Dept of Labor Electricity Bill for 1 Month $1MM

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=132655&catid=158

The low end is about $200,000 a month. The high end more than a million. One month's electricity bill at the Department of Labor topped a MILLION dollars. That was a bill paid in July of last year. The month before, the department paid a bill of nearly $700,000. And utility costs of that magnitude are not unusual.

"Whoooo. That's too much!" exclaimed a taxpayer.

"Maybe the perception is, they want to tell the American people that we're always on," speculated another.

The Department of Health and Human Services paid a bill last August of $799,000 for a month of service.

"Oh my God. That is per month?" was one reaction.

The Department of Commerce paid a bill last June of $794,000.

[jkapp]

Geez, those CFL bulbs don't help worth a shit!

[Deleted]

I'm guessing heating and cooling is electric? ... that article seemed to indicate that it was because lights were left on ??

Oh... and i guess she wasn't exactly accurate in her numbers??...
blogs.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2011/01/25/update-wusas-report-on-federal-building-lights-misses-the-mark/

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I'd be inclined to give them a pass. Last summer we had a significant heat wave in the northeast with temps consistently in the very high 90s and low 100s.
They likely had the AC running 24/7.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

I'm guessing heating and cooling is electric?


I worked many years in facilities operations/maintenance. In large buildings, the heating/cooling system is normally set up with a "hot deck" and a "cold deck", two duct systems run side by side. At the various points the air is ducted into the building environment, the two decks are run into a single duct with a damper. The thermostat for the room moves the damper to blend the hot and cold air to the desired temperature.
The cooling system generally consists of one or more large chillers, essentially an air conditioner about the size of a small truck. The heating system is usually a large natural gas-fired boiler. It produces steam which is piped into the hot deck, the air passes over it and heats up. The fans which move the air are, of course, electric.
"Turn out the lights" may sound like a silly idea, but it can make a large difference in the electrical usage of a large building. In one hospital I worked at, I once had to do a "ballpark" estimate of how many florescent lights there were. To my surprise, it turned out to be 10,000. At 40 watts each, that's 400,000 watts of potential power use. Turning off even just half of them at night would show significant savings on an electric bill.

[marjar]

To my surprise, it turned out to be 10,000. At 40 watts each, that's 400,000 watts of potential power use. Turning off even just half of them at night would show significant savings on an electric bill.


Motion sensors? Kroger is doing this in the frozen food aisles. The lights in the freezer displays go off, at a certain time, but when motion is detected in an aisle, they go on within a distance of the motion. Motion stops, lights go off.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

In the mid 1990s the restaurant I worked at had motion sensors just about everywhere- dry storage, the walk in cooler. Lights turned off in a matter of seconds, not minutes, too.

It's kind of like "ear marks". We could cut this stuff down to $0 and still wouldn't balance the budget. The point is that it conveys an attitude, and lends credibility to the impression most people have of Washington which is that their attitude is "we do what we want, and think little of the consequences because we can just send the bill to you (or your kids and grandkids".