The Wattson – Save on your Electricity Bills and Reduce your Carbon Footprint!
Available from: Firebox – The Wattson – Price: £124.95
In the past, all we’ve had to worry about is muddy footprints, now it seems we have to worry about our carbon footprint as well! To help with this the Wattson is an ingenious device which can help you save the planet by helping you to cut your electricity usage, which has the added benefit that you can save pounds from your electricity bill! Even if you are not a greenie, then saving money is sure to make your ears prick up!
On top of that the Wattson looks cool, extremely stylish, and it’s sure to be a real talking point amongst visitors to your home.
So what does the Wattson actually do? Quite simply it displays in real time the amount of electricity being used in your home. Simple to install, you simply clip the sensor on to the wire between your meter and fusebox. This transmits the amount of electricity used to the wireless receiver show above. As well as displaying a running total of your electricity usage in either Watts or Pounds (sure to make you take notice!), the lights on the Wattson receiver change colour according to the amount of energy being used. When the lights are red, then there is a high rate of electricity being consumed, if the lights are blue then your energy consumption is low. To sum up, Red – Bad, Blue – Good – Simple!
Not only does the Wattson display the running total of your electricity consumption of the receiver unit, it also stores it onboard for as long as 4 weeks, sampling the electricity consumption up to 288 times a day. Simply plug the Wattson in to your computer with the supplied USB cable and the included PC or Mac Software will show graphs allowing you to analyse your electricity usage over time, showing daily, monthly or yearly use. You can also compare data with other members of the DIY Kyoto community if you wish, and get energy saving tips.
Although most people have good intentions when it comes to reducing their energy usage, they are usually quickly forgotten – especially in the dark winter months! By showing the actual cost of the electricity your using, the Wattson gives you a real incentive to cut down and gives you instant feedback. The effects of turning off lights and applicances when not in use can be seen instantly, and you can see how much money you are saving. The coloured lights also offer a great feedback system for kids, to encourage them to save energy too! In no time they`ll be running round the house turning off the lights, appliances and grannys life support system – saving you money, and also the planet (which is the most important is down to you to decide!).
Keeping in with the enviromental theme, at the end of it’s lifetime the Wattson is designed to be dissambled so that its parts can be recycled.
The words from the review by T3.co.uk sum up the Wattson perfectly:
“The box also uses coloured lights to hammer home the point: if it’s blue, you’re doing okay, but if it starts glowing red, you’re a heartless planet-killing b****** with very little chance of receiving a dinner invitation from Al Gore.”
Available from: Firebox – The Wattson – Price: £124.95
No comments Digg this
Gadget Blog RSS Feed 