BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living What watts are you using right now?

correct.

Cool, Burt. Thanks.

BTW, do you have a digital electrical meter, or do you just know how to read the clock-type one? Mine is a clock type and a bit frustrating to figure.

My new idea:

I am now experimenting with turning off the circuit breakers if I know i will be gone for the day. Why not, you know? The fridge will still be cold enough, and nothing else needs to be running.

You can get a digital one for $15 on sale until 5/19 at Radio Shack.

(edited to keep post from stretching out off the page)

Thank you for that info, Burt! I have my eye on a "Kilawatt reader", but i can't afford one. Maybe they will let me test one and review it for the site.

On thursday I knew i would be gone for the afternoon and evening, and turned off my entire circuit breaker. Nothing in the fridge died in that short time. I felt great that I was using zero electricity for a day!

I just flipped the breaker back on when I came home.

I was running the microwave and went to watch the dial on my electric meter. It was spinning at a good clip. Not as fast as when using the washing machine, though.

When the mike went DING the dial immediately slowed to an almost imperceptible spin rate.

Jilly,

I'm sooo glad that you are my buddy.

Honest.

I mean I'm a so-called brilliant Mo-Fo-Co but cannot keep a job and I'm on social services.

You and I are going to work together to build a future.

Now I can drill down into a subject with a very powerful mind but what most people don't know is that it is actually one mind.

Not in the perverted sense like the hive mind but the good the bad and the ugly we all are part of and sensitive people are very susceptible to the sewer of a planet we live on.

Now then, my brilliant, penniless self who is by the living spirit of life rich inwardly has thoroughly ivestigated and
drilled into the problem that you are discussing.

First of all, you are very fortunate to have a 'clock' dial spinning meter.

Do everything in your power to keep it and deny the 'smart meter'

Dad's business has two meters - one for commercial and one for the residental management living quarters.

The house has one.

I could not fight the digital replacement for the commercial side, but I did manage to be absolutely sure that it was a 'plain jane' digital and Not A Smart Meter.

Now, I've waited, planned and plotted and stragitized for many a year to slay the dragon you are working with.

This is how I did it:

1) Money-wise start out with this:

http
://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ELJKLE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

2) Work your way up to this:

http
://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054OA4MQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Clock type -- some read forward, some read backwards

That's what the monitor is for... it give you real time usage inside the house...

Watch the video..

It reads the spins of the big wheel

Watt?

I am coming in late to this conversation. Right now I am using just my little coffee pot -- mmmmm, maybe 2 or 3 watts.

I unplug all appliances that are not in use, like my microwave that takes at least 2 watts per hour because of the little red display with the time on it.

I went around my home one day, a long time ago, and counted what watts were being used up. I counted almost 20 watts per hour. So now nothing is left plugged in if I am not using it.

We have no choice on the "smart meter" thing. They are going to install it at all residences whether we like it or not.

Ok...I read your other posts, Jilly and Burt.

My refrigerator
coffee pot
computer stuff
cable box

I guess I was not awake enough to realize the total watts I am using right now. I was up till 4 this morning on the computer, so that used watts up. I think I fried all the watts in my brain by staying up all night.