Your electricity bill probably jumped this winter. While we try to turn off egregious wasters of energy, some of us don’t realize where the electricity hogs are. How about some easy data collection and analysis?
Kill-a-Watt meters are easy to use:
- Calculate use and potential savings with this worksheet.
- Costs about $30, but available free at many public libraries.
- Monitor one device/appliance at a time.
- Compare results with expectations.
- Whole house monitoring, including what’s on when and in real-time.
- Costs $300-$350, plus installation by a licensed electrician.
- Uses wi-fi to communicate to the app.
These monitors help find:
- Phantom loads – devices that are “on” all the time, even if rarely used.
- Appliances you’ve long forgotten were plugged in – hot tubs, “beer fridges” in the garage, routers, cable boxes, game consoles, electric blankets, etc.
Plug rarely-used appliances into smart power strips.
Planetarily,
Laura & Gil
Our friends Laura & Gil Richardson are, in their own words, “imperfect” but they are much further down this Planetarian path than anyone I know. They are a treasure trove of sustainable living inspiration and we’ve asked them to share one simple swap per week that they’ve made (and the products they love) in hopes it might inspire you to make them, too.
