Comments on: Kill-a-Watt

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:07:15 +0000

Hypersion, All major appliances must by federal law include that little yellow sticker with average electricity consumption (kWh/year). That number, however, is an average. If you open your fridge door more than average or have fewer items (the more full your fridge is, the less it has to work), you’ll use more electricity.

This kind of device would be really helpful to measure power consumption from PCs, TVs, DVD players, cable boxes, stereos, etc… While some of these items list the wattage requirements on the back, as Blaine said, they’re often inaccurate and only when operating at full power.

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:00:07 +0000

They aren’t always accurate, and not everything lists it. Plus, that is when it is actively being used, and not just when it is plugged in and turned off.

By: Hypersion

Hypersion — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 01:49:52 +0000

Don’t most appliances list the watt usage on them?

By: Terri W.

Terri W. — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:24:52 +0000

We got one a few weeks ago and have been slowly tallying up the data on various things around the house, but we haven’t yet found any smoking guns…

Very easy to use.

By: FMF

FMF — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:05:07 +0000

Cool! I may need to check one of these out myself.

By: Jane Dough

Jane Dough — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:31:55 +0000

My brother-in-law purchased a similar device a year or so ago. He checked all his appliances and chargers and figured out what was used the least but was costing the most. His biggest offender? A “Candella” charger. These are electric candels that he used seldom, but tended to keep the charger plugged in and the “candellas” stored in the charger. I think it was costing him a couple of dollars a month. He was so disgusted that he sold the set on eBay.

Cool gadget.