Just got my Kill-A-Watt!
 

The more I learn about energy saving, th emore I like this forum compared to the others!

Currently, my laptop is only using 19 Watts! That's surprisingly good, I think! Time to test out some other things!

Gratz! Thats pretty cool . I want to do the same eventually with my archaic not-so-enviro-friendly pc .

I have had mine for a few years. One thing that you learn is that stuff uses energy, even when turned off. Just unplugging stuff that you don't use very often can make a difference.

Indeed, I have unplugged 7 Watts worth so far! Not much...but I've only done one room (and we don't own a bunch of **** anyway).

TV's use power even when turned off. In fact, my TV has an LED to show that it's plugged in. How stupid is that?

AC adapters use power as long as they're on a live outlet. I turn off my PC's power strip when not in use so the printer and speaker power supplies get a rest. Not only that, saves individually turning off the monitor and master power switch on the back of my otherwise "standing by" PC.

I assume that's 19 watts with your laptop battery fully charged. I'd by curious to know what the power draw is while it's charging the battery. If it's not much more, running the laptop on battery a couple hours a day (no AC draw), then charging up while in use, or better yet, overnight unused, may save you some $ at the end of the month.

I'm anxiously awaiting my first electric bill at my new place. The past 6+ years I've had free heat and hot water. $12 to $15 a month except in the summer when closer to $20 with a wall-mount air conditioner.

Now I pay for heat (no need this time of year. Sweatpants and shirt do nicely), central A/C, and hot water.

I'm slowly replacing the incandescent lightbulbs with low-watt fluorescents.
I've pulled 3 of the five 60-watt bulbs from the dining room light, and 4 of the six 40-watters on the bathroom vanity. The living room 75-watt lamp I have on at night now has a 20-watt fluorescent.

I've got a 0.3 watt LED nightlight in the bathroom so night-time visits don't require blinding light on fully dilated pupils in the dark.

I know my G4 Apple iBook power/charge cord is rated between 45-60w max. So I assume when charging and using full processor power, it would be the highest rating.

Also look into timers for a lot of your stuff. I set a timer on my desktop computer, wireless routers, cable modem, and monitor. I believe we saved $7-10 on the next electric bill.

Oh...and we also changed out our most used bulbs to the CFL bulbs...it helps a lot.

I am in the process of changing out all my mom's CFLs, it's just a matter of getting up on the damn chair to do it, already bought all the bulbs. It was sposed to be for her birthday but she got whiney about it, so I haven't told her, ;).

I'm not sure what it will draw charging, but nice time I discharge it (in the airport perhaps) I will let you know when it recharges...but then I wonder if the kill-a-watt will work in nihon. I assume so!

Home efficiency improvements are the best.

I have a energy monitor for the house. It amazing how much energy you can save when you have instantaneous feed back. SG for the home. Gotta love it.:thumbup: Have fun with it.

Can you give some mroe info on that? Name, install time, price, etc :o

EDIT:

Nevermind, found your thread down this page. Opps...

How much did that thing cost z?

With shipping it was $150 but like the SG it will pay for it's self pretty fast.:thumbup:

I would get one for my mom but she would never pay attention!

*sigh* I wonder how much an inline water heater costs...mehbe I'll get her one for christmas...

Much much more. Does she have a programable theromstat for the AC? Or even a hot water heater blanket.

Yes programmable, and she uses it.

No blanket. How much do they run/how good are they?

I used my Kill-a-watt to confirm that my TV, Dish Receiver, and Stereo were consuming 40W combined in the off state. We've started switching the outlet off at night to save over 14kWh per month. Ok, that's not much by itself, but coupled with other energy sappers that now stay unplugged or switched totally off until needed, we are probably saving closer to 100 kWh per month.

And I have all but completely stopped using the mid-tower PC of ours. That thing sucks down over 120W just doing nothing - even after I have underclocked it to 30% of rated speed. It's now switched off at the power strip as well to save another 27W vs. the parasitic draw of everything being only powered down. The laptop peaks out around 20W.

i unplug my ref for 8 hour a day thats from 10pm at night to 8 in the morning when i wait up that save a lot.

