Tracking
the Electricity You Use
The
same goes for electricity. Learning to track how much electricity your home
consumes remains good way to start managing electric use―billed by your
electric co-op in kilowatt-hours (kWh).
Devices
are appearing in stores that provide a constant, digital reading of how much
electricity your home or even individual appliances are using. One type, like
the Kill A Watt™, fits between an electrical outlet and an appliance to give
you an instant reading of how much electricity an appliance draws.
Another
type connects to your electricity meter and wirelessly relays use information to
a small screen inside. Called an in-home display, the device looks similar to a
wireless weather monitor and can help make consumers more aware of energy being
used day to day. Research conducted by the Arlington, VA-based Cooperative
Research Network (CRN), the research arm of Arlington, Va.-based National Rural
Electric Cooperative Association, shows that most consumers who have an in-home
display use less energy than those without one. And even after homeowners stop
paying attention to the devices, most still use 1 to 3 percent less energy than
before.
The question
of whether in-home displays catch on and become permanent fixtures in the
American home is still open. However, for anyone wanting to take a proactive
approach to understanding electric consumption, the in-home display may be worth
exploring. You could use the knowledge that an in-house display provides to
change the way you use electricity in your home and save some money.
There’s
also the old-fashioned way of tracking electricity use: reading your meter. As
your home draws current from power lines, your electricity meter keeps a steady
record of every watt being used. Many meters today are digital, replacing the
older—though still reliable—design that uses spinning disks and dials.
Digital
versions make tracking energy use a breeze: jot down the number you see, and
check it again in a month. The difference between the two represents the amount
of electricity that has been used for that month, or a typical billing period.
Check it more frequently to get an idea of how you use electricity in a given
week, or even day by day.
To
read an older model meter (with spinning dials), write down the numbers as shown
on the small dials from left to right. Some of the dials spin clockwise, some
counter-clockwise, but record each number closest to the dial hand. Once you
have the full reading it can be compared to later readings, as described above.
If
you have any questions about reading your meter or learning more about how much
electricity your home uses, please contact your local SVEC office or visit www.svalleyec.com. Our FREE energy
right Home e-Valuation, which can
be done on-line or in the mail-in version, will give you a helpful report of
your family’s energy use and how your energy dollars are being spent. TVA and
SVEC will also send you a FREE energy conservation kit just for completing the
survey. While you are on our website check out the energy calculators that will
also help you track how much energy each of the appliances in your home is
using.