Everybody is watching their energy costs these days and your electric bill is no exception. I read about a gadget (called a “Kill A Watt”, model P4400) that you can plug into a wall outlet and then plug the device into the Kill A Watt and read the watts being consumed by the device.

For example, I plugged my laptop into the gadget and found that it uses 25 watts (without charging the battery). If I estimate that it’s plugged in for 6 hours per day, for a 30 day month (180 hours) gives 180 x 25 = 4500 watts or 4.5 kilowatts. Using my typical electrical rate on my monthly bill of $0.19/KWh we find that it costs $0.85 PER MONTH to run my laptop – not a big deal!!

What about my desktop? Using a time of 12 hours per day with my desktop, monitor, router, printer, scanner connected, it showed 180 watts on the Kill A Watt meter ($12.48 per month). Maybe I don’t need my desktop computer on 12 hours per day!! As you would expect, my basement dehumidifier costs $20.81/month with a 12 hour timer (two hours on, two off). So I’m glad when winter comes and I don’t need to use it. Cost of the device? Less than $25.00 (I got mine from Amazon for under $20). In these times of high energy costs, it sure helps to keep tabs on the true electric costs of running your devices.  

What's this got to do with Real Estate?  Well, it would make a great closing gift to a new buyer to help them do an audit of their home and allow them to save money by reducing their electrical usage!  The device doesn't work with lights that have switches, but you can easily calculate the wattage because it's on the bulb - the new CFL bulbs are a real money saver.