Big Brother? Nope, just TED.

Miss K has been quite the helper around the house. She loves going on the deck and helping me put the clothes out to dry, and bring them back inside (even though she doesn't always understand that I don't want the socks on the ground, lol)... Maybe she just likes to ride around in the laundry basket?

We were inspired by the lack of need for a dryer while we were with our family in Bath, England. So, we decided to go dryer free, and see what happens. It's a little more work, but the sun is free- and she dries and shines. We've been doing this for a few weeks now, but... Chris and I were wondering... does it really save money, and we're we really using that much energy anyway?

SO.... (Chris loves a good case to investigate...)

Last week he purchased this nifty little device called TED. No, not the raunchy teddy bear movie that just flopped out, but TED as in "The Energy Detective".

You hook it up to yout box, you set it to the cost of power, and it tells you what you are paying. (Our rate at the moment is $0.10.)You have a seperate handset device (shown above) to watch and it tells you how much power you are using to run your house (or business, whatever).

Chris watches it from his iPad too, but I can monitor it during the day in the TV room.  At this very moment (4 am) we are  using 577 watts which is costing us $0.07 cents per hour. It goes up higher during the day when the air conditioner is running among other things.

It is really awesome, because it reminds me to turn lights off. Many times I've come out here to sit on the couch, and look over at it, and get back up and turn the kitchen light off. It's interesting to see the difference by turning a light on/of, or the stove top vs the oven.

If you are conscientious about the energy you use in your home, it may be something for you to look into.

CLICK HERE FOR the TED website! (I'm sure they explain it much better than I do!)