In our efforts to learn more about green living and energy-efficient households, EYA recently purchased the Belkin Conserve Insight Energy-Use Monitor, a simple device that measures the impact of individual household appliances on utility costs. We wanted to purchase the device to learn about which items in our homes are using up unnecessary energy so we can change our habits in the future to be more green and cost effective.
We’ve been testing the device on various electronics and have been pleased with the results thus far! This product is very easy to use and understand with its simple set up and display features. Simply plug the Conserve Insight into a wall socket and then plug the device you are trying to learn more about into the Conserve Insight. The plug piece is connected to the display screen via a five foot cord, which helps make reading the device easy. The device measures pounds of CO2 emissions per year (or month), utility cost in dollars per year (or month), and watts. While the device is set at default to measure cost at an average of 0.116 cents per kilowatt-hour, this can easily be adjusted to match the cost that your energy company actually charges (which can often be found on your utility bill).
There are some short-comings to this device, namely that it is hard to calculate the energy cost of items that you turn on and off frequently, or items that use varying amounts of energy depending on settings, such as in various washing machine cycles. Regardless, it gives you a rough estimate of how much any specific device is costing you, and also makes it easy to gauge which of your electronics is costing you the most. You can buy your own energy monitor directly from Belkin, or through amazon.com.
We’re really looking forward to testing out this device some more and learning about which devices we should limit our use on and unplug often. Stay tuned!