In hard pressed economic times, here is a simple device that can save you hundreds of dollars each year. This device is called the Kill A Watt.
Now with Kill A Watt you can reduce your energy costs by identifying the real energy abusers. Simply plug your appliance into Kill A Watt and assess how efficient it really is. The jumbo LCD display measures consumption by the kilowatt-hour, just like your local utility company, so you can quickly calculate costs. It’s perfect for seeing how much juice that freezer in the garage is sucking up, or to see how much it costs to keep your computer on throughout the day.
But measuring appliance consumption is just the tip of the iceberg. By plugging this in, you can also test if an outlet is working, or evaluate the quality of the electrical power provided by your utility company. It does this by monitoring voltage (Volt) and line frequency (Hz). It’s perfect for detecting voltage drops around the house, to predict brownout conditions or to make sure a new home’s outlets are in working condition before escrow closes.
Imagine being able to forecast your electric bill before you get it. With the Kill a Watt, you can calculate electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even year. With an accuracy within 0.2%, you can safely know what to expect your expenses to be.
Not only that, but you can eliminate “phantom devices” that “steals” electricity even when you think that the device is turned off. These phantom, or stand-by, devices can cause a power loss of over $100 per year or over 10% of your annual electric bill. Phantom devices include but are not limited to: television, dvd/vcr player, satellite receiver, computer, fax machine, and the famouse cell phone charger.
Really all you have to do is either:
1. Purchase a power bar with a timer that will switch off during planned times you will not be using the device and switch on again (say off at night and on first thing in the morning). This avoids having to get into the habit of doing this manually every day, but it is not useful for those with irregular patterns of equipment usage.
2. Purchase a power bar into which the electrical cords of your household equipment are placed such that the power bar’s off switch can be reached very easily. This is useful for those with irregular patterns of usage of the home’s electrical equipment; however, it requires one to start to get into the habit of turning the power bar off.
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I used the Kill a Watt and identified significant waste just in those devices that I could easily unplug without much other impact. They contributed to about 15% of my electric bill.