Came across this nifty little device today, and it just reminded me all too much of the feedback the car gives us. I think i'll probably wait - the version that will connect to your PC (not available yet) would probably be much more useful! http://www.theenergydetective.com/ There is the question of installation, of course - they recommend having an electrician do it for you (which can be rather expensive), but if you're comfortable around this sort of stuff you could do it yourself (and given the number of technically minded people here, i'm sure plenty will...).
Vince, as it happens I have had this computer behind a Kill-A-Watt for the last several days. They are particularly handy when deciding whether the new fridges with Energy Star labels will save big money. One important 'KAW' limitation is the 110 v plugin design. Some 240 v appliances can be important in our energy budgets. For those I direct attention to clamp-on digital ammeters; available at the bottom end of the market from Harbor Freight Tools for $20 (among others no doubt). Eagle, the real DIYers wil probably put inductive pickups on both legs of their 240 V service and pass the output through DATAQ interfaces into their computers!
Kill-A-Watt is cool, but probably not nearly as effective. It only shows you what the device plugged into it is taking, The Energy Detective remotely monitors whol-house usage. A sensor goes in your circut breaker box, then you plug the reciever into any plug in the house, it shows you what your house is drawing at the moment, in watts and dollars/hour. The convenience of not having to plug each device in your house into it, and the instantanious feedback would undoubtedly make this a much more effective tool for moderating energy use. Imagine if your prius only had the momentary MPG readout, without the diagram, historical averages, or consumption screen. This wouldn't help you nearly as much when it comes to conserving power, would it? This looks like something everyone should have... and use. $140 is not cheap, but It should pay for itself if you use it as a motivator to conserve.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Greenkeeper @ Nov 3 2006, 08:07 PM) [snapback]343603[/snapback]</div> My thoughts on it exactly... the (future) ability to get one that will transmit straight into the PC for data logging would be really great. I've also been aware of (and used) the Kill-A-Watt system, but it is only as good as it is, this seemed to fit a different niche and provide overall better information.
