Friday, February 8, 2008

Frugal Friday - Monitoring Electricity Usage

Here is my Frugal Friday tip - buy, beg, borrow or steal a "Kill A Watt".

About a year ago we purchased a little device called a "Kill a Watt" (KAW). "Simply connect any appliance to the Kill A Watt™, and it will assess how efficient they really are. A display will count consumption by the Killowatt-hour, same as your local utility. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even an entire year. Also check the quality of your power by monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor. Now you´ll know if it is time for a new refrigerator or if that old air conditioner is still saving you money."

Having this little device can let you know in seconds how efficient your appliances are. For instance - the little heater living beneath my desk in the basement - sucks up a-lot-O-watts. If it were not for the fact that the basement borders on sub-arctic temperatures in the winter, and my computer lives in the basement...I might have to give it up.

But since I'd prefer to advert the danger of hypothermia - I'm gonna keep it, but I'll monitor the use of it. If I leave my desk, even for a few minutes - I (usually) turn it off.

The KAW costs about $23 on Amazon or you can find them on eBay for various prices. I don't like the idea of spending money to save money, but it might end up saving you a lot more money than the amount you spent for the KAW in the first place.

Better yet - after you've used your KAW to test all your appliances etc. - sell it on eBay. You probably won't get back what you paid for it - but something is better than nothing. Or get together with a sibling or friend and divvy up the cost.

For more Frugal Friday tips - please head on over to Crystal at Biblical Womanhood.

2 comments:

Peggie said...

I never heard of this, sounds like a good investment. I wonder about some of my older appliances and what they are doing to the bill, I guess this would tell me! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, too, for commenting on my blog.

Pieces said...

Interesting. I'll have to consider this one.