Save on your electric bill with Kill a Watt EZ

Of course you want to save money on your electric bill!

Have you taken a really close look at your bill lately?

You have to shell out more and more money for electricity. For a long time you simply paid your monthly bill and hoped it would not keep increasing. But it did.

Now you are determined to do something about it. This lens will also help you save money on your electric bill by optimizing the operation of your home appliances.

image credit: ms clipart

Read your electric bill carefully. What does it tell you about how much you are paying to operate each of your electric appliances? Not much.

Most electric bills tell you how many kilowatt-hours of electricity you used over your last monthly billing period. Many also give your kilowatt-hours used the previous month, and the year-ago month. You can track these numbers each month and in your mind's eye picture why your use is up or down.

All this is very complicated.

If you are curious about exactly how much electric power a particular appliance in your home is using right now you can walk around and simply look at each appliance label. The label will tell you how many watts it uses. [A watt is a measure of electric power.] You'll have to do some calculations to estimate how much electric power it uses over a month, or a year. A few more calculations and you can estimate how much this appliance will cost to operate.

Now there are useful products now on the market that can do all this for you. One such product is Kill a Watt EZ®, Model 4460, available from SmartHome Inc. for under fifty bucks. (There are Kill a Watt® models that cost less than the 4460 but don't have all the bells and whistles of the 4460.)

Simply plug your appliance into Kill a Watt EZ®. You can tell immediately the rate of power consumption of your appliance in watts, and how much it will cost to operate the appliance during the coming week, month or year -- if it is "always on." If your appliance is used intermittently, keep it plugged into Kill a Watt EZ® during a complete cycle.

Purchase Kill a Watt EZ® from SmartHome, Inc

Kill a Watt EZ®

shows actual cost of operating appliance

accurate within 0.2%

large LCD Display

calculates and forecasts by week, month and year

displays eight critical units of measure

The Kill A Watt EZ® is an appliance power meter that allows you to accurately measure power consumption of household appliances and determine the actual cost of the power consumed. The unit will also project, in real time, the cost of continued use of the appliance by hour, day, week, month, or year. Total consumed power is displayed in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

You can also check the quality of power from your power company by monitoring line frequency (Hz), voltage (Volts) and Power Factor (VA).

It is easy to use with a large display and simple 5-button interface. The unit is safe and features ETL listing and over-current protection.

Take a piece of paper and make four columns.

In column 1 -- list all the separate appliances and electronic devices in your home. Include TVs, DVD and CD players, computers, battery charges, ceiling fans, heaters -- all of them!

In column 2 -- put a check mark by each item that works by remote control. Now use your Kill-a-Watt EZ to measure the power used by each appliance. Plug the appliance into the power meter and then plug the meter into an electrical outlet. Make sure the appliance is turned off.

In column 3 -- record the power consumed by each appliance even when turned off. Now turn the power on.

In column 4 -- record the power consumed when the appliance is turned on.

You may be surprised at the amount of power your appliances and equipment use -- even when turned off. Notice that many of these appliances are remote-controlled. (They require power to be ready for your instant command.) You have now discovered your stealth power-eating appliances and how much stealth power is being "eaten" by each device.

Unplug them when you're not using them. Or plug them into a power strip with an on/off switch, and turn the power strip off when not in use..

You'll save on your electric bill.