This Month’s Tip: Tracking energy use
Eat potato chips straight out of the bag and they’ll be gone in no time. Pour them into a bowl first and they disappear a little slower. The same goes for electricity. Learning to track how much electricity your home consumes remains a good way to start managing electric use.
Tracking devices
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 of device available to members is called a TED (The Energy Detective). The TED unit monitors the member’s overall house electric use and displays the data on a desktop or countertop display. This display can be loaded with the cooperative’s current electric rates and will display almost instantaneous use data and cost. The TED also can be connected to the member’s home computer with a USB cable, allowing members to track and record their monthly electrical use. Often, the first step in reducing an electric bill is knowing what appliance is running and when. North Central will set up and install a TED unit for members at no charge.
The final device connects to your electric meter and wirelessly relays use information to a small screen inside. The in-home display 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 Cooperative Research Network shows most consumers who have an in-home display use less energy than those without one. Even after homeowners stop paying attention to the devices, most still use 1 to 3 percent less energy than before.
Cost-free tracking
There’s also the old-fashioned way of tracking electric use: reading your meter. As your home draws current from power lines, your electric 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. Due to how these devices register the data, select devices may not all be compatible with digital meters.
You need to be patient when reading a digital meter. It flashes the actual reading for six or seven seconds and then flashes what looks like “all eights.” This is called a “segment test” and ensures that all segments are operating correctly.
Kill A Watt and TED units are available for purchase from North Central Electric. The cooperative will install and set up the TED unit for free. When coupled with the cooperative’s free walk-through energy audit, the Kill A Watt meter or TED can be valuable tools in the cooperative’s Energy Services Advisors’ tool box to help members better manage their electric use.
Home energy audit
A free home walk-through audit consists of a brief overview of your home to determine how electricity is being consumed at your home. Sign up to win a free complete energy audit by filling out and mailing the coupon to the right.
If you have any questions about how much electricity your home uses or about a free walk-through home energy audit, call the Member Services Department at 419-426-3072 or 1-800-426-3072, or visit our Web site at www.ncelec.org.
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