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: Validates common sense electrical stewardship
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an interesting little gadget that provides some really useful information. It comes packaged in a no-fuss little cardboard box with minimal documentation. You would be best served to look online for explanations of "Power Factor" and the like. That said, the device is not complex, but some documentation would have been nice.
The unit is quite large, and covers both outlets in a standard twin outlet wall gang. for this reason, I purchased a little mini-extension cord so I could get readings from devices plugged into power strips, or devices behind sofas etc.
One interesting thing to note is that the device needs to track usage over a week or so to give a good indication of kWh usage. Sure, you get an instantaneous reading of how many watts something uses, but that's misleading. After day one, the reading was 1.9 kWh per day for the fridge. After one week, the average use was only 1.4 kWh per day. In my area, that's around $40 per year for the fridge.
So with this product you're either going to find out that you're wasting a lot, or that you're not wasting as much as everyone would have you believe. Either way, this product is a good way to validate which category you fall into. My own measurements have found that what matters the most is how long an appliance stays on, not how power-hungry it is. For instance, a kettle boiled twice a day at 1600 watts will consume far, far less in a year than a ceiling fan that is left on 12 hours a day, every day.
Customer Review: Beware of misleading descriptions
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great device and works well.
However, I think the product description and some of the reviews are a little misleading. From the information, I would have thought this device had a place to plug in my electricity cost, and then it would actually show me the COST of usage.
It does not do that. If you leave it plugged in, it will show you a running total of how many kilowatt-hours have been used, along with the time that's it's taken to use them. That's it. You still have to take that kilowatt-hours and time, and crunch it manually against your electric bill's rates, to find the actual cost for a given period.
This makes sense, in a way, since appliances such as refrigerators, that cycle on and off, need to see an average over time -- an instantaneous readout doesn't tell you anything.
However, it would have been really nifty if you could plug in YOUR cost of electricity, and have it show you the daily/monthly/yearly cost of running the device automatically. This device, again, will NOT go that far.
Having said that, it's still a pretty cool device. It does show both watts and amps, along with the aforementioned cumulative kilowatt-hours. Less useful is the volts and frequency readouts -- geez, if it doesn't read something close to 120V/60Hz, you've got a problem! It's not like those readouts are going to be changing a lot.
Worth the money, for the curious. Just don't expect it to do TOO much.
Customer Review: Money saving Electric Tips/Tricks.
Summary: 4 Stars
This apt. where I am now uses elec.Everything,Ht water,heat,and there are tips I use to try to keep my "$400.00 Monthly Bill" down.Eco Light bulbs if U look around U can buy them for 1-2.00 each,Walmart often sells them cheap & check out ur Power Co. for a Web site,they sell all sorts of money saving items,I bought 2 Tall torch lamps at good price & Kitchen Celling Light I installed on clearance too. Just because UR not using an appliance dose Not mean it's not Wasting Elect. I Un-Plug Everything that I don't need running like Toaster,Cell phone charger,ect.If you use Outlet Strips & have Tv,Dvd,ect 1 flip of the switch =savings. I even flip my elect. circuit breakers off after I use my washer/dryer & breakers for Elec.baseboard heaters I'm not using,off season as well. In winter I dress warm & keep heat on low,I bought some Awesome Thermal pants at JC-Pennys & they are Super Soft & Comfy.
Bottom Line is that even when I still thought 300.00 a Month for Elec. Bill was too much in the winter I kept trying to get it lower & when I went to get fuel asst. the guy told me that My Bill was the Lowest he has ever Seen,and he wasn't a spring chicken,and I walked out feeling pretty proud of myself.
So even if you have the means in these day's of Over-Priced Everything,why not just for something Interesting to do,try & see how much you can save by trying to cut usage,if nothing else you will help the Planet.
Peace
Customer Review: Works great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this to determine the kilowatt usage of various small applicances around the house. My goal was to find out what's using all the power in the house so I could reduce the bill.
After measuring everything I could reasonably unplug, what I found was very interesting:
1) Contrary to popular opinion, the cell phone charger does not use anything unless it's activly charging the phone. Even then, it was about 2 watts. No reason to unplug it unless you need the outlet or just hate clutter. It's a Motorola, YMMV.
2) Our 42" Plasma TV is rated for a max of 450W. Actual usage was about 350 when fully lit. This is about .50 a day as we only use it in the evenings.
3) The computer(s)...
First, a Pentium 4e 3.4ghz with 2 GB of ram and 2 250GB hard drives. 150 watts all the time.
Second, a Core2 Duo E8600 with 8 GB of ram and 4 hard drives. 100 watts all of the time.
Together, they cost $25 a month at .17/kwh which is my average cost.
Moral - get a new PC. They use a ton less power.
If you want to know how much your Refrigerator uses, I suggest getting a larger unit. The power on surge may too much for this unit. I wish someone made a larger unit for a reasonable price.
Overall, I'm very happy with the device, but once I've tested everything, it will sit in a drawer.
Oh, did I turn anything off? No. I just know where the usage is going to now. Still a good purchase.
Customer Review: handy gadget
Summary: 4 Stars
This handy little gadget lets you easily check the power consumption of any device plugged into it. It's easy to use. Buttons on the front select which value is displayed. It can track real time usage as well as cumulative usage. It also properly deals with VA vs Watts (which, if you're sizing a device for a UPS is a necessary distinction).... on some devices they're two different things.
When you first get it, you'll likely be tempted to go around checking every device you can find. (Will only do devices that use a standard wall outlet however, not big things like air conditioners, water heaters, etc that require a specialized outlet). It's actually pretty interesting to see what appliances actually use and how that varies with different appliance functions/settings. Many of them use power even when "off".
The main drawback of the design is that it blocks both plugs of a standard wall outlet, so you can't have another device plugged into the outlet at the same time. Sometimes it's an awkward fit. I'd highly recommend using a power strip or short heavy duty extension cord with it. (plug the cord or strip into the wall, the power monitor into the cord or strip and then the device you want to check into it.) This allows more flexibility and gets it where you can see it. A backlight on the display would be a nice addition as it's hard to read in dark corners.
overall, a worthwhile purchase.