How much does that power cost, anyway?

I managed to obtain a power meter which measures the number of watts running through a power outlet.

I decided to measure the consumption of my major entertainment appliances and the "phantom" power they all use.

Here's what I measured:

Appliance	Power Usage (Watts)	Phantom Power Usage** (Watts)
XBox 360	150	3
Playstation 3	110	1
TV (Samsung 46" LCD)	210	0
Receiver/Speakers (Samsung)	22*	0
Cable Box (Rogers)	15	15
Cable Modem (Rogers)	5	5
Wireless Router (Apple Airport)	7	7
Total	519	31

* - I didn't actually test my receiver while I was driving the speakers. So this is probably lower than it is while I'm actively using my speakers.

** - All appliances where phantom power doesn't really apply because I leave it on for 24 hours/day (eg. Wireless router), I've just put it's active power consumption under phantom power.

The following calculations are in Canadian dollars and assume that active use costs 90 cents/year per watt and passive/inactive/phantom use costs 53 cents/year per watt. I show how I came up with those numbers at the bottom of the article. American readers can multiply all dollar figures by 0.95 to get American dollars (accurate at time of writing).

So the phantom power consumption on my entertainment system costs $16.43 / year.

Interesting points are how both of my Samsung appliances use no measurable power while those units are off. That was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Also of interest: My main phantom power offenders are the only appliances I rent from Rogers. The TV box doesn't even consume less power while not in use. Pretty disappointing but not surprising given the company it comes from.

Also of interest: While I play my XBox with the TV and speakers on, I'm using 382W of power which is costing me 3.92 cents/hour to play.

Just for fun, I took a few more readings.

Appliance	Power Usage (Watts)	Phantom Power Usage (Watts)
Macbook Pro	60 while charging, 16 with charged battery	1 while in sleep mode, 13 while display turned off (CTRL-SHIFT-Eject)
24" Samsung external monitor	45	2
Electrictoothbrush	2	2
LED Christmas lights on my tree	20	20

Assuming I always left my Macbook Pro plugged in (no battery charging), and used it for work 8 hours/day, I'd be spending 1.3 cents/day for power. Assuming I used it for 5*52 days/year, it would cost $3.41/year in power.

Assuming I left my Christmas lights on for 24 hours/day for 2 months, they would cost $1.76.

Summary:
I was a bit surprised at how little all of these things cost. The oven, refrigerator and lightbulbs are the only other power consumers in my condo, so I only have them left to blame for the major bulk of my electricity bill. The main reason I did this was to see exactly how much "phantom" power I was consuming. As it turns out, nothing to get bent out of shape over.


HOW I CAME UP WITH THE NUMBERS:
Based on Toronto Hydro's Time Of Usage and the current rates at the time of writing (low = 4.4 cents/kWh, mid = 8.0 cents/kWh, high = 9.3 cents/kWh), I calculated that a 1kW appliance left on for 24 hours/day for an entire year will cost $535.37. Dividing by 1000, we get 53 cents/year per watt. Since you're not using your appliances at random points in the day, this is probably a bit low for an active usage estimate. Let's just assume that active usage of an entertainment centre probably occurs during mid or high usage times (7am-9pm) on weekdays and during weekends. So the magic number I'm pulling out of thin air is 90 cents/year per watt during active use or 0.010273 cents/hour.

Simple Guitar Fretboard Teacher

I've been learning guitar on my own for about a year now. When it came time for me to memorize the notes on the fretboard I had a lot of trouble finding some simple (and free) software as an aid. After failing to come up with anything, I just went ahead and made my own.

It's very simple, but it helped me far more than anything else I tried.

Just download the file from here and open it with your browser.

I didn't want to pay for hosting, so I'm trying out this box.net file sharing site. If it goes down, or is excessively annoying with respect to ads, then let me know and I'll move it somewhere else.



Instructions:

1. I would suggest you actually try to strum the specific note before the answer is revealed, don't just say/think it. That way you'll really start to associate the note with the specific position on the fretboard.
   
2. Start with the E string, and move your way across the fretboard. Once you start moving across, try to hit the same note on all the strings you've previously memorized before the timer runs out.
   
3. I also suggest you don't enable the accidentals (ie. # and b) until you've got the others well memorized.

Anyway, this is how I did it. If you found another method that worked for you, then please post a comment and let others know.

Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions.