Sunday, October 26, 2008

Saving Energy

I am always looking for ways to cut my electric bill. We turn out lights when not in use, have switched to mainly CFL bulbs, keep our thermostat low in the winter, unplug small appliances when not in use, but the one thing I haven't been actively doing is turning a power strip off on computer and all devices used with computer and the TV, cable box, etc. I know that I should do it but on both my TV and computer ours are extremely hard to get to which just makes leaving it on sometimes easier.

I was looking at Home Construction Improvement and they have a post on Home Energy Saving Tips. One of the things that they recommend is the Smart Strip LCG3 Energy Saving With Autoswitching Technology.



From Amazon: "Ten outlets work together, autoswitching your devices on/off automatically, to save you money on your electric bills." So basically if you use it on your TV when you turn the TV off it automatically turns off power to all of the other connected devices. It is a little more costly than the standard power strip but the reviews look great!

Another interesting device that I saw while I was looking on Amazon is the Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor.



From the product description: "... you can cut down on costs and find out which machines are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect your appliances to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor and it will assess how efficient they really are. The unit's large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, or year while also checking the quality of your power by monitoring voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Now you'll know if it's time for a new refrigerator or if that old air conditioner is saving you money."

I think it would be very interesting to plug in certain appliances and electronics in my house to see just how much energy they are using!

1 comments:

"Hello... It's Me Again..." said...

Very interesting article. I really enjoy your blog!

 
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