Monitor your electric usage and save money?

Dawn emailed me and told me about the Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor – it plugs into an outlet in front of a cord and allows you to monitor the electricity usage of your appliances. You can buy one of these monitors for around $25 at Home Depot or Amazon, but Dawn said that you can actually “rent” them from the library like a book!

Pikes Peak Library District has these available for checkout at the Monument, Briargate, and mobile library branches. They come pre-programmed with Mountain View Electric utility rates so it shows you exactly what you’re using. (CSU customers may need to do some math, they’re not available with CSU rates at this point.)

The company’s description of the product says this:

The cost of electricity is soaring but you can help reduce your  energy costs with the new Kill A Watt EZ.  Simply plug it into a  wall socket and then plug in your appliance to assess how efficient  they really are.  The large LCD will display the power consumption  by the kilowatt-hour and the built-in memory retains accumulated  readings when power is interrupted.  Program in your local utility  rate and display projected costs by hour, day, week, month or year.

Evaluate the quality of the electrical power provided from your utility company by monitoring voltage (volt), line frequency (Hz),  and power factor (VA).  Perfect for detecting voltage drops and  brownout conditions before they damage delicate equipment.  The  knowledge you gain from Kill A Watt EZ can save you thousands of dollars.

Dawn said that by using the monitor she’d learned that her deep freezer costs just over 40¢ a day and their Eden Pure heater is just over 55¢ per day.  She said she wants to monitor her computer next to see how much energy it’s using.

I’m curious if anyone else has tried this product and what you thought.  Most importantly, did it give you enough information to help you change your energy use habits?

I’m wondering how my habits would change if I used this monitor.  I’m not sure there are many appliances I could unplug to save energy, but who knows what I’d discover!  Too bad there’s nothing like this for lights or water – or maybe there is?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.