P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
by P3 INTERNATIONAL
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List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $15.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
Customer Review: Unimpressed
Summary: 2 Stars
My biggest problem with this product is the bullet point in the description,
- Calculates electricity expenses by the day, week, month, or year
the implied subject of that statement meaning the device and my assumption that it would be able to do such calculations instantly- for you.
Unfortunately the way this device is meant to work, which wasn't made clear to me in its description, is you
1. plug this device into a wall AND THEN
2. come back in a day, a week, a month, or a year and see how much energy has been used by that outlet measured in watts, volts, amps- all fairly meaningless units of measurements for someone like me without a degree in electrical engineering and very little recollection of high school science.
Not very useful considering it's design will automatically take up two sockets even though it only needs to be plugged into one. If you're interested in finding the energy usage of multiple electronics long term you'll either need a bunch of these devices plugged in throughout your home or a passion for math problems/Microsoft excel to help you convert and keep track of watts over time divided by kilowatts, times your kilowatt hour rate...
Yeah, I could do all that, but for $25 you'd think the manufacturer could add in some variables to help you calculate energy usage on the fly.
Basically I learned exactly what I needed to know from the comments for this product without needing the Monitor- the bigger the electronics the more energy they use, so try not to leave them running longer than you need or the cost will add up fast. Now go buy a smart surge protector or an outlet timer and actually start conserving energy.
Customer Review: Manual is worthless!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
The manual is 7 bullets, less than 1/2 page and one diagram. The disclaimer is longer than the manual!!!!
I plug it in and it starts blinking and beeping when I turn on the device it's plugged into! Does this mean it has found a problem like a open ground circuit? Does it mean I should be using a different setting? Does it mean the device draws more amps than the unit is designed for? Or does it simply mean its taking a reading? UNFORTUNATELY, BEEPING AND BLINKING ARE NOT ONE OF THE 7 BULLET POINTS SO I'M WAITING TO CALL THEIR NON-800 TECH SUPPORT NUMBER!!!!! (The on-line PDF manual is the same worthless single sheet in digital form)
The product description states ". . . You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even an entire year. Also check the quality of your power by monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor. . . . BUT you have to figure this out since the manual does not tell you how to convert its readings to ". . . calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even an entire year. . ." your on your own for that one. . . like you are for figuring out the quality of your power because it tells you only the button functions but nothing else? It will display frequency in HZ but how far off of 60.00HZ is bad or an indication I might need to call an electrician or the power company? It gives RMS voltage but the manual does not tell you how far above or below your service 115 Volt or 120 volt is bad? etc etc etc.
Product advertising is pointed towards the home user but the manual is for the professional electrician but even fails them when it fails to indicate what blinking and beeping is all about!
Customer Review: Cheap, effective and fun.
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this item based upon a review in a PC magazine. I had been considering replacing an old second refrigerator with a newer, more efficient one. This item convinced me that the $89 I spend per year is a small price to pay for having plenty of cold soda and beer on hand. I have since used it around the house on about 6 other things, and in each case, found that the item is well worth the cost of the electricity. I'm still looking around the house to find something that costs more to run than it is worth.
Calculations: Look at your electric bill. Mine charges for fuel charge and a non-fuel charge. It also charges more for use over 1000 KW hours. For my calculations, I used the over 1000KW hour charge, adding the fuel charge to the non-fuel charge. That brings me to $0.11 per KWH.
To come up with a cost per year, plug the item in, plug in the appliance, and wait a few days. The unit tells you how long it has been plugged in. I found it handy to plug it in at breakfast, or after dinner, so I know when 24, 48, or 72 hours has passed. At that point, read the KWH used for the several days. For example: after 72 hours, it reads 2.4 kwh. Thus 3 days is 2.4, one day is .8kwh. .8kwh per day times 365 days is 292 kwh per year. This figure times $0.11 per kwh makes the annual cost to run that appliance $32.12, assuming it is plugged in all year.
Suggestion. I found it much more convenient to use this unit when I used a short extension cord, the outdoor kind with the 3 prongs. Mine is about one foot long, but it doesn't matter. It just makes reading the meter much easier.
Hope this was helpful.
Customer Review: Great gadget to have around
Summary: 4 Stars
This is great - it did live up to my expectations, and at about $30, it's definitely a great buy.
This shows the volts, amperes, watt, KHW, line frequency, and so on. The power consumption is the best feature - it leads to quite a few pleasant and unpleasant surprises! It was great to find, for instance, that the tower fans use under 50 watts - compared to a 1200-watt AC, that's a great savings! However, it was not-so-nice to see that my hair dryer consumes close to 1800 watts with the heat on high.
While not a terribly cost-saving device by itself - it will have an effect on your power consumption, and may lead to smaller power bills. At least it tells you how much power your gadgets consume, unlike the packaging which is often misleading and rarely contain the power rating.
As another reviewer mentioned, desktop computers were the biggest surprise - with a core duo churning out Seti at Home work units, I was surprised to see it's costing me about 300 watts an hour, or about $27 a month - whereas, using the PC for just 4 hours a day for my personal use, I end up with less than $5 a month! Ouch!
My only complaint - this unit has only one outlet, but is designed in such a way that it guards both the outlets on the wall. That means, I run one outlet short of what I had before. Of course, I can buy a outlet duplicator from the dollar store and put it on this, but it would have been nice if this just took the space of a single outlet - just shifting the prongs a half-inch towards the edge would have solved the issue.
Customer Review: Works great, but screen can be hard to read.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought two of these about when I moved into my first apartment. In addition to replacing all my bulbs with CFLs, I wanted to see how much power keeping the TV, stereo and cable box plugged in used (the answer, not as much as you would think and other sites claim).
I also wanted to see how much power my aquarium and lizard set ups were using each month.
You can use it in combination with the BC-900 battery charger and see how much it costs to recharge your batteries (43 cents a month to charge 4 AA's non stop).
It does a pretty good job to determining energy usage, as well as volts and amps. It maxes out at 15 amps / 1,875 VA and would start beeping when I tested my microwave. However, it could handle the toaster oven which was about 1,500 watts and 10 amps.
The LCD screen can be hard to read in low light or from an odd angle, as it is not backlit. I've subtracted a star for that reason, as I had to get a flashlight to read it when it was nestled between my desk and bookcase for a while.
There is also another model (P4460) which you can enter in your energy cost and it will calculate how much it costs to run appliances. Seems like more work than is necessary, and costs an extra $15.
P3 now has a powerstrip (P4320) with a built in energy meter, which is $72 but not getting good reviews at Amazon. I can't find the max power for that one (ok, I didn't look) but unless its significantly more than the P4400 I don't know why you wouldn't plug a powerstrip into that and save the $50.