It's fun to do a little "cap and trade" system in your own house. I tried to list the things that take power, usually by a certain length. For example, a movie uses 0.17kW. Find the price of things and ask is it worth it? A few cents for a movie, sure. Leaving the strips plugged in at night to lose a quarter, nope. It's fun to find out how much can really be saved. I think I got my KillAWatt for $35 online.

climateprediction.net :thumbup:

I predict that if everybody running that program just shut off the power to their computers when not in use, we could close or at least throttle down one small coal fired power plant. :)

Everyone in a house has instant feedback of their current (get it) electrical draw from the power company. Go watch your meter turn. Its "free" entertainment. You could always buy an non contact ammeter. Just go around and put the clamp on the cord to an appliance it will tell you exactly what its taking.

Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy. The two sides of the AC line cancel each other out and you wind up with a zero or near-zero reading. To get a non-contact reading on a line cord you have to do one of:

• Split the cord and measure only one side (trivial on zip (lamp) cord, messy on jacketed line).
• Use a line splitter (available for under $15, or make your own from an extension cord).
• Buy a multi-core non-contact ammeter (very pricey).

Cheers,
Rick

I know they are expensive, my brother had one on his wedding registry. I'm an electrician and I wasn't going to buy him the cheap one he had listed so I just got him some other stuff. Watching your meter outside is pretty cheap though, and as accurate as your bill.

Is leaving a powerstrip plugged in bad? I turn the 2 off I have and they power..... PS2, Xbox, TV, Stereo, Rabbit Ears, and the other one powers 2 pc towers, 2 monitors, and the printer.

So should I unplug them or is turning off the switch good enough?

I think that turning off the switch is good enough.

Kill-A-Watt says 'no'. (At least on every one in my house.)

Here's a thought. I bet pulse and glide on a refrigerator would show the same results we see on our cars. If it normally stays at 35F or so, but if it was allowed to range 35-40 than it would probably suck up less energy then keeping a constant 35. Right?

I think fridges already p&g, don't they?

They probably do to some extent. I guess I'm relating it to my pellet stove, which when the thermostat dips below the given temperature it turns on for a few minutes and then shuts down, but the temp range is only 5F or so. I think most fridges run on a tight temp range. I could put my thermometer in there (has a cord) and find out without opening it, but I think it probably takes an hour or two for a cycle.

I just ordered 2 kill-a-watts. One for me and one for a co-worker. Got them for $19.99 each including shipping :thumbup: . Should pay for it'self pretty easy.

Turning off switch is good enough.

Ijust got Kill-A-Watt which tells me that my strip (connected to HDTV, DVD player, stereo, halogen light, tape deck, PS2 and 8bit NES) uses about 15W when just plugged in. When I shut off the strip the power goes down to ZERO Watts, so just make sure its turned off- no need to unplug according to Kill-A-Watt.

Also the HDTV uses about 200W and goes up quite a bit once you pass a certain volume, the stero uses 50W just in Stand-By mode so thats now off unless in use. Even the DVD player uses about 10W once its turned on and a few more watts when actualy playing. The KILLER here is the halogen lamp that uses over 300W- more than the strip with HDTV, stereo and DVD playing combined. I used that light ONCE in the last week. Looking to bring down electric bill which hit a high of $148 last month. Will be testing PCs in the house sometime in next few weeks.

JWXR7- It will DEFINITELY pay for itself. Congrats on the buy. This is just as good as SGII and worth the money. Going to be lending to ALL my friends. My power strip is off at night now whereas we never turned it off before burning at least a constant 15W. Many times the stereo AND DVD player were on burning another 60 watts for a total of 75 watts. The halogen would be one quite a bit many times needlessly (falling alseep on watch while watching TV WITH halogen on). This is my LAST $148 electric bill. I think we can EASILY get below $100, but of course we were very wasteful and coul prob have knocked a bit off with common sense. This tool def helps though and helps us save even more. Will report savings next bill

So are you saying that your power strip draws 15W with the switch on the strip turned off? If so, I'd replace that sucker. It shouldn't draw anything.

OOPS meant to say that it goes to ZERO Watts when I turn the strip off uses its own switch. Changing the thread to say switch strip off (Its OK to leave plugged in, just make sure its turned off)
Thanks for the heads up. Power strip uses 15W when plugged in and ON, but uses 0W when plugged in and turned OFF.