Ever wonder how electricity is really used inside your home or office? Are you looking for ways to substantially reduce your electricity use?

We think we can help with an answer.

Brickworks has a sister company called EnerUSE Inc. which has developed a really cool little electricity meter called a PlugMeter.

EnerUSE is very excited to have just shipped the first batch of PlugMeters to its first customer, Hydro Ottawa. Along with this first shipment is the release of a fully-functional electricity usage calculator that anyone can use, whether they have an electricity metering device such as the PlugMeter or not.

Although we’ll be sharing more information about the PlugMeter in upcoming posts, right now I’d like to focus on the calculator, which is a cool tool that lets you do a number of neat things…

• You can create a customized home electricity audit by adding or removing appliances from a pre-set list of appliances
• You can then learn what would be “typical” usage for each of the appliances on your list
• You can easily and quickly add “estimate” readings by inputting the
  wattage (if you don’t know, we provide guidelines) as well as the
  amount of time each day you use an appliance
• For the most accurate feedback, you can use a PlugMeter, Kill A Watt
  meter, or any other electricity metering device, and input an actual
  reading (based on measured kWh used over a period of time)

The goal is to help people calculate how their electricity is actually used, rather than relying on generic information that may or may not be personally relevant.

For example, this personalized information changed how I used computers at both home and the office. Before starting on this project, my home computers were left on 24/7, each with multiple hard drives and each connected to the network. After measurements with a PlugMeter showed that I was paying over $390 a year to leave these two computers running, I swapped them out for a single, newer computer that only runs when needed.

Without a lot of effort, a few small changes was all it took to shave off at least $350 off my hydro bill, but it was only after I measured, and really understood, what some of the appliances in the house were costing.

Today (Earth Day 2009), we invite you to give it a try by visiting www.eneruse.com. You’ll find that there are quick and easy ways you can conserve energy in your home and office. (Not to mention, it is a real eye opener to understand what some appliances cost to operate!)