20 March 2008
Grahame Peck says his new centameter "makes it easier to be careful" – and to save big money on power bills.
Grahame won his centameter in January through the weekly "My next step?" prize draw. Since then, his power bill has fallen by more than $50 a month, from $228 to $176.
"That's much more than I was expecting. I would have been happy with 10%," says Grahame. "The best thing about it is the instant feedback covering the house – it's far easier than checking each room for left-on appliances."
The unit shows how much power the house is consuming at that point in time, he says. "It is very responsive – turn on the jug and it shows in around five seconds. Read-out is provided in money, power or CO2 emissions."
When he got the centameter, Grahame set about establishing how much different items cost to run and establishing a 'lowest-level baseline' for the house – in his case, around 9 cents an hour.
"Once I know this, the centameter instantly shows how many extra things are running, so I can go and find the culprit."
What made the most difference to his power use? "Switching off kids TVs and computers," Grahame says. "I have a large house with lots of kids, so consumption is often raised by kids just leaving stuff on."
More news
