Seeking electric bill savings is like a game

Recently, I was shopping at a local discount store, and there on the shelf was the Black and Decker power monitor for less than half price. It seemed like a great device for any gadget geek, so of course I bought it.

The idea is simple: The device lets you see your home's power consumption in real time in terms of either energy or dollars. At this exact second, my house is consuming 400 watts, or 5 cents per hour. My house has consumed 15 kilowatt-hours since I pushed the "clear" button last night.

You can program in your electricity rates, and it will tell you the energy usage in dollars and cents. It will also estimate the month's energy bill based on the history it has seen.

There are two parts to the device, a transmitter you attach to your power meter and a wireless receiver that displays the data.

Holding the receiver in my hand, I had this strange revelation. I was able to see money draining out of my pocket minute by minute.

For example, when the dryer turns on, the house's power consumption jumps up to 5,000 watts. That means if the dryer runs for an hour, it costs 53 cents. Turn on the space heater, and it uses 1,200 watts. If it runs for eight hours, it costs $1.

One thing that was obvious about 20 minutes after installing the power monitor is that the lights in our kitchen consume 400 watts when they are on, and they are on a lot. If they are on for two and a half hours, it costs a dime.

Here is the most interesting thing the power monitor revealed: My house burns 300 watts all the time. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, it is always burning 300 watts -- even when everything is off. That's about $1 a day, or $365 a year.

Where is that $365 going?

It turns out that in the guest bedroom, there is a TV, an old Xbox, a VCR and a switching box. None of it is on, but it is all sitting in standby mode. Together these devices consume 17 watts. We put them on a power strip and turned them off. We found a 15-watt (fluorescent) bulb in one of the attic spaces that had been left on, so we turned it off.

The humidifier, when it is turned off, has a display that shows the current humidity and the water level. It uses 16 watts. We put it away. The laser printer uses 4 watts when it is sitting there doing nothing. We now turn it off unless we are printing. Standby power for our "main TV" and its accessories is 20 watts. We put it on a power strip, too, and cut it off when we aren't using it.