Keeping Tabs on Your Energy Hogs
February 2010
Read this
issue of Greentips online

Using monthly electric bills to keep track of your energy use can
prove frustrating since appliances consume different amounts of energy at
different times and the bill comes weeks after the electricity is consumed.
However, a growing number of devices allow homeowners to track their electricity
use in real time. According to an Oxford University study (see the Related
Resources), this type of direct feedback on energy use typically helps
homeowners reduce their energy consumption—and costs—by 5 to 15 percent.

Whole-house meters. This type of device connects
either to your home’s circuit breaker box or electric utility meter, and
wirelessly transmits data to a portable digital console. The console displays
both your current electricity usage and the related cost based on your utility
rate (which you program into the console). This information allows you to
measure how your consumption changes throughout the day, such as when your
refrigerator’s compressor turns on or when you turn your television off.

Whole-house meters vary in price from approximately $100 to $200
depending on their features. Some can measure consumption at two different rates
(if your utility’s rate changes based on time of day or total usage), while
others can factor in the effect of home energy systems such as rooftop solar
panels that offset conventional electricity
use.

Plug-in meters. These devices are a less
expensive but somewhat more limited option for tracking the energy consumption
of individual appliances. You simply plug the meter into an outlet and plug an
appliance into the meter, which displays the appliance’s electricity usage as it
operates.

For as little as $30, these gadgets allow you to measure how much
electricity an appliance uses in various power settings, including standby mode
(when the appliance continues to draw power even though it is turned off). You
can also measure consumption over time, which can be helpful for appliances such
as refrigerators that draw varying amounts of electricity during the day. One
drawback of plug-in meters is that they cannot measure the contribution of
“hard-wired” appliances such as central air conditioners, water heaters, or
wall/ceiling light fixtures, which can represent up to 40 percent of home
electricity usage. (See the Related Resources for a list of appliance
consumption figures.)

Related
Resources

Oxford
University (UK)—The Effectiveness of Feedback on Energy
Consumption (pdf)

Green Building
Advisor—Home Dashboards Help Reduce Energy
Use

Energy Savers
Blog—You Can’t Manage Energy Use That You Don’t
Measure

Energy
Information Administration—Residential Electricity Consumption by End
Use 

Next month your issue of Greentips will look a
little different!

• The Greentips newsletter will be part of
  a new monthly UCS e-newsletter called The Pulse.
  
• You will receive your first issue on March 8.
  
• This new e-newsletter will come from action@ucsusa.org.
  
• Please be sure to add action@ucsusa.org to your address book to
  ensure it doesn’t get caught in your spam filter.
  
• All the great information you are used to getting
  in Greentips will still be in this new newsletter, plus more
  facts you need from the experts you
  trust!

To ensure you
continue to receive emails from UCS, add greentips@ucsusa.org to your address
book.
 
We are committed to protecting your privacy,
so your email address will NEVER be sold or
exchanged. 
 
This message was sent to
allahasiatic@earthlink.net. To stop receiving Greentips emails, click
to unsubscribe.