Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Measuring the Energy You Use?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-many-kilowatts-do-you-burn-in-an-hour dept.

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?

3 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Stating the obvious by iainl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't you have meters anywhere you could keep an eye on?

    Extensive tracking on a per device basis is probably going to use up energy itself, so I'm really not sure if that bit will achieve too much.

    --
    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  2. Re:Weird units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You have Wh in the US? I thought you measure energy in ounceyards or something like that?

  3. (cheaply!) -- Is free cheap enough? by bloodSausage · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.