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This is going to be a growing problem with virtually all steam generating power plants in the future. While nuclear power is most dependent on a cool supply of water, most coal plants aren't much better.
Being an ideological partisan, I want to state for the record that I think Edison was right and Westinghouse was wrong - direct current is more efficient and more useful at any particular voltage than alternating current. Direct current motors are more powerful. Direct current doesn't lose energy through impedence, only resistance. It's true AC alternators are more efficient and longer laster than DC generators, and that more power can be transmitted at higher voltages and lower amperage than. But you can easily convert AC to DC using a bridge rectifier with diodes and that buck regulators and boost converters can easily step up or down DC voltage for transmission and use. It's true that diodes and high speed switching transistors didn't exist in Edison's time but I suspect most electrical systems would be largely DC powered today. Probably a lot more solar and local fossil generation would be the norm today, had the grid not been previously built.
Time really does slow down on the summer months.πΆ This morning my Kill a Watt meter reads 59.9 Hz which means that any clock that counts cycles is running slightly slower than normal, losing a few seconds as the day goes on. β²But I’m sure tonight as load decreases off the grid, they’ll make the night a few seconds shorter to accomplish the roughly correct number of cycles for the day.π
Observation:
My microwave averages 1.8 watts when plugged in but turned off. That’s 302 watt hours per week, completely wasted as I never bother to even set the clock.πΒ In contrast I use my microwave about 10 minutes a week. When it’s operating at full power it uses 1,300 watts or roughly 217 watt hours per week. That means my microwave uses more energy plugged in and turned off each week then it does cooking food. Hungry little vampire you might say.Β β‘
While I may save only $2.35 a year by unplugging my microwave, π‘every bit counts, and it will save roughly 16 lbs of coal from being burned and 10 lbs of coal ash and scrubber residue from being landfilled.
"βThis is an important victory for fairness in our electricity rates because bills will be more closely tied to how much power customers actually use,β Director Jen Metzger said in the release."