CES 2007 Green Gadget: Kill a Watt EZ

From energy-efficient TVs and solar-powered chargers to environment-friendly computers, green gadgets are big this year at CES. All know it; ever since taking this job, my electric bill at home has soared. It's those dang 50-inch plasmas and global-warming-induced air conditioning sessions that are doing it, I'm sure.

Luckily, Kill a Watt appears to have a solution with the Kill a Watt EZ, which comes out in March ($60). Just plug the doodad into any appliance, and the EZ will tell you exactly how much energy is being used (it measures energy use the same way the electric company does, by the kilowatt-hour). In addition, you can use it to monitor voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Also, the device can figure out your electricity costs by week or for the whole year. Results and other information are displayed on the LCD screen. I apologize for the absolutely atrocious picture, but I was sitting too far back at the Cherry Picks session on Sunday where the device was shown (you can get a better close-up on this Slashgear post).

Despite the big green push at CES—tomorrow is "Green Wednesday" here at the show, a series of panel discussions about energy-efficiency in consumer electronics—I haven't seen too many green gadgets other than this carbon-free PC posted on the Yahoo! Tech Flickr slide show (and, of course, the EZ). But I'm sure they're out there. I'll report back on this topic when I've seen more.

In the meantime, go to mygreenelectronics.org—a site that just launched at the show—for more information on energy-efficiency and gadgets.