Curiously Green is an exclusive weekly Earth 911 series showcasing the adventures of an environmental dunce as he transforms himself into an eco-guru. This week Tony, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, hunts for energy abusers in his house with the help of a new friend.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m hunting watts!

No, not wabbits. Watts! After replacing nearly every bulb in my apartment with energy-efficient CFL bulbs, I purchased a nifty power meter called Kill A Watt, a product of specialty electronics maker P3 International. There are three versions of Kill A Watt; I purchased the basic unit, which is flexible enough for my needs.

Meet the Kill A Watt

The Kill A Watt lets you plug in any electrical device and the LCD display will show real-time energy usage as well as accumulated energy usage since power was applied.

For testing devices in cramped quarters, a three-prong extension cord makes the unit much more convenient to operate, as its bulk blocks access to both electrical outlets on a standard wall plate, regardless of which outlet it’s plugged into.

The LCD display offers a number of useful meter readings, including volts, amps, frequency and volt-amps (VA), among others. Since I’m primarily interested in hunting down and eliminating unnecessary power draws, I’ve focused mainly on the watt and kilowatt-hour (kWh) readings.

Phantoms Lurk Among Us

My apartment is haunted by phantoms, and I’ll bet your home is too. Don’t bother calling the Ghostbusters, though. Unlike their mean, slimy movie cousins, these phantoms are easy to neutralize. I’m talking, of course, about phantom power draws—those useful, innocent-looking devices and appliances that inhabit nearly every room of our homes.

Modern electronics, particularly those with remote controls, don’t really turn off when you hit the power button. Instead, they enter “standby mode,” in which they sit quietly waiting for a signal from a remote control or other device.

This consumes power, and for many devices (particularly those not compliant with recent ENERGY STAR standards), the expense outweighs the convenience of standby mode. Just as a leaky faucet can slowly waste thousands of gallons of precious water over the course of a year, so can these phantom power draws rob us of copious amounts of electricity.

Confessions of a Watt Killer

Kill A Watt in hand, I went from room to room testing everything that I could live without, and I discovered several dormant items that draw quite a bit of power when idle. I also happily discovered that several items (such as my paper shredder, LED night lights and ENERGY STAR-compliant TV) drew so little current when idle as to be undetectable.

Here’s a list of phantom power draws I found within the first hour of using the Kill A Watt:

• Backup hard drive: 13 watts
• Printer: 5 watts
• Subwoofer: 15 watts
• Mac mini in the living room: 19 watts
• Bedroom stereo: 5 watts
• Bedroom TV, DVD, & VCR: 7 watts
• Charging stand for electric toothbrush: 1 watt
• AC adapters for infrequently used lights: 2 watts

These items add up to 67 watts, but how much does this add up to over time? Well, a constant 67-watt draw, running 24 hours a day, consumes 1.608 kWh per day. Multiply that by 365, and it comes out to a whopping 587 kWh per year.

That’s like paying for an extra month’s worth of electricity, for devices that get used only infrequently (except for the toothbrush, of course, but it’s very old and easily replaced with a recycled toothbrush).

At 10 cents per kWh, turning these devices off via a power strip—or just leaving the cord dangling—when they’re not in use pays me back for the Kill A Watt in less than two months. More importantly, I’m relieving my local utility from having to burn a few extra lumps of coal or producing a few extra milligrams of nuclear waste.

Parting Thoughts

• I really like the Kill A Watt, and I’ve been telling all my friends about it.
• Aside from the minor inconvenience of its bulk, I have nothing but praise for it. Its LCD panel and buttons appeal to my inner geek.
• Its low price and good return on investment appeal to my inner cheapskate. And the fact that it helps me save energy appeals to the newly discovered tree hugger within me.

Having said all that, I should point out that eliminating phantom power draws is ultimately a conscious decision regarding the tradeoff between convenience and energy savings. The Kill A Watt simply makes it easier to identify which devices are worth disconnecting in the first place.

If you can live with the slight inconvenience of disconnecting the power from all your electronics, then by all means do it—you don’t need a power meter. If you’d rather not plug and unplug on a regular basis, the Kill A Watt is a great tool for helping you choose your battles.

Tony Perez is a freelance writer