Measuring the Energy You Use?

centdollarman asks: "Everyone keeps talking about how energy is being wasted here and there. Energy bills keep soaring for me, and now I'm back to paper and pencil: just taking notice of the power meter values. Mine is nice, as it has a cute LED that blinks at 1/1000 of a KWh. However, there has to be a better way to do this, and I've started searching the web for someway to count my usage, automatically. Of course, this is easier said than done. It would also be nice to have some way to (cheaply!) measure the power consumption of a single device." So, for the energy conscious among us: how are you measuring the power you use?

Comments

Handy Display

[bogamo]

What we really need is a display on the wall, next to the thermostat, that looks like the fuel economy guage on the Prius. On the right is the current consumption, on the left is a bar chart showing past consumption averaged over 5 minute periods. It makes driving the prius like a video game where getting the highest economy is the goal. I'd think if we had such a display, you'd keep track of your consumption, and you'd know if you were drawing more power than you should be for any given time; like leaving a light on in the basement.

How can we expect people to conserve without any easy-to-see meausrement of consumption.

          -Geoff

(cheaply!) -- Is free cheap enough?

[bloodSausage]

Depending on where you live, you might be able to borrow an energy meter for free. For example, in Ottawa (Canada), the public library system has about 200 Kill-A-Watt meters available to borrow for three weeks, just like a book (search for "kill-a-watt").

Check out the standby power consumption. I was surprised by my powered subwoofer taking 8 watts when it's "off". Along with the TV (6 watts), receiver (6 watts), and DVD player (4 watts), that was enough waste to make me turn them off at the power strip.