Rooting out electricity hogs in your home

The April 2006 issue of Kiplinger's magazine has a great feature, the Ultimate Savings Guide (starts page 75). There are 89 tips to help you save living expenses and put away money for retirement. Here are some examples that can help save money on electricity spending:

Identifying electricity hogs: The article recommends several devices that can identify and eliminate "stealth" energy leaks. These are caused by devices that continue to drain power even when turned off. To find such leaks, Kiplingers recommends P3 International's Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor, which costs $30 and can measure the stealth usage of devices that plug into a wall socket.

Plugging the leaks: Kiplinger's points to the "Smart Strip" power strip, which it says really turns off the power to a device when the power of the device is "off". There's also the 3050 Plug Load Control power strip, which detects motion and turns off devices when you leave the vicinity.

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