Monday, December 17, 2007

Electricity Meters In The House

I often think about how useful it would be to have electricity and water meters in the house. It would help me remember to turn off all kinds of appliances if I saw my meter spinning out of control.

The Energy Orb could give you a general idea of how much energy you are using.

This article at Green Options highlights how important this feature is for living off the grid. They suggest that if we all act like we are living off-the-grid we can save energy and reduce the total load on power plants, in turn reducing the size/number of power plants.

Things they suggest doing beyond turning off the lights are:
1) Run only one high-load appliance (like dishwashers and dryers) at a time. This reduces the total load on the grid.
2) Unplug items that pull "phantom" current when they are turned off. Computers and microwaves fit into this category.
3) Check the meter.

Things I need to turn off more often:
Home computer
Printer
Home stereo system
Lights

What kinds of things do you leave on when you shouldn't?

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