I picked up a home energy monitor from amazon that is marked down about 80% from retail, $25 delivered:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0P0NVH767F15E2CCG41R
Basically a similar interface to Kill-a-Watt meter but hooks up to your power meter to read/integrate your whole house usage.
There was a discussion here about home energy monitors last year, but we all seemed to agree that they were a bit too expensive for what they were: ~$150 for a simple wireless power meter for your whole house, $250+ for a multichannel logger linked to a webpage, etc.
I just installed the meter. Seems to work as advertised, and I expect it will be helpful to read out power usage by major appliances that are hardwired--my AC compressor uses 2.5 kW, and the blower unit uses 0.5 kW. Cool.
Both Google and Microsoft were fielding meters and associated web services, but I guess these were not big sellers and both companies announced they were pulling the plug last month. The result: you can now get meters marked down to 'salvage' rates, but the web-logging features will not work after 2012 (unless third party solns come online by then).
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0P0NVH767F15E2CCG41R
Basically a similar interface to Kill-a-Watt meter but hooks up to your power meter to read/integrate your whole house usage.
There was a discussion here about home energy monitors last year, but we all seemed to agree that they were a bit too expensive for what they were: ~$150 for a simple wireless power meter for your whole house, $250+ for a multichannel logger linked to a webpage, etc.
I just installed the meter. Seems to work as advertised, and I expect it will be helpful to read out power usage by major appliances that are hardwired--my AC compressor uses 2.5 kW, and the blower unit uses 0.5 kW. Cool.
Both Google and Microsoft were fielding meters and associated web services, but I guess these were not big sellers and both companies announced they were pulling the plug last month. The result: you can now get meters marked down to 'salvage' rates, but the web-logging features will not work after 2012 (unless third party solns come online by then).