Kill A Watt monitor helps reduce power bill

With power bills going up, the Drumheller Library now has a tool to help members find out where they can save.

    FortisAlberta, which is the owner and operator of 60 per cent of the province’s electricity distribution network, has donated power monitors to 85 community libraries throughout Alberta, including the Marigold Library System. One of these monitors is at the Drumheller Public Library for members to sign out.
    The monitor, suitably called a “Kill A Watt”, is a small device that measures and displays the electrical usage of household appliances, and calculates the cost of energy to run the appliances. Ever curious about that coffee maker that evaporates your joe down to sludge in the morning? Or what your computer really does while it is “asleep?”
    “FortisAlberta wants to help our customers cut down on their electricity costs,” says Joelle Lamontagne, program manager, Energy Efficiency. “By making power monitors available to customers through their local libraries, they can use them for free to identify the appliances that are using the most electricity and costing them the most money.”
    The monitor is available to library members to sign out.         So far, Linde Turner, Director of Library Services, said it has not been signed out yet, but is a useful tool for those that take the cost of electricity for granted.