Take a moment to program in your electric utility rate ($ per kwh) and the unit will tell you the total cost of running the appliance during the time of monitoring. Push the "Cost" button again and it will calculate the cost per day ... another button push = cost per month and one more push forecasts the cost per year.

If you're at all interested in saving energy in your home ... the first thing to find out is ... what appliances etc. are the worst offenders? This little device from La Crosse Technology may be all you need to do the research. Simply plug it in the wall, plug your appliance into it and turn it on. You get an immediate reading of instantaneous power consumption from the appliance. This tells you right off the bat which appliances are the energy hogs. Try a toaster ... yikes. 

Of course ... instantaneous power consumption is not the whole story. Energy costs are determined over time ... Kilowatt hours. Since you only run your toaster for short bursts ... it's not a huge consumer over the period of a day or a month. The Cost Control can be used to determine these numbers as well. Just plug the appliance in and leave it for a day or a few days. Keep track of the time and at the end have a look at the display ... it will tell you the Total Power Consumption over that time. A bit of math and you can calculate weekly or monthly consumption. 

Take a moment to program in your electric utility rate ($ per kwh) and the unit will tell you the total cost of running the appliance during the time of monitoring. Push the "Cost" button again and it will calculate the cost per day ... another button push = cost per month and one more push forecasts the cost per year. This is a handy thing to use ... no doubt about it. With it you can do an energy survey of your home appliance and get a good idea of which ones are the largest cost item.

Features:

• Cost monitoring
• Cost forecasting
• Instantaneous power consumption (watts)
• Maximum load power display (maximum watts)
• Total energy consumption display (total kWh)
• Measuring range approximately 3W to 1800W, therefore, it is ideal for use with a large variety of electrical appliances

This unit sells for about $35. Seems to me that you could pay that off in a month or two if it finds a few energy hogs that can be eliminated. I suppose you could even take it to the appliance store to determine for yourself which appliance brands are really the most efficient before you buy them.