need some help calculating readings from my new kill a watt meter

[cutlass1972]

I recently acquired a kill a watt KWH meter, and am attempting to calculate power consumption.

I have metered a few devices and am coming up with what seems to be too good to be true readings.

so far I metered my tv for 136 hours and came up with 1.94 kwh consumed, I calculated my last electric bill and came up with an avereage of $.097 per kwh, so this tells me that it cost me about 18.8 cents to run for 136 hours (not constantly obviously). Here is my math

.097 X 1.94 = $.188

Am I wrong here somewhere?

I also metered my (very old) clothes washer. I came up with .18 KWH used for a large load using cold water. Is it just me or do these readings seem VERY low?

[kurt]

 your washing machine has a 1/2 hp motor in it (almost all of them do) so it draws 370w or less when running average load is 1/2 hour that is 185 watt hours or .185 KWH so your number is about right before i get hanged that is not a very accurate way to calculate how much something draws i just wanted a ballpark figure.....

[wdyasq]

1940 Watt hours / 136 hours is 14.26 Watts draw. My LCD computer monitor draws more than that.

Grid electricity is a great bargain.

Ron

[cutlass1972]

one question I have about this then is energy star ratings. According to this site

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=clotheswash.display_column_definitions

the energy star rating is based on a 392 load per year rating, at that rate my 1982 ge wash machine has a rating of 70.56 khw per year.

This just doesn't make sense to me when I am seeing ratings on the new front loading wash machines of 217 kwh per year and they are proud of it.

[disaray1]

  Cutlass- I'm not sure your getting your numbers right. Question: of the 136 hours that you metered on the tube, how many of those hours (approx) was the tv on, and what does the tv consume (in watts) when it's on?

 The reason I ask- I've been monitoring a 1/40th HP circulating pump for a couple of weeks. This pump runs about 4 hours a day. It consumes about 60 watts running. It takes 4 to 5 days to use 1kwh. 60watts X 4hr= 240 watt hours a day, 240 watt hours X 4 days = about 1kwh.

 I'll measure the washing machine today and post the results.

 David

[Volvo farmer]

Read again.

The Energy Guide ratings INCLUDE the hot water and assume the hot water is electrically heated. It's right there in the KWH/year paragraph.

There's your discrepancy.

 

[cutlass1972]

ah, yes. you are right! hmm, I wonder how I can calculate the energy used to heat the water out as I use cold water only to wash clothes.

I am trying to figure out if it would be worth my while to buy one of the new supposedly "super energy efficient" front loader wash machines. If my energy consumption is that low with my current washer I think I might wait until it croaks and then think about a new one.

[cutlass1972]

of the 136 hours of monitoring the tv may have been on for approximately 10 hours? I would say 12 hours at most and 5 hours at least