for the home office Phantoms love computers. Whether you work from home and have a true home office or simply have a personal computer for games, e-mail, Internet browsing and word processing, your computer and peripheral equipment can consume a lot of phantom electricity. To reduce phantoms, follow these tips:
For any computer to save energy, its power management system must be activated. Use an open source software tool called EZ Wizard at www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_users to activate the system. Or activate it yourself by going to Power Options in the Control Panel on your computer. Consider the hibernation mode, which puts your computer in a deep sleep. To reactivate the computer, push the Power button and wait about a minute to start up. All the programs and documents you were working on will be open. If your computer was left on 24 hours a day for 365 days a year, it would cost $140 to $195 to run, according to Conservation Consultants, which promotes efficient energy use in homes. Your surge protector will protect your computer when both are on a power strip. If the power strip is turned off, then no outside current is reaching your computer. If the strip is on, the surge protector will do what it’s designed to do. What about digital TV and phantom loads? On Feb. 17, 2009, the United States switched to digital-only TV broadcasting. By now you should have installed a digital TV converter box to allow you to view broadcasts on your analog TV. So does this new converter need to be plugged into an outlet 24/7, automatically generating phantoms? No. TVs do not need around-the-clock connection to an outlet. Plug your converter and TV into a power strip, and switch the strip on only when you’re watching TV. Otherwise switch off the strip, eliminate the phantoms and save the energy.
Is My Big TV An Electricity Hog? Yes. Energy use usually isn’t on your mind when buying a new TV – but it should be. That fancy new plasma TV could consume more electricity than a full-size refrigerator even when operated only a few hours a day. The Wall Street Journal compared electricity use between a cathode-ray tube (CRT) TV, a liquid crystal display (LCD) model and a plasma set. A 28-inch CRT set uses about 100 watts, a 42-inch LCD set about 200 watts, a 42-inch plasma model 200 to 500 watts and a 60-plus-inch plasma TV 500 to 600 watts, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Fortunately, in November 2008, Energy Star issued new energy-efficiency guidelines for TVs that require Energy Star models to be up to 30 percent more efficient than conventional models and to use less electricity in both active (on) and standby (off) modes. When TV shopping with energy efficiency in mind, remember that the larger the screen the more power it uses. Understand power modes for electronics Turning your computer or other electronics off may not be as simple as you think. Unlike a light switch that turns a lamp on or off, electronics operate in several modes and continue to draw power when you think they’re turned off. Here are some standard modes from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:
Understand external power supplies for electronics Because electronics run on low-voltage direct current (DC), they need power supplies to transform to the 120-volt alternating current (AC) supplied at the outlet. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) points out that larger products, such as TVs and stereos, incorporate this power supply into their bodies. Other devices use external power supplies: those bulky wall packs you plug into outlets and power strips. These wall packs consume electricity as long as they’re plugged into the outlet. If the pack is warm to the touch, it’s still using electricity. Now, more products are sold with high-efficiency power supplies labeled “switching.” The best ones, per ACEEE, are 90 percent efficient, but the worst only 20 percent to 40 percent, meaning they waste more than half the electricity that passes through them. Look for Energy Star power supplies when purchasing electronics.
The Commandments Continue
There are a lot of things happening in our country today that I do not understand. I do not understand how I bought gas at $1.49 a gallon in December when I paid $3.99 just a few months earlier. I don’t understand how wealthy corporations now have to have billions of dollars from the taxpayers to stay afloat. And I could mention many other things I simply don’t understand. It is better that I stay with the things I do understand, like energy efficiency. I know that making energy improvements is the best investment in the country today. I know that it is the only thing in your house that will save you money month after month and will have a payback. I also know that your home will be more comfortable as a result of these improvements. On a recent show, Mr. Tom Hunt, who is my co-host on the Home Remedies radio show, said he is saving $50 per week on the cost of gasoline compared to a few months ago. He said that added up to $200 per month. “What if we took that $200 per month and made energy improvements to our house?” he said. I responded: “Tom, you are a genius.” Well, folks, both Tom and I don’t need these commandments because we built our houses to be super efficient from the beginning. So, please remember that these columns are for you and we, like your electric co-op, want to help you. Energy Commandment No. 2: “Thou Shalt Invest.” Whether it is $5 per month or $200 per month, start setting some money aside for energy improvements. It is perfectly all right to do the least costly items first. For $20, you can buy and install several compact fluorescent lights. For $40, you might buy all the caulk you need to seal up air leaks as we discussed in past columns. Now open your mind and think of this. For an investment of less than $100 and a few hours of elbow grease, you might well reduce your average monthly utility bill by $10, $20, $30 or more a month. Where else could you invest $100, get your money back in three to 10 months and continue getting that savings forever? So start putting that money aside now, continue reading this column and you will be a genius of energy efficiency, just like Tom. Doug Rye can be heard on KGOZ and KAAN locally. Every Saturday morning, Doug Rye hosts a live call-in show on several area radio stations. He can be heard from 9-10 a.m. on KGOZ, 101.7, Gallatin, and on KAAN, 95.5, Bethany. |
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Who’s gulping or sipping juice? A closer look at some likely electricity phantoms
Well, I trust that you are all having a great new year. It is time to go back to the 10 Commandments of Energy Efficiency that we started talking about last year.