The cost of Hydro (Power that is)

I have lots of things that just plug into the wall (or require batteries that require charging).   That means that they consume energy at some point, with the end result that it ends up on my Hydro bill.

Over the summer, I saw that my canoe trip partner, Barb, had a cool device that sits on her kitchen counter and gives her an instant reading on how much energy she is using at any time.  And, it shows it in dollars and cents if you like.  The geek in me knew that I JUST had to have one.   In the past, you had to run outside and  just see how fast the Power Meter wheel was spinning.  New Smart Meters don't have that of course.

After a bunch of internet research, I found something called a TED 5000 from the Energy Detective.  You can also read more on their web site on just why and how.   I mentioned this to my friend and owner Angelo at Radio World here in Toronto.  He thought they were pretty cool and decided to stock them in the store.  Even National Geographic thought this device was so important that they mentioned in one of their news articles.

I liked this one as it actually clipped on the hydro lines (the BIG lines) inside my breaker panel (which required a little advanced hookup --- most of my friends would do this on their own).   Others should call an electrician.  There are other units that work by clipping onto your power meter, but I learned that they were hit and miss if they actually worked.  Even Walmart sells one from Black and Decker.  You'll need to see if it is compatible with your Hydro meter.

The instructions were excellent and the unit worked right away.  After using a computer to program it with the rates from Power Stream, I could see that it costs about $0.15/hr to run the house at peak dinner time.   I did have to grab my Power Stream Hyrdo bill to see what my On-Peak, Mid-Peak and Off-Peak rates will be.    Off-Peak is about half of what On-Peak is.  This is why we now use the dryer after 9pm or before 7am.

Then, I turned on the Oven for a test.  Wow.  We are now at $0.54 per hour.  Just for fun, I turned the dryer on as well.  Now, we are up to over a $1/hr.    Now, I will be able to watch just how expensive it will be to do the Christmas Turkey.  Or, I could do it on the BBQ or deep fry it (don't knock it if if you haven't tried it). Of course, the model I got that allows me to watch it online from my iPad or just about any computer if I wish.

We are fortunate that our Hydro in Canada is so inexpensive and we do take it for granted, but it does help for us to all thing just a little greener (except when it comes to snow :)  ).

Now, I need to get it integrated into Google Power Meter.