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Greenest Electricity Use

Most all of us use electricity.  When is the best time to use it?

Many people get this wrong.  They mistakenly conclude that using electricity during daylight hours is the best time to use electricity because that is when solar panels are delivering the most pure, clean solar energy.  

That's a bad conclusion.

During the day is when high electrical loads result in the dirtiest and least efficient electricity plants coming on-line.

Why do power companies run these dirty and inefficient power plants?  Because of YOUR customer demand!  You can reduce this demand by minimizing your power use during the peak hours of 3 PM - 9 PM.

The greenest time to use electricity is when the fewest inefficient, dirty electrical generation plants are in operation.  By minimizing your electricity use during the day, the dirtier power plants will produce less power, reducing their negative impact. 

During low demand times (late night and weekends), only the most efficient plants operate.  And so that's the time to use electricity, such as running your dishwasher, using your self-cleaning oven (yuk), running your kiln, or charging your car.  During the late night hours, only the most efficient plants are operating, to the point where the power companies have to resort to storing excess power.

To be super green: perhaps a Sunday morning at 2-5 AM in June or September, during moderate weather, is likely the champion. 

Best Times and Worst Times for Electricity Use

The following table is a generalization, but it is likely correct for more than 99% of the year.

"Greenest" Times for Electricity Use
2 AM to 4AM

Better Times for Electricity Use
11 PM to 7 AM

Worse Times for Electricity Use
7 AM to 11 PM

"Least Green" Times for Electricity Use
3 PM to 9 PM

Some of my Strategies

Dishwasher
  • When: Schedule to run at roughly 4 AM - 5 AM.  Empty when I awake.
  • Do not use "dry" feature. 
  • Use quality detergent to make "heavy" cycle unnecessary.
  • Wash full loads only, but not overloaded.
  • Scrape dishes into compost bin, reducing debris going through washer.
  • Minimize washing by hand, a huge waste of water.
  • Avoid very hot days, due to heat exhaust that puts more load on air conditioning.
Laundry
  • When: Sundays, in the morning as soon as I wake up.
  • Use a quality detergent and cold water mode
  • Large loads only.  Any less-than-full-load amount of laundry has to wait a week. 
  • Avoid wet, humid days to greatly reduce dryer times.
  • Avoid extremely hot/cold days to reduce air exchange with outdoors.
Vehicle and Equipment Battery Charging
  • Charge equipment overnight.
  • Avoid late afternoons and evenings - the very worst time to gobble up electricity.

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