"Home Energy Use Monitors"

By Chris G.
Green Office Store.com's Associate Content Editor
January 7, 2008

The cost of electricity is going up (both in dollars and in environmental and health impacts) and it doesn't show any signs of doing otherwise. About half of the energy in the American grid is coal generated. We won't bore you with what you already know: coal is a dangerous, nasty, unsustainable, and undesirable way to make power. By using less energy, and greening the electricity that we do use, we can lighten our footprint immensely. The subject of electricity and its environmental impacts is a massive one. We hope that this brief guide can offer some solid suggestions for greening your electricity and use thereof.

A home energy audit is a way to inventory your home's energy use, where energy is lost, and where it can be saved. You can do an energy audit yourself or get a pro. Many utilities also offer home and business energy audits for free.

The two tools available today that will allow the average consumer to perform their own energy audit are the Kill-a-Watt and the Power Cost Monitor.

P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

Here's a gadget that might be useful to help settle these questions: Kill-a-Watt. You just plug it in the power outlet; plug into it whatever it is that you want to test and voila! The first step toward conservation is having feedback on how much you consume.

Kill-a-Watt is not quite perfect: Having an easy to read power-meter that tells you how much everything (individually and together) inside the house consumes in real-time, as with the so-called intelligent houses, would be better (as with the Power Cost Monitor), but Kill-a-Watt has the advantage of being inexpensive and better than the nothing that most people have. "LCD display, cumulative kilowatt-hour monitor, displays volts, amps, watts, Hz, VA, forecast your costs, 0.2% accuracy," says the manufacturer.

The unit's large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, or year while also checking the quality of your power by monitoring voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Now you'll know if it's time for a new refrigerator or if that old air conditioner is saving you money. Don't be another casualty. With the amazing Kill-a-Watt, you'll have wasteful devices pushing up daisies. You should be able to find it online between $15 and $25.

Blue Line Innovations Inc. Power Cost Monitor

Similar to the Kill-a-Watt, the Power Cost Monitor is a very handy little device that monitors your home's energy use in real time, and tells you how much it's costing you. It makes it easy to see which appliances are sucking up the most electricity, and how you can save money by conserving. With just two pieces (the display and the sensor) and easy installation (no electrician required), the Power Cost is an easy, low-maintenance fix that can help reduce your home's electricity use by 5 to 20 percent; get one, and watch with glee as your energy use plummets after installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs and turning the thermostat down a degree or two.

The Power Cost Monitor consists of two components - a small display (which you can place anywhere inside your home) and a sensor unit (which you attach to your electricity meter).

The display unit, located inside the home, receives a wireless signal from the sensor unit which is attached to the outside of your electricity meter. The sensor unit can be easily installed by the homeowner. The sensor unit transmits your meter information to the in-home display unit where your electricity information is displayed in kilowatt hours and dollars and cents.

The Power Cost Monitor does not require an electrician for installation. The Power Cost Monitor has been designed so that it is easy for you to install onto your electric meter.

See the TreeHugger.com Reviews of the Power Cost Monitor: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/powercost_home.php

See the TreeHugger.com Reviews of the Kill-a-Watt: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/killawatt.php