Kill-A-Watt

Spend $40 to Kill-A-Watt

Although it has a LCD screen and it is the size of an older ipod, it does not play any mp3s or videos. In fact, it is like a swiss knife with only one blade and really only does one thing - measures electricity consumption. My wife gave me this device, called Kill-A-Watt, for Christmas.

It is simple to use. First you plug a household appliance into the device and then plug the device into the wall. That's it. You are done. The device measures the resulting electrical consumption on a large LCD screen. So, if you know how much your electrical utility charges per kwh, you can quickly calculate how much the appliance is costing you per day/per month/ per year.


I have been rotating this device between different household appliances for the past couple of weeks and here are some of my preliminary results:

* 20 gallon aquarium : $1.0 a month/$12 a year
* Fancy Keurig Coffee Maker : $1.5 per month/ $18 a year
* Old Cathode Ray Tube iMac : $1.9 per month/$22 a year
* Newer Flatscreen iMac & Phone : $2.6 per month/$31 a year
* Old School CRT TV and Stereo : $1.34/$16 a year

Are we going to change anything? Coffee stays at all costs, however, we are now discussing decommissioning the aquarium and our older computer. It is embarrassing that this computer stays on upstairs and I rarely use it.

Feedback is a powerful tool in controlling demand. Anyway, buy one of these for yourself and then give it to a friend.

P4460 Electricity Usage Monitor