I am hooked on the show WA$TED and recently saw this little gadget. It's called the Cent-a-meter. What it does is pretty basic. It registers how much electricity (in dollars) you are burning at any moment.
I think I'm actually going to go online and purchase one ($152.95). I know it seems pricey but I get how it works - emotionally. You see, my husband used to own a hybrid car (totalled it - two of them actually) and one of it's little features was a screen that tells you how many miles per gallon you are using at any moment and shows you if you slow down/speed up how that changes it. When my husband would drive he would specifically pay attention to find the 'zone' where he was getting the best gas mileage. From reviews I've read this is basically what happens when you own one of these little gadgets.
If you pay attention you may realize that turning off a light here or there - turning off the power strip to the playroom's entertainment center, etc - will save you real money. It's almost like it becomes a game of sorts.
Anyone else up for playing?
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. Selling her successful home staging company in January 2012, Marro is now a full time speaker and instructor for Staging And Resign and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.619.1593 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
This would make a great gift hope the price comes down because it does not look like it should cost that much, I would say $39.99 and they would fly off the shelf.
Melissa, you are so right, subliminally when we are more aware we are more conscious of our actions. I'm with you on this one, I have been noticing little things lately but the little things add up and I am everyman(woman, child). We all have to just START being more conscious of our affect on the planet. thanks for the post, good seeing you here.
Any gadget that can help bring awareness to our wastefullness as a whole, is good. Although if you had to plug this in to your breaker box, I am not sure that I would reference it that often.
Mary - That would be a wonderful price!
Terrylynn - You are so right! We are having some work done on our home on Sept. 16th and it will become Energy Star certified. Based on his calculations we will cut our summertime utilities by about 40% - around $150/mo. We already recycle just about everything we can. Little things - baby steps by all of us will make a huge difference in the world!
Casey - If I'm not mistaken, there is a wireless unit that connects to the breaker box that sends a signal to the hand held device that stays in the home (see photo above).
Hi Melissa,
Here in Ontario Canada the government (who owns our electrical source) is installing "smart" meters and will be billing us more for hydro at different times of the day.
Peak use hours are more than in the middle of the night. This has most people up in arms as they do not think it is fair to have to wait until after midnight to save money. Would you want to stay up late to do housework? This is a common refrain from people. You only have so many hours in a day to get everything done and is it fair that now you are being penalized?
As you can see not many people think they are smart for the consumer, only for the government to gouge more money from your ever dwindling paycheck.
Hi Melissa -- I'm with you -- I think we would love having this gadget! The sensor is at the electrical panel, but the receiver can be moved around in the house - so it would be easy to use. Kids would also love to see how much change there was by turning of lights, etc, so what a motivator for the whole family! I'm reblogging this one! In our area they are projecting increased energy costs of 40% for this winter. Thanks so much for sharing -- I'm going to have to start taping WA$TED!!
Just a bit too pricey for my budget, but perhaps there is something not quite so expensive. For now, I will just post some signs reminding me to turn the lights off (lol).
Melissa, that is a pricey little gadget but if it helps to stay conscious of the energy we can conserve, I can see how that could work. Let us know how it pans out!
Melissa,
I have been following the green action for a couple of years now, but What I have found out by watching an HBO series called BullSh#t hosted by Penn & Teller the magicians is very surprising and very heart breaking at the same time.
Now some of what being green is actually helping like recycling, solar power, wind power and some other things that are common sense, Alot of being green is BS and you have to watch out that you don't get riped off.
Here is one example... The great Al Gore, the man who won the Nobel peace prize for being green is not practicing what he preaches. What the folks in his town found out is that Al is not green at all, he owns a 10 bedroom house in which he has not one solar panel or anything green at all helping to power it. Al don;t even have 1 energy saving light bulb lighting the place. He in fact has a carbon footprint 20x the average man. Can you believe that He wastes 20 times the energy the average person does yet he won the Nobel peace prize?
Well after this story broke Al had to do some damage control. What did he do? He created a company that sells carbon credits to off set peoples carbon foot print so we don't feel so bad owning an SUV. What he did was pull numbers out of the air that has no rhyme or reason to them then you fill out how much carbon you think you waste, his number system then tells you to send him x amount of dollars and he will donate your money to the windmills so you don't feel so bad about wasting so much energy. If you read the fine print not only on his website that sells carbon credits but now every Tom dick and Jane that are starting these websites you will find they are a scam! They give only a fraction of a % of the money to the windmills and pocket the rest! I was heart broke when I researched this and found it to be true. But it is.
So please just be careful on what devices you buy, or who you donate your money to for the green movement.
One more small note, 97% of carbion waste comes from nature...
Regards
BB
Melissa - Thak you for the post. I like the idea behind this device. I have re-blogged your post at Vancouver-wa-realestate.com.
Thanks again!
Brian...I saw that Penn and Teller also. They have a very interesting show. I am all in favor of doing whatever you can manage to help out...but I just do not know about those carbon credits! It was amazing how easily people just handed out their money to these people. I think it just made them feel better to think they were contributing in some way.
Melissa, sound really neat. Keep us posted on how you like it.
Pretty cool gadget! Yes, it's a bit pricey. I wonder if we can find a generic brand for less. I MUST have one!
Thank you for posting this!
PS, the Penn & Teller episode also contains some misinformation based on older, outdated studies that have since been superseded. So some of their bull$h*t is also bull$h*t.
Although these guys are very funny, I don't think it was very cool of them at ALL to pander to those who like to put down anyone that wants to conserve and not be wasteful. How productive is that?
Oh PS...yes I have heard of these and it is a great idea - I also agree that the gadget is currently overpriced.
Another great tool is the Kill-A-Watt. You can plug your appliances etc into it and tell how much electricity they use when on, and whether they draw phantom power. Great way to figure out which thing to replace first! (For me it`ll be my kettle and microwave.) They run about US$80, and I`ve seen them sold through ebay and Amazon.com.
I like the idea of raising our consciousness on just how much power we are consuming, and my competitive side could definitely buy into the 'game' part of it. Hopefully in time this will become more of a mainstream gadget and come down in price so that many more families can take advantage of this.
Suzanne, you have an excellent point. Although the show is very entertaining, you do have to take what they say with a grain of salt.