Ryan Whitaker

I spent three months testing adjustable overbed tables with wheels for recliners in my own home, moving each one between my living room recliner, a hospital-style bed, and a low-profile sofa. I ate meals on them, worked eight-hour remote shifts from my recliner, and dragged them across carpet, hardwood, and tile. What I learned is … Read more

Last spring, a single lightning strike two blocks from our test house knocked out a refrigerator, the HDMI port on a 75-inch TV, and a smart thermostat. The total damage: just over $3,200 in dead electronics. The breaker panel had no surge protection, and the cheap power strips under the entertainment center only handled small … Read more

A single lightning strike can deliver 30,000 amps into your home’s wiring in a fraction of a second. That kind of energy destroys HVAC boards, smart fridges, well pumps, and anything plugged into a wall. After watching a neighbor lose $11,000 worth of equipment last July, our team spent 90 days testing the best whole-house … Read more

Finding the best real-time energy monitors for renters used to feel impossible. Most whole-home monitors require clamping sensors onto your electrical panel, which most leases won’t allow, and your landlord almost certainly won’t approve. I ran into this exact problem in my last apartment and spent three weekends testing plug-in alternatives before finding what actually … Read more

I spent three months testing eight different circuit-level energy monitors in my own home, swapping them in and out of my 200-amp panel, logging readings against my utility meter, and pushing every app and Home Assistant integration to its limits. What I found surprised me: the most expensive option was not the best, the cheapest … Read more

When my electric bill jumped 18% in a single month last year, I stopped guessing where my money was going and started measuring it. That single decision led me down a months-long rabbit hole of testing smart home energy monitors, and the results changed how I run my house. After installing 10 different models in … Read more

I installed my first whole-house energy monitor three years ago after one too many shocking electric bills. Within the first month, I caught a dying refrigerator compressor that was silently costing me $40 a month. That single discovery paid for the monitor twice over, and I’ve been testing and reviewing energy monitors ever since. Our … Read more

I installed solar panels on my roof three years ago, and the very first question I had after the installers left was simple: where is all that energy going? My electric bill dropped, sure, but I could not tell which appliances were eating the savings or whether my time-of-use rate plan was actually working. That … Read more

I never paid attention to my electric bill until my AC unit started running 14 hours a day. That single month cost me $312, and I had no idea where the energy was going. That’s when I installed my first home energy monitor, and the data changed how I think about power forever. After 90 … Read more

Every February I used to dread pulling my SUV into the garage after a long drive. The snow-packed wheel wells would drip salty slush onto bare concrete, and by March I had white efflorescence stains I could not scrub out. That was the winter I started testing waterproof garage floor mats for winter slush on … Read more