The Underscore Archives

Oliver Humpage wrote:

> I've got an Electrisave, it's great. You really do notice what's  
> going on and reduce: "wow, the computer uses *that* much when I leave  
> CPU usage as automatic rather than reduced", or "that's looking a bit  
> high - ohhh, I forgot to turn my amp off" kinda thing.

Mine arrived last week.  It's something of an eye-opener.  I was quite
shocked to see how much our microwave cost to run, for example.  We
don't buy "plastic" food, but I imagine it's quite probable that your
average microwave curry would cost more to cook than it did to buy in
the first place.

There's also a "toy" to allow you to connect it up to your PC, assuming
you can spare a limb or two:

   http://www.rfxcom.com/receivers.htm

though it might just be cheaper for my meter to "have an accident" and
get it replaced by one with a flashy red light I can read using a bit
of simple electronics.

The other thing that I find useful is these:

   http://www.electricity-monitor.com/plugin-power-meter-p-36.html

which allows me to see how much electricity any specific device uses in
a given period of time.  Surprisingly, one of our chest freezers costs
less than £25/year to run, whereas an upright fridge-freezer that we
rarely open costs over £45/year.  The latter will be hitting freecycle
in the very near future and if I want another "overspill" fridge I'll
convert a chest freezer to run at 4C.

James