Get a Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor From Your Local Public Library!

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I’ve always wanted to geek out with a Kill A Watt electricity usage monitor and see how much power our household devices eat up. But I didn’t want to spend $22 on a gadget I’d only use for a week.

Thankfully, public libraries around the U.S., including our local Los Angeles Public Library, have Kill A Watts you can check out just like a book. I’ve got one right now and I’ve been running around the house checking out our gadgets. Some appliances, such as the refrigerator, that cycle on and off need to be left plugged into the Kill A Watt for at least a day or longer to get an accurate result.

I found the instructions for the Kill A Watt a bit confusing. Naturally, I looked up a YouTube video for a clearer explanation.

I’ll share my findings in a few days but leave you with this unsurprising spoiler alert: looks like LED light bulbs save power and it costs $33 a year to run a water fountain for our privileged indoor cats.

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4 Comments

  1. And, I suppose you will teach at least one of the cats to turn on the water for them to drink. Or, get them one of the nipples from which to sip. You can buy that contraption and construct a container. Water fountain for cats?

  2. The new kill-a-watt looks like it wouldn’t help me. (At least from that video.) The one I have is old-2006-and the buttons read off voltage, 2 somethings that I can’t remember, and watts used over time. Since I’m off grid the ‘how much does it cost’ feature just doesn’t apply. I can see where it would be handy for most people, though. Hopefully one of the settings still gives the basic info too!

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