I have bought the Kill A Watt meter a while back. I went on to measure every gadget and applicances I can possibly measure. Here is some result to share.

Wattage	Appliance
0W	Clock Radio 1 Stereo off TV off LCD monitor off
1-5W	Fax machine standby Mac Mini sleeping Wifi router Charging small gadget Inkject printer idling clock Radio 2
6-10W	Stereo playing Radio DSL Router
11-25W	Stereo playing CD Laptop 1 15" LCD monitor Compact Florescence tube Space header (fans only) Mac Mini On (+8W when playing DVD) Motorola Set-top box (use same amount of power whether on or off)
20-60W	Core i5 laptop 0-1W while sleeping 6W recharging while sleeping 20W when idle Power use increase when charging other devices or running many applications
30W	10cu ft refrigerator (24 hour avg)
46W	Water Boiler & Warmer (24 hour avg) Compact refrigerator (24 hour avg)
70W	32" LCD TV
340W	space heater (24 hour avg)

My main observation is the concern on power usage by electronic gadgets, and also the phantom watt issue, that is gadget continue to draw power when they are off, is largely overblown. Most sustain on just about 1 watt of power. The only rogue applicance is the set top box that uses 18W whether it is on or not. Even that is only 18W. In fact all the electronic gadgets added together does not match thw power usage of one space heater. This is evident in my skyrocketing winter power bill (or in hotter climate, the summer air conditioning cost).

Another interesting find. My new refrigerator uses 50% less electric than a much smaller but dated compact refrigerator. At this rate, it will actually come very close to the estimated annual electric cost of $38 that is posted in the tag in the store.

2011.12.24 [] - comments