Williamts99.com - My sarcasm may be difficult to distinguish

Ok, so I borrowed a Kill-a-watt energy meter from my dad so I could check it out.  The first thing that I noticed is that it is huge, when I tried to plug it in the outlet, I had to unplug the item below it, because it covers the lower outlet.  This is obviously for a reason as I'm sure it didn't happen by mistake.  The second thing is that the display is quite hard to see and should really have a back-light.  I just used an extra power strip to plug it into so that it wasn't in the wall.  Large appliances like your AC, dryer(that makes your cloths drier), fridge, water heater are out luck for this device, though you can use other methods to calculate their usage. So lets get into some actual usage of the kill-a-watt meter.

• FIOS converter(where the optical cable comes into the house) 15watts at all times
  


• FIOS HD DVR by Motorola  29watts on standby, I didn't test while recording.


• Liftmaster 1/2hp garage door opener model number 41ac050-1  4watts standby, 63watts with light on, 490watts closing, 450watts opening(seems like the springs are wound tighter than they should be as this was repeatable).
  


• Whirlpool Microwave MH2175x5q-1 standby(clock running) 4watts, door open 35watts, counter light on 44watts, 127watts with the exhaust fan on, and ~1600watts with everything on.


• Whirlpool Cabrio Washer 1watt standby, haven't tested a load yet.


• I will add more here as I test a few more things...
  

All in all it is a fun gadget to play with, but I would not recommend buying one.  To me one of the whole house meters that show a $ amount constantly is where I would spend my money.  Though it is fun to check on some items, it's just not useful on a daily basis where a whole house meter could be useful every day.

I have been wanting to get a nice phone for a while.  Well I have come across a phone that is supposed to be out next month, the SciPhone n12.  this phone is supposed to have it all, exactly what I'm looking for.  Of course the main ingredients that I'm looking for is Android, GPS, Wifi, BT, and a nice price.

Edit: Scratch that, seems they changed the specs.

Seems kind of silly, and not many people use VCRs these days, but here is an interesting example from the Mr. Electricity standby power page.

His VCR uses 5 watts when it's "off", 12 watts
when it's "on", and 18 watts when it's actually playing a
tape. When used for 1hr a day to play a tape it breaks down like this:

So the VCR uses a whole lot more electricity just sitting there, running the clock.  Now imagine if you only watch 1hr per week.  How about something that we use everyday, like the microwave?  Here is his example:

In the microwave example, if you use it less than 7min per day, then you pay more to run the clock than you do to 'use' the oven.  I assume this is why in Europe you see more of the microwaves without the digital controls/clocks as they are more efficient.  Like this example of a commercial microwave oven, they don't use electricity until you twist the timer knob.

Commercial Microwave Oven with Manual Controls

Even worse are DVRs, as you can tell from the following Standby Power Data

If you want to know how much your devices are using you can test your own with something like a Kill-a-watt meter.

Looking back I have noticed a lot of things in my life have been negative.  I know that it's normal and everyone feels that way sometimes.  But I also feel that you can bring about change.  So here is to making my life experience a little less negative.  It's hard when there is so much negativity out there, but I'm sure that I can make it work.