Reggie Burgers

Reggie Goes Green

By Reggie Burgers 2 months ago

I’ve always been interested in how much electricity I’ve been using, and where I’ve been wasting it. Yes, I can look at my electricity bill every month, but I wanted more. So, I bought the Kill A Watt (get it?!)

Basically, you plug this device into a standard 3 prong socket, and plug in other devices into that. It shows you current voltage draw, amperage, but best of all, kilowatts! There’s also a timer, as well as a kw/H meter so you can see EXACTLY how much juice you’re using for any period of time.

It just came in today, and with a few hours of use under my belt, here’s what I found.

Desktop PC
  • In use: 180W
  • Idle: 165-175W
  • Sleep: 16W
  • Off: 10W
Small space heater
  • High: 1300W
  • Low: 700W
  • Fan: 20W
  • Off: 0W
Powerbook
  • Idle: 29W

For the fan, high/low is the power of the air coming out, NOT the temperature. The temperature is a separate control. Interestingly I found that regardless of what the temperature is set to (lowest to highest), the heater draws the same amount of power. So, I can make my room as toasty as I want! Just as long as it’s on low power.

Also, for my desktop computer, I normally just leave my it on and idle all day. So, Kill A Watt showed my usage at idle as 0.6 kw/H for 4 hours. When you look at it in monthly terms, that comes out to about $14, or $168 annually. Hey, that’s a lot of money wasted. By shutting down or putting it to sleep, that’s a lot of money off my monthly electric bill!

I’ve heard that the big power hogs are TVs and cable boxes, and I’ll find that out next time.

11 Comments
Oct 21, 2008
Topics: electricity green killawatt nerd

Comments

On 21 Oct 21:23, John needs to stop hitting refresh was all:
John needs to stop hitting refresh

This is so cool! I’m genuinely pumped to hear your cable box & TV studies.

On 22 Oct 03:24, Sammy exceeds character limits was all:
Sammy exceeds character limits

Wow, Reggie, this is pretty awesome/awful. I always wondered what the energy usage of my unused toys are, and now I have you as a reference. How much was that device? I might want one.

I’ve always heard you should unplug things you’re not using, so maybe this will be the empirical data that gets me to do so. I guess it’s a lot easier to do with power strips: kill a whole slew of machines at once.

On 22 Oct 05:07, Reggie Burgers was all:
Reggie Burgers

It was $19 something at Amazon.

I’ll need to first get an extension cord to do the TV/cable box tests, though. The device is pretty bulky, and would block a few outlets on my power strip.

It’s pretty obvious that devices use more electricity when they’re on, rather than off. But what a lot of people don’t know is that just having something plugged in will draw at least some current. I’ve only had this thing for 12 hours, but it’s already made me more mindful of my computer usage, and I’ve been more attentive to turning lights off when leaving the room.

On 22 Oct 05:15, Reggie Burgers was all:
Reggie Burgers

CFL stat:

I have a table lamp with a 10W CFL. It used 10W to turn on and first heat up, but now that it’s been on for several minutes, it has dropped to 8W. This makes me want to replace all my incandescent bulbs NOW.

On 22 Oct 05:26, Jay Bought Beer From Monks was all:
Jay Bought Beer From Monks

I love this gadget and really wish more people cared about such things. Electricity is really just magic to most people, they don’t give any thought to where it comes from and never make the connection between it and things like oil. I wonder if I installed one of these if it would convince my roommate to turn the lights and his TV off when he goes to sleep. It would probably just make him hate me, though.

On 22 Oct 08:08, Banned Bill is Hutch's nemesis. was all:
Banned Bill is Hutch's nemesis.

I love stuff like this and will probably totally buy one of these! Then I’ll be sad about how much power my fish tanks use.

On 22 Oct 09:22, christina is a diehard baseball fan was all:
christina is a diehard baseball fan
Sammy said:

How much was that device? I might want one.

haha i knew sammy would like it.

On 22 Oct 14:22, maggie HAS HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE!@#(&%#* was all:
maggie HAS HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE!@#(&%#*

i’ve been trying to remember to unplug stuff when i’m not using it. like my sewing machine, my extra lamps, etc. it’s so easy to leave it in.. bleh.

also, don’t leave your chargers plugged in when you’re not using them! (i’m looking at you, ipods cell phones and portable gaming devices!)

my roommate used to get upset about the electric bill being high but he also routinely forgot to shut off his two CRT monitors when he wasn’t using them :)

On 22 Oct 17:09, Sammy exceeds character limits was all:
Sammy exceeds character limits
christina said:
Sammy said:

How much was that device? I might want one.

haha i knew sammy would like it.

Christina is part of the problem, not the solution.

On 22 Oct 22:08, Jason edited his last name was all:
Jason edited his last name

This is the most awesomest thing I’ve seen all day! Totally getting one. We should all get one and report back with our findings.

I fear I am staring at my biggest power drain (I’m talking to you, 30” Apple Cinema screen…).

On 23 Oct 19:04, John needs to stop hitting refresh was all:
John needs to stop hitting refresh

Reg, I’m curious to see if your phone charger results are the same as this guy’s:

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/charger/

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