Followers of this site know that I’m a pretty big supporter of energy efficient cost savings. I’ve written a series of posts under the name ‘green matters‘ on the topic. That being said, I was very happy to find the website, wattzon.com.

Wattzon take an audit of all of the energy you use and converts it into watts. Not only is this a great way to determine where you can cut back on your environmental impact, but it also can be an eye opener as a means to show you where you can save money by becoming more energy efficient.

As you navigate through the site’s interface, your energy usage is divided into the following categories:

1. Government – this category intrigues me. Basically, the site takes a look at energy usage that each state spends per person. Shockingly, government energy usage is almost half of my total energy usage!

2. Flying – not sure if you really want to include business flights in this category unless you actually have a choice whether or not to go somewhere for your job.

3. Commuting – takes a look at all public transit options and even self-powered commuting.

4. Housing – very interesting to compare this statistic against other users. This figure is DRAMATICALLY impacted by the climate weather in which you live.

5. Food – I haven’t seen another site that actually calculates your energy usage based on what you eat. You can even auto load settings based on whether you’re a vegan, heavy meat eater, or anything in between.

6. Stuff – I’m glad Wattzon includes this category. You can choose from common energy drainers such as computers, TV’s, appliances, or even add your own items. This is a great metric to determine the ongoing usage expense of all the junk that you own (see image).

How to Use Wattzon.com to Positively Impact your Finances

There is obviously a direct correlation between energy usage and money. One of the nice things about this site is that you can directly compare your energy usage to:

• the average Wattzon user
• Americans (also includes historical usage)
• the rest of the world (includes other industrialized countries)

This way you can see if you’re spending a lot on energy usage in a given category compared to others – signaling where you may need to cut back.

I measured in at 6,883 total watts of energy use for the year. It looks like I’m using less than two-thirds of the energy of the average American, but the average Wattzon user has me slightly beat, so I still have my work cut out for me and could really cut back on my home energy use.

Final Thoughts on Wattzon.com

Wattzon has a lot of interesting metrics and comparison features. For instance, I really like the feature that ‘visualizes’ your energy usage in terms of different metrics like barrels of oil, size of a solar panel, light bulbs, and CO2.

In general, I’ve seen a lot of these types of sites, but Wattzon tends to have a lot of breadth to it in comparison, a very easy to use interface, and it’s free. You can save your data and even share it with others in a number of social media formats. The time is definitely worth the knowledge and entertainment value that you get in return.

Energy Usage Discussion:

• What is your total energy usage?
• Where did you see problem areas where you can cut back on energy use?
• What is the first area you will try to cut your energy use?
• How does Wattzon compare to other similar sites out there? Are there any that you like better?

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