I have been a Phoenix energy auditor for over two years and can remember one of the first things I did when I started was to create a list of all small and large appliances and their average energy usage. SRP and APS have an extensive list of their own for common appliances and there are several resources online and in text. I also bought a Kill-a-watt energy monitor to find out exactly how much that coffee machine takes to run. It turns out to be not much- but over the years I have monitored the energy consumption of a variety of appliances and gadgets I will share in these posts.
If you have a nicely landscaped backyard with a pond, you probably have a small underwater pump to keep the water filtered that may or may not have a timer. I had a homeowner ask how much energy his pond pump was using without a timer so I hooked my energy monitor to find out. Two hours later we got the results.
Obviously the pond pump was small and only cost him $0.12 a day to run 24/7 however there were other factors that motivated him to put the pump on a timer. The first being that in 1 year he had already replaced the pump two times because of failure. With a timer, the pump will run less and extend the lifetime. The second reason being was that his energy usage never broke more than $150 per month all year round. Since his consumption was so low (he already had a tight, efficient home) his low hanging fruit was not so low anymore and he had to dig a little deeper to find those energy saving opportunities. I think making the trip to the store to buy a new pump would be motivation enough for me to put it on a timer.
