Use a power usage meter to check your energy consumption at home

One MEFL member recently borrowed a power usage metre and tested out all their appliances. Read about their findings:

"The power meter that I borrowed from MEFL has a paid bonus already.

I now know where my standby power is going. I tested out all of my appliances, to see what current they draw when turned off at their switches or when on standby. There were surprises.

These are now off at the wall.

While my previous actions to turn off 'standby power' had saved me 34 watts, I was still using 73 watts when I started testing. I have now managed to reduce this by another 16.5 watts.

To many this would not sound like much, but one watt of standby (at 20C a KWhr) is $1.75 a year. So saving 50 watts over the course of the year is $87.50. I am still spending nearly $100 a year on standby and this will be hard to reduce. I note that my 'standby' usage goes on even when I am not home and is about 20% of my annual electricity bill (I use gas for my heating and hot water).

I thought if it had a clock or little light, then it was using power. But you can use a lot of power without anything to show for it (eg. heater and washing machine). I also noted that many electronic appliances are low power users and even with indicator light on standby, they are using under 1 watt."

Test your own home out. MEFL members can borrow the power meter for week long loans. Click here for information on how to become a MEFL member.

If you would like to buy your own power metre visit the ATA website: http://shop.ata.org.au/cart.php?target=category&category_id=255