Electric Bill Rules of Thumb

I've been thinking about energy usage recently. Turns out that if you take wattage and pretend it's dollars, that's approximately your annual cost for leaving a device on 24/7. So a 50W LCD panel costs $50/year. I have two servers, a PC, some really big powered speakers, so I'm rather curious how I might use less electricity. This is assuming 12c/kWh of electricity.

Also, after some websurfing I bought a Kill a Watt device from smarthome.com. Haven't tried it yet.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:36 AM

    I know this post is ancient, however I was thinking about getting a Kill a Watt device and your blog is about the most unbiased place I have found.

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  2. I borrowed one from the library (check your local library) for two weeks, to put on the highest usage devices (freezer, fridge, computer, tv, etc).

    No surprise, always on stuff is a big expense, normally because they are always on. But it is surprising what the little stuff you don't think about can use - like the cable modems, TVs, and recievers - they actually never turn off all the way and can take 100W/device or more continuously.

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