I bought a meter that shows how much an electrical appliance you are using is costing you:

P3 Kill A Watt

So far, I have tested it on my Dell Latitude D830 laptop which is hooked to a 17″ monitor through a docking station.  The unit calculated that if I left the laptop on for the entire month, it would cost me $4.89 in electrical usage.

I tried it on my Palm 700wx phone charger, which appeared to use the same amount of juice whether my phone was plugged in or not.  This worked out to 8 cents a month.  I have three of these chargers plugged in around the house, so that brings me up to a cost of almost a quarter a month.  Seems worth the convenience to me.

I tried it on my 47″ LCD TV, which is used a few hours a day, primarily by my 4 year old.  This works out to $2.50 per month.  He’s worth it.

Electricity in Indianapolis, where I live, is $.08 per killowatt-hour.