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Buy a device to monitor your household electricity consumption.

Last comment by user_6 on 19 Jan 2011: See the rest of this discussion

Description

Purchase and install a device to monitor your electricity consumption. These devices are typically connected to the main electric service line to your home and indicate the current draw of power (watts) by electrical devices in your home. Turn on a light, and the display will change to indicate increased power draw. The device can assist you in managing your electricity consumption in various ways. Very simply, it can make you aware of how much electricity you consume over the course of a day or week. Seeing the display increase in watts is a powerful signal that your activities are consuming power. It can also be used to identify when devices have been left on unintentionally. You can turn off all the lights and appliances and note the baseline power draw of your home. Then, for example, when heading to bed at night, if the display is higher is the baseline, you know something is drawing power, such as a light remaining on in another room.

Tags

• homeowner
• once
• other
• residence
• upfront
• year round

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Assumptions We Made

Purchase and install a whole-house energy monitoring device which shows real time electricity consumption as various appliances and lights, etc are turned on an off. Savings are variable depending on personal reaction to viewing data. Potential conservative savings are perhaps 10% of total electricity annually, about 10,000 kWh for 2001 (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/enduse2001/enduse2001.html).

Impacts

Initial Impacts

Each time you carry out this action, the immediate impacts are:

• Costs 140.00 dollars

Ongoing Impacts

Some actions also have additional impact over time. For this action, these are:

• Saves 98.62 dollars per year
• Saves 1000.79 kilowatt hours per year
• Saves 1360.92 lbs of CO2 per year

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