Want to know exactly how much electricity your appliances are using? Plug each appliance into a power monitor.

Kill A Watt™ power monitors are designed for non-professionals. They show power consumption by kilowatt-hour and also measure such factors as voltage, amperage and power quality.

The Kill A Watt is usually $20 to $30 and the Kill A Watt™ EZ model is $40 to $60 online. The EZ version adds the ability to input the electricity rate shown on your monthly bill and to calculate costs and forecast electricity use.

There are also more sophisticated meters available, such as the Watts Up? products, which record data that can be uploaded to your computer and analyzed with the included software.