With the deregulation of Electricity coming very soon, all of us are going to be facing ever higher electric bills.

I just found a great buy on a product that I have wanted to get for some time.
It is called the "Kill a Watt" and what it is basically, is an inline electronic amp meter that tells you how much wattage/amperage a given product is using not only when it is on but more importantly, how much is is sucking when "off" .

Any electronic device with a remote is never really off, it is in standby mode waiting for you to give it the command to come up to full power.
How much they use while in standby may surprise you.

One guy said his DVD player was consuming 20 watts just sitting there in the "off" mode.
I have a Surround Receiver, VCR, DVD, 100 Disc CD Player, Cassette deck all that run off remotes, so I am Very curious just how much money is going up in thin air to the evil power company each month.

What I will do after finding out which ones are vampires is to put them on a separate power strip that i will have to manually turn on when I want to run the Stereo for instance which lately is not very often.

Any wall wart is a vampire, if it does not need to be on constantly, unplug it!

Anyway, I found the deal today that made me order the Kill A Watt.
Here is the link if anyone is interested;
http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/30248/p3-kill-a-watt-electricty-load-meter-and-monitor-23/

Thanks,
Keith

Very curious just how much money is going up in thin air to the evil power company each month.

This is pretty easy to figure out. Assuming you have 5 devices that are using 20 watts when idle for a total of 100 watts, and you are paying 12 cents per kilowatt/hour (average in PA is around 11.8 cents kW/h) the "evil power company" is lining their big fat wallet with an extra ... drum roll ... please ...

29 cents per day.

So... if you pay $25.00 for said device including shipping, it will pay for itself in 86 days, at which point you will now be saving 29 cents per day. From a financial standpoint alone you would be better off skipping the biggy size upgrade at the burger barn, or learning to like the taste of IC Light, or getting those books back to the library on time.

Seriously though, saving energy is the right thing to do and every little bit helps. Other devices waste energy at idle too. Anything with a wall wart is a candidate for unplugging, especially printers. You are unlikely to see a big difference on your bill, but if everyone saves a little it can make a difference. Then they will raise the rates. :)

Everything sounds cheap when broken down to the day. That is why salesmen say "For only pennies a day you can have the piece of mind with this lovely extended warranty"

And your math is spot on, however using your math and then looking at it on a yearly basis it works out to $105.85 per year.
Now add the 40% increase when the rates BEGIN to run wild and you are at $148.19
And do not think they won't continue to raise prices as they overhall the aged power grid system.
I call them evil because they are a monopoly. I just like choices, must be the American in me.

Now if I find another 100 watts per day of useless power waste I will be near $300 per year.

That will buy quite a few more slot cars, beers, and maybe even an occasional road trip :)

Anyway, I'll let you all know what results I come up with.
Thanks,
Keith

I agree 100% Keith. And I got into the habit of pinching pennies and making quite a few dollars out of them when I was living in the big truck. It took a bit of up front expense, but paid for itself so many times over, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I found myself driving on the road again. A decent 1000 watt power inverter cost me about $250.00. I was then able to buy a cheap 750 watt microwave oven and instead if spending 5-6.00 for lunch, I'd heat up a 1.50 bowl of soup with a couple slices of buttered bread. Savings per day.. about 4.00. Then I got a 1000 watt coffee maker. 5.00 buys a big can of coffee, and 1.00 for filters. Retail cost per cup (32 ounce) is about 1.50, my net cost per cup is about 10 cents. Those two changes equalled about a 65.00 savings per week. Additional benefits included a power source for my guitar processor, the CD burner so I could record my musical creations, the ability to run a regular TV vs one made for 12 volt, a home stereo system, and a regular DVD player. And yes it was crowded in my truck, and yes I did have all of this (and 4 guitars, a bass, and a keyboard) in a large bunk International. Proper use of space made all the difference. One other expense I forgot about was the 15.00 worth of bungee cords.. LOL Hey, it worked!!

P.S. almost forgot the biggest savings point of this story... Truckstops are no different that any other retailer. They make you walk past things to get to what you most likely want to make the most of impulse shopping. This trick eliminated 5 trips through the truckstop which would usually find me wasting money on some stupid thing I didn't need. Big savings there...:thumbsup:


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Yes I guess you can say I was nuts for toting all this stuff around, but the truck was home.. and while all this stuff most take for granted living within 4 walls and a roof, this made a rolling box feel more like home to me...Besides, having all this stuff made it very difficult to buy more junk as I had no place to put it.. BIG savings yet again!! :thumbsup::lol:

Appreciate the ingenuity, SC!

Got in the habit of unplugging anything with a wall wart after my house got struck by lightning. Hole in the roof was obvious. However, it also took out a TV, CO detector, portable vac battery charger, cordless phone.... the stuff that was truly off was fine, the stuff with a trickle running through it, or in off mode, was fried to a large part.

Now I have a power strip in my "office" with speaker power, chargers, etc plugged in, when I am off (to work) for days so is it.

