How Much Can I Save If I Unplug Something?
Wondering what your savings would be if you unplugged your various appliances? While you could do a rough calculation and arrive at an estimate, to get a more accurate figure you would need to measure the actual output, which can be done with the Kill-A-Watt device.
This small, easy-to-use monitor is designed to measure the total power utilized by any household appliance that can be plugged into a standard USA 120-volt AC15 amp.60 Hz outlet. All you need to do is plug any of your appliances or household devices into the Kill-A-Watt and this innovative little device will provide you with more data than is necessary at an accuracy rate of 2%. It displays not only the total power consumed but also the Watts, Amps, Power Factor, Frequency and Voltage, all of which are very handy for regulating the quality and flow of the power. #
The large LCD display screen of the Kill-A-Watt calculates consumption of electricity by the Kilowatt-hour, which is similar to that of your electricity bill and it allows you to make an accurate calculation of how much electricity you consume by the hour, day, week or even the month and the whole year.
All you need to do is divide the amount you have been billed, by the kilowatt-hours you have used and that will give you the gross price per kilowatt hour.
Assume you consumed 588 kilowatt-hours of power and you were billed $70.24. This means you would have to pay 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. According to the bill, the cost per kilowatt-hour is 6.3 cents but this is exclusive of taxes, delivery charges and service fees. If your incremental power rate is estimated at approximately 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, your next kilowatt-hour should in effect cost you about eight cents.
Let’s see how the Kill-A-Watt can be used to check your power consumption at home and in the office:
• During one hour of typical usage, a computer workstation, which includes a laptop computer, cable modem and printer, consumes an estimated 0.01KWh. That would add up to a grand total of two cents if the computer is left on continuously all day; not something you want to worry about at all. The cost would be a bit higher if you use a desktop computer instead of a laptop.
• A ¼ horsepower fan consumes 12.55KWh if it is left on all day. Though that works out to a negligible sum of 69 cents a day, it totals up to a whopping $250 for the whole year; and this is for just one single fan. Consider how much you could save every year, but just switching off all electrical appliances that are not in use.
• The total annual cost for keeping a cell phone charger plugged in almost all the time, is estimated to be about 20 cents a year. The authorities point out that the seemingly negligible cost of keeping one cell phone charger plugged in all the time is offset by the millions of these little gadgets that are being charged at any given time.
Measuring your power usage with a Kill-A-What helps you to focus on saving energy only in situations where it is worthwhile to do so.
Tags: electric plug, plug, save electricity