Some people go to the library to check out books or a DVD. Others go to the North Bend Public Library to get a consumer power meter to measure their power usage.

Really.

The library now has electricity usage monitors available for check out.

The monitors are Kill A Watt EZ consumer power meters, manufactured by P3 International Corp. They measure the amount of electricity an appliance consumes and show much it costs to run the item per hour, day, week or month.

The Florence Central Lincoln Public Utility office initiated the program on the coast. The utility’s Energy Services Manager Mike Sleigh said the monitors are an easy way to answer customers’ questions about energy use. He figures libraries, which already are in the business of checking out items, are a great way to distribute them.

“People are always calling and asking how much their toaster uses, and I thought, let’s teach them how to learn,” Sleight said.

Anyone with a valid Coos County library card can take one home.

Each one comes with an instruction manual and example of average wattage and hours of use for common household appliances. It plugs into the wall and the appliance plugs into it, said Buzzy Nielsen, assistant library director.

“You can set it to what your kilowatt per hour is,” Nielsen said. “It will do the math for you.”

He said people might be surprised what the biggest energy wasters are.

“You have the kinds of things you would expect to have a really high cost — refrigerators, dryers, dishwashers,” Nielsen said. “Then there’s things like hair dryers that are really expensive to use.”

He said that hour-for-hour hair dryers consume more watts than microwaves.

“More than what it would cost to light a room,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen first found out the monitors were available when customers showed him a letter they received from the public utility district.

The letter offered the monitors to libraries within the utility district, which includes North Bend residents on the north side of McCullough Bridge. The North Bend library had not received a letter, so Nielsen called Sleight.

At least one monitor went to each of the libraries in the power utility’s range, including Lakeside, Reedsport, Florence, Mapleton and other towns north.

Sleight said he got the idea when he read about a Willamette Valley utility company donating the monitors to libraries in its district.

Word about the new power monitor spread quickly at the North Bend library. Before it even arrived, six people had reserved it via the library’s online Web site, Nielsen said.

Anticipating the monitor’s popularity would increase, Nielsen said the library ordered two more. They cost about $60 retail, but are $35 on Amazon, he said.

“We want people to be using them so that’s why we bought a couple more,” Nielsen said.

By Thursday afternoon, there were 10 online reservations for the devices.

“Good for them. That’s great,” Sleight said. “People are going to be interested.

“Energy’s in the news. The sooner we figure out the most appropriate way to use what we’ve got, the better off we’ll be.”