Hoyos negros eléctricos | Electric black holes

Hace una semana recibimos nuestro nuevo recibo de elctricidad, como siempre recibirlo fué una experiencia decepcionante. Esta vez a diferencia de las otras ocasiones, no sólo venía costoso sino con un cobro exagerado de energía que no utilizamos. Al revisar el medidor notamos una diferencia de 340Kw/h respecto al cobro normal, esto casi duplicó nuestro consumo... el medidor había sido mal leído... Pero el consumo resultante sigue siendo candidato a tarifa "DAC". No contentos con saber que aparentemente gastamos mucha energía, nos dimos a la tarea de conseguir un multímetro de gancho (como este) y luego empezar a medir los voltajes de muchos aparatos de casa. Casi de inmediato empezamos a encontrar "hoyos negros" que finalmente terminan drenando nuestro bolsillo bimensualmente (los recibos en México se pagan cada bimestre). El multímetro de gancho nos permite detectar la corriente en uso por cada aparato y así encontrar los "aparatos problema". Esos aparatos son aquellos que proporcionalmente hablando consumen MAS energía estando apagados que estando encendidos (favor recordar: proporcionalmente hablando). Por ejemplo: Ventiladores que funcionando consumen 31.86 watts/hora, apagados las restantes 20 horas consumen 7watts/hora... increíble pero cierto: apagado este ventilador consume 5.15kilowatts mensuales, encendido consume 3.06kilowatts mensuales... DVD player que usamos poco, pero conectado consume 5.03kilowatts mensuales. La computadora de casa cuyo led de la tarjeta de red permanece encendido y usamos poco, consume 5.86kilowatts mensuales... Por el contrario nuestra cafetera consume la módica cantidad de 443watts/hora cuando está en uso... no lo sabíamos y en varias ocasiones ha estado encendida al menos dos horas -hasta 4- en un día... tirando a la basura un aproximado de 21.74kilowatts mensuales. Algo positivamente sorprendente fue que nuestro refrigerador de 16" consume casi 177watts, lo cual es bastante razonable teniendo en cuenta que pudiera utilizar hasta 418watts/hora. Es bueno y sano quejarse de los burócratas que nos quieren ch... fregar la vida... pero hay que poner de nuestra parte para saber cómo podemos reducir nuestro consumo eléctrico y evitar así la temida tarifa de Alto Consumo (DAC). Y tú, sabes cuánta electricidad usan tus aparatos en casa?

A week ago we got our new electricity bill, as usual getting it was extremely disappointing. This time as opposed to other moments, it was not only pricey but with an exaggerated over-charge for power we did not use. When we checked the electric meter we noticed a difference of 340Kw/h against our normal charges, that nearly duplicated our consumption... our meter was improperly read... But our resulting consumption was still a candidate to "DAC" charges. Unhappy with the fact we were apparently using too much power, we went ahead and purchased a clamp meter (like this one) and then we started measuring all the currents from several house hold appliances. Almost immediately we started finding "blak holes" which finally end up draining our pockets bi-monthly (mexican power bills are paid bi-monthly). A clamp meter helps us detect the electric current being used by each appliance and then find "problem devices". Such devices are those that proportionally take MORE power being off than turned on (please keep in mind: proportionally). An example: A fan is working, it uses 31.86 watts/hr. But turned off the remaining 20 hours it uses 7watts/hr... unbelievable but true: that fan when turned off is using 5.15kw/hr month, turned on it uses 3.06kw/hr month... a DVD player we barely use but is plugged in to the outlet, it uses 5.03kw/hr month. Our home PC which LAN led is usually on but we use just a few hours a week, it uses 5.86 kw/hr a month when turned off... Au contraire our coffee brewer takes 443watts/hr when in use... we did not know it and several times it has been powered on at least two hours -even four- a day... throwing out an estimated 21.74kw/hr a month. Something that was gladly surprising was that our fridge (16") uses only 177watts/hr, which is reasonable enough keeping in mind it could use up to 418w/hr. It is sane -and even good- to complain about bureaucrats who want to f... mess our lives... but we need to help ourselves to know how can we reduce our electric usage and try to avoid the infamous High Usage Charge (Tarifa de Alto Consumo-DAC). So what about you? do you know how much power are your house hold appliances using?