Skip to main content

Verizon FiOS Electricity Use

My house has Verizon FiOS. Part of the FiOS installation included the mounting of a Verizon network backup battery unit in the basement. I asked myself "how much electricity does this box use?"

Verizon FiOS: How much electricity does this cost me?


So I plugged in my awesome Kill-A-Watt electricity usage meter to find out.

My Kill-o-Watt watt meter reported that there was a 16 watt load on the circuit. And since Verizon's box is powered and plugged in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 16 watts would quickly add up to roughly 140 kilowatt hours per year:

calculation: 16 watts x 8760 hours per year ÷ 1000 = 140.16 KWH/Year

How much does 140 Kilowatt-hours cost in dollars and cents? Here's a table that shows how much that would cost per year based on recent residential electricity rates (source: DOE. State Electricity Profiles, 2006 Edition):

State ¢/KWH )
$/Year
Alabama 7.07
$9.91
Alaska 12.84
18.00
Arizona 8.24
11.55
Arkansas 6.99
9.80
California 12.82
17.97
Colorado 7.61
10.67
Connecticut 14.83
20.79
Delaware 10.13
14.20
Wash. DC
 11.08
15.53
Florida 10.45
14.65
Georgia 7.63
10.69
Hawaii 20.72
29.04
Idaho 4.92
6.90
Illinois 7.07
9.91
Indiana 6.46
9.05
Iowa 7.01
9.83
Kansas 6.89
9.66
Kentucky 5.43
7.61
Louisiana 8.3
11.63
Maine 11.8
16.54
Maryland 9.95
13.95
Massachusetts 15.45
21.65
Michigan 8.14
11.41
Minnesota 6.98
9.78
Mississippi 8.33
11.68
Missouri 6.3
8.83
Montana 6.91
9.69
Nebraska 6.07
8.51
Nevada 9.63
13.50
New Hampshire 13.84
19.40
New Jersey 11.88
16.65
New Mexico 7.37
10.33
New York 15.27
21.40
North Carolina 7.53
10.55
North Dakota 6.21
8.70
Ohio 7.71
10.81
Oklahoma 7.3
10.23
Oregon 6.53
9.15
Pennsylvania 8.68
12.17
Rhode Island 13.98
19.59
South Carolina 6.98
9.78
South Dakota 6.7
9.39
Tennessee 6.97
9.77
Texas 10.34
14.49
Utah 5.99
8.40
Vermont 11.37
15.94
Virginia 6.86
9.61
Washington 6.14
8.61
West Virginia 5.04
7.06
Wisconsin 8.13
11.40
Wyoming 5.27
7.39


Remember it is possible that the load put on the battery box circuit changes over time, and that your battery box may be different than the one in my house. Also note that this analysis doesn't include a FiOS router or your TV converter boxes. I can imagine that they each consume similar amounts of electricity, but more analysis would be necessary to find out.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

I've had my SodaStream Jet for years, and once in a while something has gone wrong. Disassembly is the first step to repair.  Start with this article to see how to disassemble the SodaStream, and then once you have that down, scroll through my other articles to see how I repaired specfic SodaStream problems. SodaStream Jet Disassembly Guide Tools Required Flat head screwdriver Phillips head screwdriver 1. Remove the Carbonator.  Duh. 2. Remove the black panel lever The front big black tilt lever needs to be removed first. Removing this panel is tricky, but it isn't impossible. Looking up at the bottom of the black panel, there are two tabs, one on the left and one on the right. These tabs fully secure the panel in place. The trick is to use a flat-head screwdriver under the plastic to gently lever the tabs out of the way.  Note in the pictures how I approach these tabs with my screwdriver.  I usually release the left side first, and then I release ...
Read more

