It's the peak of summer. For most, that means it's time for peak energy consumption. But how much electricity, exactly, is your AC guzzling? And might there be a more voracious energy hog among your appliances? The DIY experts at Stack Exchange offer a few tips on hunting that hog down. My electrical bill is outrageous. I pay three times as much my next-door neighbor, and four or five times what my neighbor across the street pays. Of course, the bill is worst in the summer (I live in central TX), but I've had the air conditioner inspected, and while the house is right at the maximum capacity for our unit, the unit should still be able to take care of the load. That also doesn't explain why our winter bills are larger than the comparables. How do I go about figuring out where my money is going?— Originally asked by mos) For devices that plug into an electrical outlet, you can use Kill A Watt or an equivalent device to monitor how much electricity the appliance is using.

If that doesn't help you hunt down a clear culprit, go low-tech and look at your electric meter as you turn off circuits at the service panel one at a time. When you see a big change in speed at which the wheel is spinning (for older meters) or the digits are changing (newer meters), you've found your hog.Also, it might be time for an energy audit. — Answered by Niall C. Open up your electrical panel and measure the draw on each circuit. This will show you which circuits are drawing the most.An alternative method: As Mike Powell points out, you can clamp on to the main lines and turn off each breaker, noting how much the value drops as each breaker goes dark. (You will have to do this for each leg of the main). Once you know which circuits are drawing the most power, you can start eliminating devices on that circuit until you find the largest consumers.To figure out how much your devices cost to run, see these formulae:Watts = Amps * Volts Kilowatt-hours = kilowatts * Hours used

Cost = kilowatt-hours * cost per kilowatt-hour Cost = (((Amps * Volts)/1000) * Hours Used) * Cost per KilowattYou could also do like I did and split an old extension cord (so you can clamp on to a single wire), then plug one end into the wall, and your device into the other end. Then you can measure the draw of just that device. Depending upon how much time and money you want to invest, there are several home energy monitors on the market, some of which are DIY installs.best quality ac unitThe Blueline Powercost Monitor is a definite DIY install (for the most common meter types). how an ac window unit worksIt is a little box which interfaces with the meter (even analog meters), and monitors the usage in real time. do window ac units use more electricity

It integrates with Microsoft Hohm (now discontinued), and delivers real-time statistics, recent usage history, fancy graphs, etc. The other big contender is the TED 5000. This device offers pretty much the same story (statistics, history, graphs, etc.). It is essentially an ammeter hooked up to the electric line coming in your house. Because of this, it is more accurate than the Blueline. The downside is that you have to open up the breaker box to install this (which may or may not be DIY for you). Compared to the standalone ammeter (~$80), the TED 5000 is significantly more expensive (~$250). However, the usage statistics over time may help you to reduce your overall electric consumption once you have found and eliminated the main hog(s) in your house.If you find your air conditioning is the culprit, check out how long it might take to make your money back after buying a new, more energy efficient AC.More reading: Engadget Review of the Blueline - with some comparisons to the TED5000.

— Answered by James Van Huis Brultech offers a solution called the ECM-1240 Home Monitor that will show you how much each circuit uses. You might need an electrician to install it. It works like the ammeter. tracks usage over time and can send live data to your iPhone.When conducting a one-time measurement of an appliance's energy consumption, you must take into account that appliance's duty cycle. For example, your heat pump may draw exactly the amount of current it's supposed to, but if it's running constantly instead of for 15 minutes per hour, that's 4x the expected energy usage. Think you know monitor your home electricity consumption and hunt down a hog? Disagree with the wisdom expressed above? Downvote or upvote an answer, or submit your own at Stack Exchange — a place to freely trade expert knowledge on diverse topics from software programming to cycling to scientific skepticism... and plenty in between.Actually, in terms of overall electricity usage in households, air conditioners use the most on a continual basis, followed by refrigerators.

But on a unit per hour basis, air conditioners are not that bad, even though they’ve been made the villain by the media. Broadcasters, in particular, are offering tips to households on how to cut down on energy consumption and the main suggestion is to set your air conditioner at 28 degrees centigrade. Because so many people, in particular the elderly, have fallen victim to heat stroke, no one is saying to turn off the air conditioner any more, but the general consensus is that the average air conditioner in the average home uses about 130 watts of energy and, overall, accounts for a bit less than a fourth of the summer electricity bill, which gives you some idea of the savings potential. What the media doesn’t say, according to an article in the most recent issue of Shukan Post, is that there is another appliance in your house that actually uses more electricity. A typical large screen (over 37 inches) LCD television set uses on average 220 watts, or 70 percent more energy than the air conditioner if both are being used continuously, but, of course, media companies aren’t going to suggest you turn off the TV because that would hurt their business.

And according to the Nomura Research Institute, since air conditioners work on something akin to fuzzy logic, they save more energy the longer you keep them on. The point is not to turn them off and on. If a room is, say 32 degrees and you turn on an air conditioner set to 27 degrees, it requires 800 watts right at the beginning, but after only a minute the energy consumption drops to 600 watts and then after 17 minutes it can drop to as low as 80 watts. What tends to be the concern of energy producers is not so much that households use their air conditioners, but rather that they don’t all turn them on at the same time. By the time an air conditioning unit is maintaining its set 27-degree temperature it may be using as little as 20 watts. The problem is, once you turn the air conditioner off, you have to start from zero again. Also, it should be noted that these figures are for rooms that are fully insulated. In comparison, three incandescent 60-watt light bulbs use 162 watts, continuously.

And TVs are worse: 220 watts isn’t a whole lot better than the old CRT TVs. Though LCD and plasma displays are touted as being more energy efficient by the industry, the comparisons are being made for equivalent screen area. For sure, a 28-inch CRT TV uses about 87 watts, and a same-size LCD screen only uses 42 watts, but the energy consumption increases exponentially from there. When you get to 40 inches, the LCD consumption jumps to 230 watts. And the whole point of flat screen TVs is that they take up less room and thus families are buying larger and larger ones. A 50-inch plasma screen uses 400 watts. Also, there’s a big difference in manufacturer specifications. Some makers are much more energy efficient than others, but the point is that the TV is not only using a lot more electricity than your aircon, it’s also heating up your room, making more work for your aircon. Even when the TV is on standby it’s consuming about 3 watts of power. So turn it off. There’s nothing to watch anyway.