# How many devices are plugged into your house? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923 "2009-02-08T15:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/21 "2009-02-09T02:41:33Z")
Wow, I’m didn’t expect light bulbs to be such a large percentage of electrical devices in the average home. Thinking about it, it is hardly surprising, but it certainly caught me off guard. Q.E.D.'s link said that light bulbs make up 20% of the average power bill! Still, I wonder how many are screwed into hard wired fixtures versus lamps plugged into an outlet? (I just counted, and wow, I have hardly any lamps at all. 95% of my ~40 bulbs are in a ceiling fixture.) I’ll definitely take them into account when we build the meters. For the record, I only think we’re going to build 3-4 meters for the demo model. But we still have to _design_ the system to work with an entire household full of meters. Still, I think I’ve decided we need to make one of those demo meters work with a light socket. (Or maybe we could put the meter on the line and have it triggered by the switch?) I’m still leaning towards 100 meter capacity. More than that and we’re likely into “McMansion” territory, whose homeowners probably aren’t as urgently trying to lower their energy bills. The reason I wanted to know, if you’re curious, is that I’m working on a time division multiplexing model for networking the meters, and while I have bandwidth to spare, things could get unruly for a really large number of meters (like \>1000). Obviously that isn’t going to be a problem for a 4 meter demo, but who knows? Maybe this system will knock every one’s socks off and we’ll have to start selling them! Thanks for the answers and advice folks! ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/22 "2009-02-09T02:42:56Z")
Apartment: 2 bedrooms, one light in each - compact flourescent, one standing fan in each Living room, one light, one TV - small, one DVD player, one computer (laptop) Kitchen; one light - regular, one fridge running on 110v with a transformer stepping down from 240v mains. Laptop runs off this 750 transformer too along with tiny speakers. Balcony: one 3 x 1 watt LED warm white. Hallway: 10w LED - lumins wise it’s like a 60W regular. Bathroom: no outlets, one light, regular. Also use vacuum cleaner, toaster, twin tub washer, iron and charge two cell phones - none of these are plugged in unless in use. No hot water. December bill: 32 days: KWH 159, KWH per day: 4.97, billed; XCD$162.03, XCD$5.06; per day. It’s all on the bill. I’m expecting to get lower since the power company corrected a low voltage issue on the line. I gave away the electric kettle before I realised it probably wasn’t the problem - the switch was getting dicky anyway. Gas cooker. LEDs are the way to go for lights - the 10w is expensive even though I ordered directly from China. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/23 "2009-02-09T08:56:00Z")
I started to count but when I got to my desk I gave up. I have three power strips back there and some of them aren’t full (size of AC adapters covered up a couple spaces). Its been so long since I’ve gone back there to organize them I’m sure there’s a few that are useless by now. Rough estimate? 35 or so. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/24 "2009-02-09T09:20:56Z")
OK, not everything is turned on, but wow, that is going to take a long time to figure out. I mean, just my home entertainment unit: television, DVR, DVD burner, amp, surround sound, bass of surround sound, remote speaker sender, then there are three lamps (two with dimmer switches) plus ceiling fan with light. That is only one half of the room! Let me think…40 more on this floor, plus 27 on the other floor, not including outside which is 6 more…and the garage has another 5, oh, and I forgot 2 cell phone chargers…I am sure I am forgetting a few things…so count me in as an easy 100 for this house. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/25 "2009-02-09T09:41:32Z")
Lights 14 or 15 (too lazy to check balcony) 2 lamps Computer Toothbrush Hair trimmer alarm clock radio/CD phone home phone recharger stereo modem monitor printer guitar amp TV aerial signal amplifier DVD/VCR Multimedia player set top box fridge toaster oven range hood microwave electric jug blender vacuum cleaner fan evaporative cooler so 42 or 43 ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923/26 "2009-02-09T20:15:18Z")
My minimum count is 27, so round up to 30 and assume I’m forgetting several. I did remember to count monitors as well as computers, cable receivers as well as tv’s etc. Didn’t count light fixtures, did count lamps. Didn’t count stuff like mixers (kitchen appliance) that are not used every day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-devices-are-plugged-into-your-house/484923.md?page=1)