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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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 Posted: 12/08/05 - 09:42 Post subject: Has anybody used anything like these?
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Residential Grade Digital Electricity Meter Measures and Monitors Energy Consumption
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Kill A Watt Operation:
* Install in standard USA outlet.
* Insert plug of 110VAC to 115VAC appliance.
* Depress Volt, Amp, Watt, Hz, or KWH buttons.
* Read LCD display. See the energy efficiency level of the appliance.
LCD display: Energy consumption by Kilowatt-hour like utility company energy efficiency meter. Calculate electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, etc.
Check electrical power quality by monitoring voltage (Volt), line frequency (Hz) and power factor (VA). Detect voltage drops around a home or business. Practice energy conservation. Detect potential brownout conditions before voltage drops damage delicate voltage sensitive equipment. Check quality of electrical outlets before you purchase a home or building: no electrician needed.
The Kill A Watt Electricity Energy Meter is a reliable power meter. Conserve energy and reduce power bills by learning checking for appliance inefficiency. Replace or turn off those appliances. Check energy consumption of extra freezers or refrigerators.
Save hundreds of dollars annually by reducing wasteful consumption.
Features/Specifications of Kill-A-Watt Digital Power Meter:
* ETL Approved
* Large LCD Display
* Electric Consumption Monitor
* Display of Eight Critical Measurements.
* Resets after 99 hours
* Accuracy: +/- 0.2%
* Operating Voltage: 115 Volts AC Max, 60 Hz
* Voltage: 125 Volts
* VAC Max Current: 15 Amps
* Max Power: 1875 VA
* Weight: 5 oz.
* Dimensions: 5 1/8" X 1 5/8" X 2 3/8
* Model P4400
* 6 Month Limited Manufacturer's Warranty.
NOTE: NOTE: Appliances must be 115V AC or less. Electric ranges and clothes dryers use 230VAC.
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I'm trying to figure out what's using so much electricity in my house. These are outlet-level meters, which seem to be what I'm looking for. Has anybody used these (or similar) before? The one I linked above seemed to be the cheapest, it's $68 for 2 units.
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kemble
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 1909
Location: MI
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 10:20 Post subject:
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I have used them in the past. They work well for what you are looking for.
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Docter
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 21 Oct 2002
Posts: 3420
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 11:43 Post subject:
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Water heater.
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kemble
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 1909
Location: MI
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 11:58 Post subject:
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| Docter wrote: | | Water heater. |
99.9% of them are gas here.
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sinrakin
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 7044
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 12:02 Post subject:
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It would be pretty interesting to see exactly how much your PC was using. Power supplies are rated at 450W or so, but I'll bet it uses a lot less, but I wonder how much less. And it would be interesting to see how much it goes down by putting it into standby as opposed to just sitting there doing nothing.
Also stuff like leaving the cable box and receiver on while you're not actually watching TV, which I tend to do. It would be interesting to see what that uses.
If you have electric water heaters those do use a lot - you can put timers on them if they're electric so they don't keep the water hot during the day while you're at work or at night.
There's a lot of stuff that's just constantly going that you don't think about: circulator pumps, water softeners, well pumps, glowing light switches, cordless phones, electric toothbrushes or razers in a charging base, electric thermostats, clocks, refrigerator, the circuitry in electric ovens and microwaves, garage door openers. I'm sure the idle power consumption of those things is small, but the average house has so many of them it might add up to a lot.
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Jukas
Toomuchtimeonhands
Joined: 19 Mar 2003
Posts: 896
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 12:09 Post subject:
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Water heater, Extra Fridge/Freezer (Check your fridge's coils, likely they need to be cleaned), Quad Opteron Pron server.
If you have teenagers in your house, skip all above steps and immediately blame them.
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Occulis
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 13293
Location: Moral Relativity Central
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 12:38 Post subject:
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| Jukas wrote: | Water heater, Extra Fridge/Freezer (Check your fridge's coils, likely they need to be cleaned), Quad Opteron Pron server.
If you have teenagers in your house, skip all above steps and immediately blame them. |
haha
My girlfriend's little sister screws with her moms thermostat all the time. 107 outside? She sets it to 65 indoors. 50 outside? Sets it to 78.
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 14:16 Post subject:
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| Jukas wrote: | Water heater, Extra Fridge/Freezer (Check your fridge's coils, likely they need to be cleaned), Quad Opteron Pron server.
If you have teenagers in your house, skip all above steps and immediately blame them. |
I have one machine (Athlon 750) that stays on 24/7, but I'm pretty frugal with use of the other computers. I used to have like 6 or 7 running all the time back when I 3-boxed EQ, and that was with CRT monitors, and even then my bill wasn't this high. We have a noisy fridge and a s****y electric stove which I suspect are accounting for most of it. I try to save money by eating out less and get assraped on electric bills cooking. Sometimes I hate NY.
I remember some talk a couple of years ago about the "dangers" of devices that seep electricity, like crap that goes into "standby" mode when you turn it off. We have like 2 night-lights that have built-in photoswitches, so they shut off automatically when it's light. I'm just tired of wondering what's using so much juice, so hopefully this will eliminate the need to speculate. Too bad the stove can't go on it.
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sinrakin
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 7044
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 15:32 Post subject:
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Long shot, but do you live in your own house, or an apartment? I've had friends with huge electric bills who eventually found out that there was an outlet in a hall or closet or stairwell or basement that was technically on their meter, and their neighbors ran an extension cord into their apartment and ran as much as possible of their stuff off of it 
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Owyyn
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2900
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 16:00 Post subject:
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The poor man's way of checking is to turn off all your breakers, and then turn them on one at a time. Check the meter on the side of the house to see which breaker makes it jump the quickest.
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 12/08/05 - 17:06 Post subject:
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Yeah, but you need to do a test like that for at least an hour to get a decent sample, and I don't feel like f*****g with breakers and having the power out around the house for hours, plus reading the meter is a pain in the ass. I sort of tried this method already.
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Maldek
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 2089
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