Whidbey Island library customers will be able to check out electricity monitors for one week at a time at the Freeland and Coupeville Sno-Isle branches starting this week.

Puget Sound Energy is providing the devices on loan as part of a year-long energy-efficiency pilot program.

“This is a great collaboration between two entities serving the Whidbey community,” said Walt Blackford, PSE Whidbey Island community services supervisor. “By making the monitors available, we hope to help Sno-Isle customers better understand their energy usage and ultimately lower their energy use and save money on their energy bills.”

To help introduce the pilot program and also help PSE customers get ready for storm season, PSE and Sno-Isle Libraries are also offering free energy-related workshops at the following locations:

Oct. 21, 7 to 9 p.m.: Coupeville Library, 788 NW. Alexander St.

Oct. 28, 7 to 9 p.m.: Freeland Library, 5495 Harbor Ave.

PSE staff will be on hand to introduce the power monitors as well as provide information on PSE’s home energy assessment rebate, do-it-yourself weatherization strategies, and how to select and safely install a back-up generator.

The Coupeville and Freeland libraries will each have two PowerCost Monitors and one Kill-A-Watt EZ monitor. The monitors work differently.

With the PowerCost Monitor, library customers will able to see their homes’ total energy usage in real time.

With the flip of a toggle, they can see their usage measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or in dollars.

By turning on and off different household appliances, PSE customers can gauge how much collective power is being used and how much power and money could be saved by switching off certain appliances or other electrical devices.