Inquisition

Yes, because the internet's information is 100% valid. If you honestly believe you can find out how many watts every item in your house draws by doing a google search, you'd be making massive assumptions that other people's data was valid. The device is enabling you to become more aware of your surroundings by accurately quantifying energy use. Tools rule. This tool works well and is worth $20 easily. If we were quantifying what was thread worthy or not, wouldn't most of GD be deleted? Seriously, this idea of cutting electrical costs applies to just about everyone on this forum. This is a tool that aids in cutting electrical costs. Simple as that.

Congratulations on taking a small investment that leads to easy fixes and then talking about $20k worth of work. Windows? Okay, let me just go out and spend $10k on new windows and another $5k on heated floors so I can save $100 a month on my electrical. What about apartment dwellers? Yeah, can't exactly do what you are suggesting. This applies to everyone. You are talking about big expensive things to do which is what everyone turns to when they talk about saving energy. I'm saying unplug devices that you don't use all the time and only plug them in when you need to. Use CFL's. Put your TV on a sleep timer if you think you are going to pass out while watching it. People plug in this device, they look at the readings, do some math and realize how much keeping a TV on while you sleep costs when they could just put a 2 hour sleep timer on and save some money each year. It's small changes that result in one big end change. People need to stop with this all or nothing thinking.

You do realize this is HMT right? I'd be surprised if 10% of the people on this site at a fluke not to mention that a fluke and this aren't the same thing. A fluke doesn't add up kWh of power used and keep track of time so that you can simply divide and know how many kWh/hour you used. That's the number that matters. It's about averages. If I stick a fluke on my fridge while it's cycling, it might say I'm using 150W but while it's idling 70W. You need to find out what the average is. This device accomplishes a different task than a fluke.

jinxy

so you're saying we cant do math?

Inquisition

I'm saying you need to take constant data and have that data recorded to get a reasonable average of energy consumption and looking at a fluke seeing the volts and amps 5 times a day is an inaccurate way to acquire such data. It would be like me tuning a car and only looking at the wideband at select times while driving vs data logging the information and checking for conformity.

jinxy

you were talking about devices plugged in in sleep mode or not being used. the voltage usage isn't going to have a significant change, it is going to be a constant draw. Even under load most devices will have a constant draw, aside from computers/possibly video game systems/dvd players. But you can get a good enough idea of what the general power usage is like.

kain

the fact of the matter is this. the all or nothing way of thinking is whats supposed to happen.

do you flush the toilet every time you pee? wasted water.

do you let the water run when you brush your teeth? wasted water.

do you have an 85% efficiency power suply in your computer? probably not.

a solar panel is going to be sufficient power for only a handful of items. if your lucky, just enough for a cell phone and a laptop.
maybe if your even more lucky, a tv as well. but thats stretching it. unless you spend the money on batteries.

Inquisition

What the ---- are you talking about? Get your head out of your *** if you think in order to cut costs you need to go all or nothing. It's retarded. If I want to save money, I should stop spending money on things I enjoy doing? If I want a faster car, I should strip it bare and build a race car? If I want a new TV, I should go out and buy the most expensive TV? People like you make the world think that they shouldn't make small improvements in their lives but only make huge drastic improvements. It's retarded.

This is not true. Some electrical devices cycle randomly. Coffee machines are pretty infamous for this. There are plenty of devices that vary amperage. ----, throw this thing on your device Sunday at noon and look at it next Sunday at noon. It doesn't matter if the device cycled or was on 8 hours one day and 5 the next. If the week was an accurate assesment of your typical usage, then you can just look at the total kWh and divide by 24*7. Can you do that with a fluke? Let the fluke do instantaneous readings and leave a device like this to compile data in real time so you can get accurate averages.

jinxy

do you think your wall unit does that? theres no way it has enough physical memory to plot that many data points. it either has to log in time increments, load change average at the moment and add to total kw use, or break Simpson's paradox by averaging averages off the old data, which is probably what it does since that takes the least memory.

You could also unplug everything in your house except the device in question then go outside and look at your meter :P

Toysrme

It occured to me this afternoon changing the oil in the civic when the meter reader came around.
You can do the same god damned thing for free by looking at your meter wheels spin and having a watch.

holla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TorganFM

With enough windmills or solar panels you can actually turn your meter backwards, generating credit. Electric companies love it too.