I don’t think there is such a thing as a darkened room in the 21st century. A quick glance around any household reveals enough blinking lights to rival the stars in the sky. Nearly every gadget plugged into the walls is busy sucking energy from the sockets and money from your wallet even while you aren’t using them.

We often forget these energy vampires, overlooking their usage, but in an effort to be a greener consumer and more budget-conscious, there is a fun way to figure out what items should be unplugged when not in use. The DIY EnerJar Kit measures how much energy an item that is not in use, but still plugged in, pulls and also can show the usage when the item is active.

The energy meter can be made without an engineering degree. Even better, the jar that contains the kit can be pulled from the trash bin or claimed the next time you clean out your fridge. Using commonly available items scavenged from around the house, it doesn’t take a mad scientist to put the do-it-yourself kit together.

Once assembled the EnerJar is plugged into the wall. Then everything from game consoles to computer monitors to electric toothbrushes to rechargable battery packs can be plugged into the EnerJar. An LED readout inside the glass container displays how much energy the vampire product is sucking while at rest or in use. The numbers will likely surprise you.

The schematics for the gadget Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel created, which has won a design competition, can be downloaded for free.

For more on the EnerJar and other green gadgets, head to Inhabitat.

Image: The Power Alley

Tags: energy meter, DIY, EnerJar, green, energy use

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