[PLUG-TALK] Household Device Power Consumption

[Richard C. Steffens]

Paul Johnson wrote:
> On Jan 15, 2008 3:16 PM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 15 Jan 2008, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
>>
>>> I recall that this list discussed something like this awhile back, and
>>> that a measurement instrument of some sort was recommended.
>>    It's the Kill-A-Watt meter. Harbor Freight had them on sale not too long
>> ago; they may still be available there.
> 
> I see them somewhat regularly at Harbor Freight.  ThinkGeek also
> carries the full line of Kill-A-Watt meters.
> 
> http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/7657/
> http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/9f4f/

That was the gadget. Thanks.

I thought about my amp meter idea and realized that it won't tell me
what I want to know on wall warts. Assuming one was drawing 0.1 amp
consistently, that would work out to 12 va, which is probably close
enough to 12 watts for my purposes. That's pretty small potatoes, until
you add up a lot of them, always plugged in. But, with the resolution of
my meter, I don't see anything under 0.1 amp. If my wall warts were
drawing 0.09 amp, and I had 10 of them, that would be 108 watts. At 24
hours a day that would be 2.592 kWh, which would cost about 24 cents at
last months rate. I'm going to need a few more wall warts to make this
effort worth the trouble.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens