Tweet-A-Watt For Sale

If you’re into the ever-growing Twitter scene, and if tweeting your energy usage to all your followers sounds like fun, get excited. The Tweet-a-Watt kit was recently released for purchase and is ready to start helping you save electricity – and money.

Essentially, Tweet-a-Watt is a do-it-yourself wireless power monitoring system that uses a modification of the Kill-a-Watt, a unit which tells you the real-time and accumulated energy usage of any electronic device.  Monitors at various plugs around your home transmit the power usage at that outlet to a central computer receiver. The receiver can then log, graph and report the data. The starter kit costs about $90, but doesn’t include a Kill-a-Watt.

Got a little time and experience with a soldering iron? Tweet-a-Watt's for you. Photo: Blog.makezine.com

Here’s a more technical account of the system, according to the creators of the Tweet-a-Watt:

“Here’s how it works: The modified Kill-a-Watt uses a “super-cap” to slowly recharge itself. Once there is enough power it turns on the Xbee wireless module which transmits the data to a nearby computer (or internet connected microcontroller, like an Arduino). Once the power usage for the day is recorded it uses a predefined Twitter account (it can be your own) to publish your daily KWH consumption for the day. Multiple units can be used for an entire household.”

Pretty cool.

We haven’t tried to make one ourselves but have read that the kit requires “some light soldering to piece together. It is a moderate/advanced project and is intended for people with electronics and computer experience and are comfortable working around High Voltages.” So, if you’re a first-time DIYer, you may want to start on a lighter project.

We first heard about the Tweet-a-Watt at Greener Gadgets, where it won first place. The exciting part is that people are not only taking an interest in their conscious power usage, but also phantom power drain – and how it affects their electric bill.