Plug in power meter
How to monitor the electricity using at home
If your objective it is to decrease your electricity usage and save money on your electricity bills, the first step that you need to take it is to measure how much electricity you are consuming.
Afterwards, you need to find the most effective ways to reduce your electricity consumption and measure how much electricity you are actually saving.
All of our house appliances and devices like the washing machine, the dishwasher, the TV or the printer are plugged to a wall socket.
So, with a power consumption meter we can determine how much electricity our appliances or devices are using and, more importantly, we can measure the electricity usage over a period of time.
The image below shows the power meter that we are using during our tests. For more details and specifications, clicking on the image will re-direct you to the product page in Amazon.
How to use a plug in power meter
Following the principle that one image is worth one thousand words, we have made a video where we show how to use a plug-in power meter and how it can be used to measure our appliances and devices power consumption.
We are working towards making the videos available in different languages so, if English is not your main language, have a look to our YouTube channel for other language options.
Do not forget to ENABLE the CAPTIONS.
Measuring the electricity usage of a dishwasher with a plug in power meter
As explained on the video, we did measure the electricity usage of our dishwasher cycles and that did allow us to klearn that we were not using the most efficient cycle.
We were mostly using the Auto cycle, which consumes more electricity than the Eco cycle. Even though there is only a difference of 13 cents per cycle, in the long run we will be saving quite a bit of money on electricity by using the Eco cycle.
In our opinion, a plug-in power meter is a cheap an easy to use device which make us more aware of our daily electricity usage.
And, as we have proved already, to save money it may just be matter of being more aware of how our habits (lifestyle) can contribute towards reducing our energy and water usage.
As an example on how our habits define our electricity and water consumption, have a look to this video where we review what it is more economic, if washing the dishes by hand or using the dishwasher.
Energy conservation
Energy conservation can be defined as the decision and the act of using less energy
Energy conservation both benefit you and the environment
The act of saving and conserving electricity does benefit you because you will be paying less on your energy bills.
And it also does benefit the environment because conserving electricity prevents any unnecessary waste of natural resources.
Now, at individual level it may not look worth to try to save a few watts here or there.
Still, every little counts and if hundreds or thousands of us do save a little every time, it will make an important contribution towards conserving our natural resources.
For example, if 9000 households would manage to save as little as 10 Watts per day (0,01 kWh) that would add to 32850 Kilowatt hour (kWh) saved per year.
9000 households x 0,01 kWh per day x 365 days per year
=
32,850 kWh saved per year
That is a considerable amount of electricity, but let’s add additional perspectives for clarity:
> Assuming an average cost of 0,18 euro (or dollars, or pounds, or any other currency) per kWh, we would collectively be saving nearly 6000 euro per year.
> To produce 32,850 kWh of electricity it is necessary to use around 17 metric tons of coal or 56 barrels of residual fuel oil.
In any case it is clear that small energy savings do really count when looking into the bigger picture.
Proven ways to save electricity at home
If you are looking for saving electricity ideas at home, have a look to this video where we provide some useful tips to reduce the electricity usage and decrease the electricity bill.
All our videos can be found in YouTube, in both English and Spanish languages.
Additionally, if you are looking for energy saving opportunities but you don’t know where to start, use our electricity usage calculators to become aware of your electricity consumption, the electricity costs and the potential savings.
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