fun links to cool tools and stuff

[mouser]

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/
originally found from another cool site: http://boingboing.net/

[mouser]

boing boing points to this weeks cooltool post about a very cool gadget to tell you how much electricity any device is using in your house (US) that plugs into the outlet:

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/

[Edvard]

I remember similar devices labeled "Watt-Wizard" being sold about 15 years ago. The premise being that it would restrict your appliances to using only the electricity it needed and would not sit there sucking up power. However any electrician knows that if a device is sucking more juice than required it's got a short, not a watt addiction, so these devices are, in effect, useless for the stated purpose. I think the real benefit would be if you were more aware of how much power some seldom-used appliances use in "standby" mode and you could choose to unplug them when not needed. Now, if such a doohickey could be programmed to actually shut it off when power consumption went to 'standby' levels, that would be cool.

[mouser]

right - this tool is mainly to show you how much power something is using so you can figure out which things you don't want to leave on more than you have to.

[nudone]

i've got a similar tool on my shelf right now. i borrowed it off of a friend about 2 years ago and have yet to figure out how to use it - i think my friend has forgotten that i borrowed it (i'll return it to him after i've got it to work).

the reason i post this reply is to ask for assistance on how to use the darn thing.

does anyone know what the UK average charges are for domestic electricity? i need to input the data into the tool. the electrical company i pay the bill to are of no help - they state several charges for various times of the day in a totally illogical manner, i.e. two different rates for peak, two different rates for off peak, two different rates for night use, etc, etc - total gibberish.