. . . You are unlikely to see a big difference on your bill, but if everyone saves a little it can make a difference. Then they will raise the rates. :) . . .

Precisely.

Great post Pomfish!!!!! I to have noticed that even with the lights out at bed-time our house is/was lit up light a X-mas tree. All those little lights, green,red,and blue telling me I have something plugged in and it is on stand-by. Unfortunately my home theater receiver (Harmon Kardon) does not have battery back-up or a memory. If I unplug it or we have a power outage(which is frequent here) I have to re-set all the setting for every device (VCR, DVD player, tuner, TV, tape deck, etc.) that runs through the receiver. I know it's not the most difficult thing in the world...BUT....i'm old and lazy and don't want to have to re-set everything on a daily basis. We are doing other things thoiugh.... the computer is on a power strip and off it goes at night. Cell phone charger unplugged and i turn things off instead of leaving them in stand-by mode. Every little bit DOES help.

THINK GREEN and hug a tree for me.

I totally agree wit the sentiment that saving a few pennies a day doesn't sound like much, because those pennies DO add up. Absolutely. I also recommend that you always "do the math" when evaluating any cost saving device or technique and figure out where the break-even point is so you know when the savings will actually start to occur. At that point you should also factor in other concerns, like convenience, maintenance costs, and the costs (financial or otherwise) of any changes you'll need to make. There are some instances where everything lines up in your favor, so no matter how you look at it, the choice becomes obvious. I've found the compact fluorescent light bulbs to be a no brainer in this regard. Even though they cost a lot more going in, they will eventually pay for themselves in energy savings. But the big thing for me was convenience. I have some flood lights lighting up my back yard. With the incandescent bulbs I had to climb up on a ladder every 3 or 4 months to replace a bulb. The compact fluorescent versions last for years (how many I don't yet know). So between them and the compact fluorescent lights on the side of my garage I haven't had to change a single bulb this winter, which is a big deal for me. The down side is that these lights don't come on at full brightness instantly, they take a few minutes to warm up, so they would not work well with a motion detector.

Anything that's a recurring or subscription based expense is typically a good candidate for cost reduction. I know plenty of "cash strapped" people who complain about expenses, yet they are paying $5-$6 bucks a day for cigarettes, $80 bucks a month for cell phone with a data plan, and $60 bucks a month for cable, driving a leased car, and idling their car for 5 minutes every day waiting in the drive through to buy a $3.00 fluffy poof foamy hot beverage. So like slotcarman12078 said, if the primary goal is cost savings, there are a lot of other places to look for payback.

I wasn't kidding about the rate hikes. The largest municipality in my area recently raised water rates because people are drinking more bottled water and water usage had declined. The same thing will happen with other energy and utility sources. They have to sustain their cost structure, so you will simply have to pay more per unit. Thank you for saving energy, here's your bill.

"fluffy poof foamy hot beverage"

Best description I ever heard for that!
Made me laugh.

I don't drink them , high blood pressure so decaf iced tea with just a touch of sugar.

Thanks,
Keith

)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp251/slotcarman12078/41.jpg

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp251/slotcarman12078/51.jpg

BIG savings yet again!! :thumbsup::lol:

SCM,
Where did you have your track? :) rr

.... where else would it go??

.... where else would it go??

nice one nd!

Dang spy satellites caught me again!!! LOLOL!!! The track was/is in storage... Soon to be rescued.. I just hope it's not a rusted, warped, melted blob of goo now.. 5 years in Fl heat..

Coming soon? Try it happened in 1996. I got layed off along with 800 others because of the industry being deregulated. Do you know what deregulation means? It means no more monopolies. Its a good thing for the consumer. Bad thing for the industry worker. You know why my company layed off 800 people? To cut their costs so they could lower their electric price / kilowatt hour so they wouldnt get their customers stolen from other companies with lower rates. Industrial and commercial customers along with some municipalities that have contracts can shop for the best price. The individual home owner cannot. I do know the deregulation was for a set period of time. It was to be reviewed by the BPU and PUC to see its effectiveness. Thats when the price increases will come.

Along one of "Too's" ideas.

Real world data.

Puget Sound Energy had an introductory program which had the compact flourescents at 18 cents a piece! While technically it didnt decrease our electric bill, use of the compacts allowed us to provide additional full time security lighting at no extra cost.

I bought a pile of them. We use them primarily for exterior/security lighting around the home. While not ideal for motion detector short timed fixtures due to their start up time; they are excellent for dusk to dawns or any set it and forget it application. I have seen 4 to 6 years service life!!! I can also certify that not having to fetch the ladder and fiddle diddle with fixtures and bulbs frequently is a great bonus.

Side note: The compact flourescent makes a wonderful replacement for your garage drop light. They run cool and will not scortch flesh, paint, or upholstery when your in tight or forgetful. The true beauty is that they can also be dropped repeatedly and survive shop rigors with ease. I have had some last over a year; which is UNHEARD of even with the so called heavy duty incandescents.

I find that just a couple of extension cords hooked up
to the neighbors outlets to run my garage door and
basement lights saves me bundles.