For the measurement project, I’m focusing on measuring the electricity usage in my apartment and its broad implications, with the following emphasis:

1. Direct measurement in my own apartment with digital power monitor meter, to understand appliance power usage, ghost electricity.
2. Estimate appliance power usage for parts that are not directly plugged into an outlet, i.e. ceiling lights, AC, heating.
3. Research papers / articles on power saving techniques, pricing policies, and ConEd’s strategies to load shed.

The purpose of this project is for myself to have a better understanding of my power usage habits and cut down on power usage if possible, also saving money.

Before I begin, here’s some facts about my living conditions:

• I live with my cat in a 1 bedroom in Bed-stuy
• My apartment is about 600 square feet
• There’s no gas in the building — everything has been electrified
• There’s no conventional heating — I have 3 AC units (aka electric baseboard heaters) that are used for both heating and cooling purposes
• When my friend was staying at my place over the winter break and using electricity like nobody’s business, my monthly energy usage was 526 kWh (it pains me even just writing this 😭)

Investigation

Ghost Electricity

Ghost electricity, often called vampire power, phantom power, or idle current, is power wasted by devices when they’re not in use or even turned on.

It’s easy for me (and others) to claim that when we’re away from our apartment, “only the fridge is plugged in” (I’ve heard this statement multiple times) and as a result underestimate the number of appliances plugged in and the amount of energy consumption occurred.

I made a list of appliances always left plugged in and I was honestly very surprised:

• Fridge
• 3 scent dispensers (1 for my bathroom + 2 pheromone diffusers for my cats)
• Wi-fi
• TV
• Monitor
• Dyson vacuum
• Stovetop + oven unit
• Cat water fountain + cat automatic feeder
• Dishwasher
• Sonos

Near real-time usage on Con Edison’s dashboard from April 13-14