Thursday, February 26, 2009

Kill A Watt Power Meter



I recently just got one of these and it is pretty sweet.  You can see how much power each one of your appliances uses in real time.  This information is really helpful in trying to reduce your monthly power bill.  I was able to get one from amazon.com for about $25.  The top power consumers that I found were our computer (250w), LCD TV (250W), coffee maker (800w), hair dryer (1400w), microwave (1500w,) and iron (1500w).  Some of the more power friendly items included the stereo (30w) and laptop (30w).  I have not checked the Xbox yet mainly because its hard to read the wattage when you are playing gears of war 2.

3 comments:

  1. I will be glad to check the XBox for you :-)

    Some of the ways that we have used it is to decide when to plug several appliances into 1 power strip (these would be high wattage gadgets that we use rarely or in conjunction with each other) or when to just plug one appliance directly into an outlet (low-wattage gadgets that we need pretty much constantly when home like our wireless router).

    Also, Pete figured out that rather than letting the coffee pot on the warmer (we think it stays on for about 2 hrs) it would be more efficient to turn the warmer off and use the microwave for 30 second or so when you want to go back for that second cup. It seems like a small thing, but hopefully over time they will add up (not just in $ savings but savings for mother earth too).

    I am interested to see our next power bill and find out how much we saved. We will keep you posted...

    ReplyDelete
  2. There was an invention on Dragon's Den that was a power strip that saved energy. The inventers showed how much power appliances used in standby mode. Some TVs us the same amount of energy when in standby and when they are on, which is crazy!

    The device could then be turned on and off with a little remote. When you turned it off, it showed the devices using zero watts when in standby. I want one of those for my TV, PS3, Wii, DVR and receiver; as long as my DVR will turn itself on when it's time to record...

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is pretty cool. I will have to check those out.

    ReplyDelete