Kill-A-Watt electric metering device

[Pete]

after seeing my last 2 electric bills creep up to near $70, I decided to see what exactly I was spending my money on.  I ordered the Kill-A-Watt measuring device from Newegg for $20.  It was delivered today, and I started measuring things.

My quad core desktop with dual hard drives runs about 70 watts at idle, and bounces up to about 140 watts with various loads (I didn't full load test it, more so real usage), when put into sleep mode, 2 watts.

I plugged in my home theater power strip with everything off.  25 watts with everything off, wtf?  Something is amiss here.  Turns out it's my Directv receiver that is drawing 25 watts 24/7, I'm guessing to keep the guide up to date.  I wish there was a way to shut it off totally.  I will just flip the power strip off and see if it has to rebuild the guide every time or not.  Disappointing to say the least.  I didn't test it with everything on, I might have to do that tomorrow to see.  I wouldn't be surprised to see 200+ watts.

I then put it on my laptop, a Latitude E4300.  During normal usage, 11-14 watts, under heavy load (booting VM's), I saw it spike to 21 watts.  So my laptop turned on and under load uses less power than my Directv receiver does when turned off.  Brilliant.

I took it downstairs and plugged it into the power strip serving my home server, 2 battery backups, switch, router, and wireless ap.  160 watts.  yikes.  if I turn off the home server, it drops to about 28 watts.  I might have to look into replacing the 'server' with an old laptop or something.  

I didn't think much of any of this, but over time I'm guessing it really adds up.  When I get some more time I'm going to test my fridge and all that stuff out of curiosity.  

Here and I thought it was my new tv sucking the juice all the time, when it was the stupid tv receiver and home server.  This device is really cool, you can program it with the cost of a kw/hr of electricty, and let it poll for a length of time, and it will tell you the cost to run that device.

[DannyBoy]

Thank god my dad didn't have anything like that when we were growing up.   

"You're only allowed to use the radio for 20 minutes a day!  No leaving it on while you're sleeping, it peaks at 18 watts!"

[Pete]

hah, well I remember when my electric bill used to be $35 a month, so I knew something was up....

[DannyBoy]

So whats changed?  haven't you had that tv box for awhile?

[Pete]

since early summer.  That and my old home server died and I put this new one in.

[Ben]

there is one available i saw that goes on your meter outside and sends a wireless signal inside to a receiver, you can monitor in real time what your electric bill is racking up to

[BC]

$35 a month....puhleeze....I think my air compressor uses $100 a month....

[Ben]

i agree, for as extreme temperatures as you guys get there, your utility bills are rediculously low.

[Pete]

would be even lower if I had a cool guy wood stove in my house like you do!

[BC]

I shudder to think what our natural gas bill might be without the wood stove.  In fact I was out splitting and stacking wood on Saturday!

[Ben]

It is getting to that time of year again. I dont start burning until mid-late november usually, but we seem to be rushing into cooler temperatures way sooner then usual this year, if that keeps up i may be starting in a few weeks. Im still not even close to turning the furnace on yet though

That woodburner is the BEST. I would hate to go through a winter without it, its the best part of winter for me. I love everything about it, from getting the wood, to splitting it, starting fires, maintaining them, etc.  Never would have thought i would like it so much when i bought my house. Its an addiction, i can sit and talk for an hour about burning with other guys at work that use wood like other people talk about sports with each other

[Pete]

just thought I'd update this..since changing all the stuff I mentioned above, my electric bill was $42 last month.

[Jeremy]

Im gonna have to do this at the new house. 

[Pete]

$70 to $42 is definitely nice, especially considering it's getting cold and I'm spending more time inside.