Black and Decker Power Consumption Monitor

I have been using it for about two months now, and I think it is great! I can turn items on and off and see what they cost to run. This also gives me an estimate of what my monthly bill is actually going to be, instead of waiting for a surprise when the bill comes. Most people are not able to get this kind of detail on their bills without having a device like this.

Here are some examples of what I've discovered with this device:

Normal Electric use = $0.03-$0.04 per hour
Air conditioner on = $0.29-$0.38 per hour addtl
Water Heater on = $0.04-$0.12 per hour addtl



Some of these costs aren't maintained the entire time. For example, the air conditioner doesn't run 100% when its on, only while it's trying to ramp up to the correct temperature, then it backs off and is in a maintain mode. The bottom line is that you can observe how these changes affect your costs.



Installation was pretty simple. All I had to do was make a simple hookup on the outside of my gas meter using a screwdriver. You do have to program the device (instructions inside pretty straight forward) and lookup your billing rates from your electric company, but it's information you should be knowledgeable of anyways.

Cost is about $100. Check out the details at the link below.

Black and Decker Power Consumption Monitor

Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

We bought the Kill-a-Watt, in order to help us figure out where we were spending most of our money in electricity. We were hoping it would also help us figure out whether we had phantom power on some of our devices (using power when not in use).



The device works by simply unplugging the 110-volt device from the wall, plugging in the Kill-a-Watt into the outlet, then plugging the device into the Kill-a-Watt, and pressing the on button. That simple! It starts to measure the amount of kilowatt hours (KwH) of electricity used, and retains the amount of minutes and hours that it has been plugged in, so you can determine how much is used per hour, per day, etc.



We determined that many of our devices did not have phantom power (good!), and that certain devices are very energy intensive, such as ovens and refrigerators. We turned down the temperature slightly on the fridge, and started using our toaster oven more often, instead of heating the entire oven for items that could fit in the toaster oven.

We would highly recommend this device to anyone looking to reduce their energy usage and electrical bills (which should be everybody!). It is affordable, easy to use, and will pay for itself in no time!