Power Saver Max on Power Usage

Over a year ago, I blogged about this little power-saving device which promises to lower electricity usage in the household. I thought it would be wise to look at all the data points and review the performance of the device.

The data points I’ve collected include all the last 13 months that we’ve been using this Power Saver Max. In order to minimize extraneous factors (and margins of errors), I’ve taken note of the electrical appliances we used at home:

• 2 x desktop computers, 1 laptop
• 1 x 6.5cu. ft. ref
• 1 x 42″ LCD TV, 1 x 32″ LCD TV x 1 x 29″ CRT TV
• 2 x 1hp air conditioners, 3 x electric fans
• 2 x aquariums with lights, filters and aerators
• 2 x wifi routers, 1 x telefax
• 1 x Apple TV, 1 x HDX1000 NMT

I didn’t count all the other smaller devices that I causally charge (other phones, laptops, cameras, printers, media players, etc). For the last 13 months, here’s a plot of the power usage that we’re billed by Meralco.

Note that off-peak usage starts at around June to September and peak months are usually April and May. The other months are isolated cases that involved abnormal power usages due to additional head count in the house (which changes the normal power usage patterns of appliances).

As expected, the Meralco Bill we get is directly proportional to the power usage consumed. However, there have been fluctuations in the charges since the amount per kHw also changes on a monthly basis — this could be due to forex, taxes and other variables but more significantly, due to power price hikes made by Meralco.

Based on all the data gathered since March 2009, the cheapest rate was for the month of October 2009 at Php8.97USD 0.15INR 13EUR 0.15CNY 1 and the highest is March 2010 at Php11.17USD 0.19INR 16EUR 0.18CNY 1. The average rate from all 13 months is Php9.58USD 0.16INR 14EUR 0.16CNY 1.

So I used these usage data and the 13-month average to extrapolate my electric bill had the rates were a fixed amount.

Here are some conclusions we can draw from the data above:

• Last month’s power rate, Php11.17USD 0.19INR 16EUR 0.18CNY 1 for March 2010, is 16.6% higher than the last 13-month average of Php9.58USD 0.16INR 14EUR 0.16CNY 1.
• Our 13-month average and median power consumption is 773kWhr. The Power Saver Max did not reduce our usage in the last 13 months of having it plugged on the wall. In fact, it has gone higher since our usage before that was around 723kWhr (that’s 50kWhr higher). If nothing else, I guess it helped by not making the power usage way higher (we also use fancy spotlights or pin-lights at home on top of CFLs).
• There was only 1.5% increase in usage when comparing March 2009 and March 2010 consumption. If the trend continues, I’m looking at 920kWhr for April and 956kWhr for May 2010. Using March 2010 power rates, that’s Php10,300USD 176INR 14,879EUR 167CNY 1,278 and ~Php10,700USD 182INR 15,457EUR 174CNY 1,328 respectively — first time to cross the 10k mark if ever that happens.

So, the question remains — does the Power Saver Max really work? I think, somehow it did prevent us from consuming more power than we should have. I’m still a bit skeptic though so what I’ll do is plug it off starting June to September later this year and compare the monthly usage from last year and the year before.

Note: The effective power rate mentioned here is computed by dividing the electric bill by the power usage. The actual power rates by Meralco are lower but padded with taxes and other extra charges. The device we used is this one: Power Saver Max.