- How to use a plug in power meter -
Measure your home devices and appliances electricity usage
Older Vs Newer building - Thermal camera results
If your objective it is to decrease your electricity consumption 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 energy 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.
Learn how to use a power consumption 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.
As explained on the video, we did measure the power consumption of the different dishwasher cycles and that did allow us to know 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.
| Cycle | Power consumption | Total cost |
|---|---|---|
| 70 degrees | 1,21 KWh | 0,31 euro |
| Auto | 0,80-1,10 KWh | 0,20 - 0,28 euro |
| Auto + Vario Speed | 1 KWh | 0,28 euro |
| Eco | 0,60 KWh | 0,15 euro |
In our opinion, a plug-in power meter is a cheap an easy to use device which make us become 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.
How to save electricity at home
If you are looking for tips and advice on how to save some electricity, have a look to this video that we have prepared about this very same topic.
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.
A few ‘Electricity usage calculators‘ examples:
We hope that you have found this post informative and of value for you. If so, do not forget to share so others can also benefit from it.
