Is there any device you can get to plug devices into to work out how much power each device uses.?

Question

Hi My family has had a huge power bill this week.

We are using a lot of old equipment which might be part of the reason.3 heaters the are probably 20 years or older and a oven thats probably 30 years or older, and our water takes about 1minute to heat up.

Is there any device you can get to plug devices into to work out how much power each device uses.

I have the computer turned on for several hours day but often have the screen turned off of coarse everyone is blaming my PC.

I am wondering if one or more of the old devices is faulty and leaking power and how much power my PC uses.

Answer 1

The easiest way would be to check the label on every appliance.  Every electrical device should have a label stating the "watts" it uses.  Electric heaters use many watts (1000 - 1800).

Electric water heaters probably are way up there too.  Anything with an electric heating element, will use a lot of power.

What you want is called a "watt hour meter" and there are a few on the web:

http://www.terrapass.com/Merchant2/merch...

It might be easier just to use the high wattage appliances sparingly.

Answer 2

I don't know of any device that could compute power consumption. But, there are some sites that could calculate your energy consumption for you. You just have to specify the kind of appliance, the frequency and duration of usage, and some other stuff. I checked out the first link for you, and it's pretty much what you need.The second link doesnt give you the kWatts, though. Just the price.

try these:

http://www.esb.ie/main/energy_home/appli...

http://www.horizonpower.com.au/environme...

Answer 3

For heavy electrical devices such as ranges, ovens, and electric dryers, I don't have a direct answer.  For lighter devices, such as refrigerators, washers, most microwave ovens, and personal electronics, there is a handy device.

A company called P3 makes a device called Kill A Watt and their current model is theP4400.  It plugs into the wall and then you plug your device into the meter.  It has an LCD readout that you can see how many amps is drawn by the device, how many watts it uses, and over a period of time, it will even track your kilowatt-hours usage, since there will be times the device is off and other times on.  If you have a Home Depot near you, they carry it for around $39.95, but you can order it from Amazon.com or similar for $25 or less.

My computer monitor shuts off after 10 minutes, but I never shut off my computer or even put it in standby.  It's running 24/7.  It uses 135w of power.  Now, my electric rate might be 12¢ per kwh, but when they add on everything, I'm really paying 14¢ per kwh.  So here's the math: 135w x 720 (hours in a month), divided by 1,000 (to change watts to kilowatts) and my computer is using less than 100 kwh per month.  At 14¢ per kwh, that comes out to less than $14 a month for my computer.  Pretty cheap for all the stuff my computer's doing all day and night.  Even my landline costs me more than $14 a month and I only use that once in awhile.

My kids used to have a bad habit of leaving lights on everywhere all the time.  Once they were grown and gone, I noticed that my electric bill went down by almost 1/3.  The new CFL bulbs help a LOT, even with kids.  Air conditioning is the biggest drain on the electric bill.  Same with electric heat.  Next would be an electric water heater, and if you do lots of laundry, an electric dryer.  In other words, BIG appliances.

Try out that Kill A Watt and you'll be pretty relieved to find that your power consumption for personal electronics is not all that bad.