Sodastream Carbonator Leakage, Usage, and Weight

SodaStream 60L "Carbonator" CO2 cylinders have a specific weight when empty, plus about 410 or so grams for the CO2 they should have when they're "full".  A little while ago I went to buy a replacement Carbonator from my local hardware store. The dealer pulled a new Carbonator out of the box and sensed it was lighter than usual.  He put the "light" Carbonator in the "empty" pile and sold me a different one.  At that moment I concluded that it would be smart of me to weigh both new and empty SodaStream carbonators.  Here are the results. Weighing a SodaStream Carbonator - for both Science and Consumer Protection.       The dealer told me that sometimes the carbonators leak after they leave the SodaStream filling facility.  That means there could be an opportunity for customers like me to get ripped off! The SodaStream cylinders I buy claim to have a net product weight of 410 grams - and that means that a full Soda Stream Carbonator shou...
Read more

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, Repair #2 - Broken Fill Button

My Soda Stream Jet's fill button broke, which means I can not longer carbonate water by pressing the pushbutton. This caused all sorts of grief in my household. Here is how I managed to repair my Jet to give it another 10 years of life (hopefully). First, a look at the button The fill button on the top of the SodaStream is actually a simple lever. Pressing down on the button moves a pin that does the actual work of pressing open the Carbonator's valve. Unfortunately, the axis point is fairly thin and can see a lot of stress. That's where my Soda Stream button cracked. [ I think the usage tip here is "don't over-press the button like a gorilla, it doesn't do anything but put high stress on the button."] Cracked levering point of the button The Pesky Lever Retaining Pin The Fix It was pretty easy for me to replace the button: Take off the back of the Soda Stream and remove the carbonator. Push out the the button lever's steel retaining pin. This takes qu...
Read more

Modernizing old house network wiring - Part 6 - Assessing my Coaxial Cable TV Cabling

My prior blog entries were all about converting my house's telephone lines for Ethernet use. Today I started to address my old home's coaxial cable tv cables. Cable TV was a huge thing from the 1980s until the 2000s, but it is a dying concept. Still, the one thing I've learned is that you need to understand something before taking out an axe.   Almost every room in my house has a cable TV outlet (some rooms have more than one). In my basement, a cluster of 9 cables appear in the telecom panel, with some connected to a giant splitter and some just hanging loose. Half the cable seems to have been run properly: inside the walls of the house. The other half was sloppily strung up on the outside of the house. It looks like most of this cable was installed 20 years ago. So without further ado, I'm going to assess what I have. Identifying and Testing each cable My first order of business was to figure out where each cable was going to, as only one cable was labelled ("att...
Read more

MacBook: burnt out magsafe connector repair

My MacBook (A1342 model from 2009-2010) stopped working, thanks to a cheap knockoff magsafe charger. The magsafe connector looked burnt with heat-distorted melted plastic and some black carbon surfaces.  Plugging in the charger resulted in no lights and no action.  My MacBook was dead. First I tried to clean up the connector with some Q-Tips, tooth picks and solvent, but that did little, as seen in this "after" picture (below).   The heat generated by the aftermarket charger permanently deformed and distorted the MacBook's magsafe connector.  Clearly the damage was significant. Burnt Magsafe Connector - Replacement Required! Looking at iFixIt , I determined that it would not be difficult to replace only the magsafe connector with the right tools.  I hoped and prayed that the problem was isolated to the connector assembly and not the logic board. I bought a replacement magsafe connector assembly (available from Amazon) for under $20 and started to rep...
Read more

Fix a Lightning Cable with Heat Shrink Tubing

We've all seen a Lightning cable that has started to fall apart.  They get used every day, and after enough tugs and yanks on your iPhone, they start to fray. I've seen a lot of these frayed cables, so I've started to fix them before they break with heat shrink tube.  I get my heat shrink on Amazon, like this handy and inexpensive pack.   I prefer the heat shrink tubes without internal glue - it has higher flexibility and a smaller outside diameter once shrunk. Heat Shrink Tubing on an Old, Frayed Lightning Cable In the photo here, you'll see that I slid on a 1.25 inch length of heat shrink over the lighting connector, and then shrunk it into place.  I chose a diameter that just barely fits over the lightning connector.  In all, it took about 60 seconds to perform this repair. Warning: the white plastic of the lightning cable has a pretty low melting point.  It seems to start to melt at about 125°C (or about 250°F), which is the same temperatur...
Read more

Other Posts

Show more