For many consumers it’s difficult to truly
gauge the impact some gadgets are having on your energy consumption except as
the bottom line on your hydro bill. When you factor in HDTVs, PCs, consoles,
maybe a heating unit in the winter time, A/C in the summer, it can become a veritable
labyrinth in terms of trying to track down the culprit behind your latest whopper of a utilities bill. Enter
the Kill-a-Watt. Plug it into a wall socket, jack-in a shady appliance, and
watch the digits soar.
The Kill-a-Watt tracks energy usage by the kilowatt-hour
and you can track your consumption by the day, week, month, or the entire year.
This is an excellent way to put things into perspective, allowing users to
track their own habits, perhaps turning heads by showing just how much it’s
costing to leave the television or computer running when you’re not in the
room. Furthermore you can maximize the unit by plugging in your standard power bar. Ever wonder what your entire PC rig is costing you on a daily basis? And at a cool $23 on Amazon it’s almost a sure bet that this little gizmo
is money in the bank. Still not satisfied?
Well, what’s more a couple of handy do-it-yourselfers
have turned the whole setup into a twittering green machine, posting your power
consumption/savings to Twitter. Phil Torrone and Limor Fried crafted the
redubbed Tweet-a-Watt using an Xbee wireless module that they’ve implanted into
the main body of a Kill-a-Watt. The device then reports wirelessly to a nearby
computer. Once the day’s consumption for that outlet has been calculated the
numbers are published to a Twitter account of your choice. The current setup
even supports multiple units reporting in one day. Schematics and a how-to are en route in hopes that others will join in on the DIY fun. In
addition, they’ve submitted their concept to the Core77 & Greener Gadgets
design competition.
What Torrone and Fried are hoping for is a
community to form around these Tweet-a-Watt reports, with the aspiration of engendering a
culture of healthy competition and conservation. At last a way to go green and brag about it online!
