Electricity Report: Electric Space Heater

Posted April 16th, 2009 by Brett | Filed under: Saving Money | 1 comment

In our ongoing saga to quantify how much everything electric costs to run,we bring you - The Space Heater.

Pictured to the right is my space heater: Holmes® Ultra-Quiet Twin Ceramic Heater, 14 1/2″H x 8 1/2″W x 7 1/2″D, Black, which I have to say works pretty well for heating up my one-car garage when I want to go work out. Before we get to the cost, let’s look at some specs:

• Wattage: 1500
• Heat Rating: 5,280 BTUs

To do my testing I plugged it in to my trusty Kill a Watt and let the heater go on “High.” After 4 hours and 36 minutes it used up 6.50 kW. That means to run this heater for one hour on high it would cost $0.16. This is using the national average of $0.11 per kW.

Is that a lot of money? No, but if you assume:

• I workout 5 times a week
• I need to have this plugged in and on for 2 hours beforehand to heat up the garage

then I am spending $6.99 per month to run this. I don’t know about you, but I think I will be wearing sweats for my next workouts to put a little money back in my pocket and only turn it on when I REALLY need it. Now, off to find the next item I can analyze.

Electricity Report: Cell Phone Chargers

Posted April 3rd, 2009 by Brett | Filed under: Saving Money | 6 comments

There is always talk about “Phantom Power” and how even though there isn’t a phone or computer or mp3 player plugged into a charger, it still draws power. I wanted to test this information to see how much it actually costs to charge my phone.

I am using my Kill a Watt to see how much electricity it draws. For more info, check this post.

I have tested two different cell phones: a baseline Nokia phone and a Motorola KRZR. I took readings while the phone is charging, after the phone is completely charged and still plugged in, and without the phone plugged in.

Continue reading »

Upcoming Electricity Reports to Save Money

Posted March 26th, 2009 by Brett | Filed under: Saving Money | 3 comments

I recently purchased the Kill a Watt (pictured here) that will tell me how much electricity anything I plug into it is using. I was hoping to use it to lower my monthly electricity bill and I will be posting my findings here so everyone can take advantage of the savings.

Each report will include a description of what item is being analyzed, how much it costs to run, and if there are any alternatives to save money.

Stay tuned.