Hey Guys --

Is there a good meter I can plug in between an appliance to the wall to
simply show the watts being used? I'd love to use something like this
for things like my fridge, coffee maker, TV, cable box, etc. I created
a spreadsheet with everything in my house that sucks power, and if I
can get an accurate count of what each appliance uses I can see how
much each thing costs if I run it for X hours per day for Y number of
days being charged Z per kWh. Yup, I'm a nerd if anyone asks

Also I'm looking at prices of florescent bulbs, and those things aren't
cheap! Our ceiling fans use those smaller decorative bulbs, and I'm
finding them no cheaper then $10 a bulb online. But I figure the 4 50
watts in my ceiling fan costs me about $3.30 a month to run where if I
replaced these with 12 watt CFL bulbs it'd just be $0.79 for the same
fan. Granted that's only like $2.50 a month per fan, but it'll pay for
itself in about 1.5 years. Replacing lights in 4 fans would save
$10/month right there a month on electricity even though the investment
is steap up front.

Note: I'm getting the costs above with the following formula:
( bulb wattage x 4 bulbs per fan x 4 hours/day x 30 days/month / 1000
[convert to kWh] x .1375) My electric company charges 13.75 cents per
kWh.

And what are ya'lls thoughts on hot water heater timers? I have a new
50 gallon hot water heater (electric) I put in last year, and it's not
a cheapo one -- so i assume it's very efficient. Would I get any
noticeable benefits using a timer?

Thanks again --

Sam