P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
by P3 INTERNATIONAL
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
Customer Review: Very helpful tool
Summary: 4 Stars
I wont waste time by repeating what others in this forum have said about this tool, and just still with my own personal likes and nits about it.
LIKES:
* Easy to use, fairly fast readout.
MINOR NITS: (in no particular order)
* I wish it had the ability to report on the average, min and max readings, for things like bed warmers, trickle chargers and coffee maker warming plates (these items pulse on and off to maintain a set temperature or keep a capacitor/battery topped off) ... because the meter cant average, it's readout flops back and forth between negligable and significant, depending on when you look at it. It'd be nice if you could punch up a usage chart, with an adjustable scale.
* Lacks angled display or angleable/rotatable plug - as a result, in order to avoid getting on your hands and knees, or hogging the entire outlet, I recommend getting a 3ft grounded extension cord (not included) in order to comfortablly use this device (i.e., plug the extension into the wall, then plug the kill-a-watt into the cord, then the device you're analyzing into the kill-a-watt).
* Lacks lighted display.
* I wish this unit were capable of reading and processing usage of under 1 watt.
Bottom line: recommended.
That said, for those who are idly curious, here are some of the initial results of my own 'standby power use' survey of my house. It's not complete or exhaustive ... just some initial results, in no particular order.
Stuff taking no power or <1 watt while 'off':
* foodsaver, cuisinart food processor, kitchenaid standmixer, stick blender, braun coffee maker (it's tiny display is LCD, which takes negligable), bluetooth charger (which takes <1w even when actively charging, because the target battery is tiny), cell phone charger (0w not in use, 4w in use)
Power vampires:
* Old black & decker toaster oven, sucking 4W ... which surprised me as it was a manually operated unit that has no visible lights (when off) or touch screens.
* My newer Sony DVD player had a standby power use of <1 watt, but an older Mitsubishi VCR player was sucking 4W, and was rarely being used. Yanked.
* My cablevision converter box (currently plugged into an uninterruptible power supply) uses 18w in standby, but I cant unplug it, or it needs to go through a multi-minute reboot. Gee, you'd think they'd equip the things with non-volatile memory. Anyway, I carefully plugged it back into my apartment's electrical carotid artery, and let it resume sucking power contentedly.
* Digital blood pressure monitor, sucking 3W, even when off and unlit. Yanked.
* Middle-aged Microwave ... 4W to run an unneeded clock (which is forever needing to be reset when the power blinks) and touch screen. Unfortunately, that gets used enough to stay plugged in as well.
Haven't had a chance to measure the fridge, TV or A/Cs yet ... meanwhile, Congress should pass a law requiring all household plug-in electrical devices to not just list their standby, average and max power use in the manual, but also on the exterior of the box. Also, I think virtually all household electronic devices should include a hard 'off' button.
Anyway, once I'm done with this, I'll loan it to my friends and family, because it hasn't reached it's break-even point yet.
Customer Review: Works Better Than Expected--Needs Redesign
Summary: 4 Stars
The first thing I did when I got my Kill-A-Watt was plug it in by itself with no load to ensure a non-reading. I tested it in two separate outlets for two days each on separate occasions. My Kill-A-Watt registered only the voltage and frequency and showed a power factor of 1 with nothing plugged into it. I have compared the readings taken to a "TrueRMS" multimeter and the readings are about 2%-3% difference, not the 0.2% accuracy claimed on the package. These readings will be different than most regular multimeters. The problem here is that both the Kill-A-Watt and the multimeter use 4 significant figures with a floating decimal point in the display. Therefore, none of these meters can be expected to be highly accurate. I think even that other brand available is 4 significant figures, unless you get the software package. For more features, get that other brand. Add the software package to study the actual sine wave signature. Or, there's an entire industry revolving around datalogging available through electrical wholesalers and some other suppliers, but I have noticed several electricians doing reviews of the Kill-A-Watt units. It would be a time and money-saver for them, and they still get fairly accurate results. The Kill-A-Watt does need a redesign though, because it blocks outlets, you need to get at just the correct angle to read it, and there is no backlight. If you go to cafeelectric, you can study the inside circuit boards and figure out for yourself how it could be redesigned to allow the unit to be plugged in and not block the other outlet. In the meantime, don't expect the company to ever redesign this product. Get yourself a 1-3 foot extension cord. If you plan on plugging in larger appliances, make sure the cord has at the very least 16 guage wire, but preferably 14 guage. Be careful what you plug into the unit. A high-powered microwave, washer, some refrigerators (check the amperage rating), space heaters, and even some hair care products may be enough to fry the electronics in this unit. A couple more things to keep in mind with the EZ model: The internal math used to calculate costs can be inaccurate if not left plugged in long enough, so you may want to spot check the math. The second thing is, the days of simply dividing cost by kwh to get your rate paid are gone. Electric billing has become a maze of cost factors, riders, flat fees, usage, and demand usage which can vary monthly, that you may need to understand before actually inputting a number into your EZ device. Many utilities hide these fees and costs in their billing and you really can't tell what you are paying per unit cost. (Happens with ALL utilities) I also think the timer would be more useful if it recorded actual running time of the plugged in appliance instead of just acting as a stopwatch.Customer Review: original better than new version
Summary: 1 Stars
I have owned the original Kill a Watt for several years and find it to be a wonderful device with a few exceptions, however, the new updated unit is terrible.
The first and most important problem is that the display is not viewable unless you get down on the floor and use a flashlight. LCD displays have angles for best viewing and this one as most others are usually below the horizon of the display - so best contrast and readability occurs if you are looking up at the display from beneath it. In addition the mask for the display cuts off the top and prevents readings from any normal position.
Secondly the enunciators (labels that tell you if it is volts or amps) are tiny - so you not only need to get down on the floor with a flashlight but you need reading glasses as well to know which parameter the numerals represent.
I am fully cognisant of the fact that there is a memory and you can pull the item out of it's receptacle for a more convenient and better lit area. But where do you find one of those - no one places recepticles over head or at eye level that I know of - they are all about 1 foot off the floor. In addition the instantaneous reading of current (= not the electrical term) watts, or current volts, or amps is not memorized and pulling the device out of its working recepticle obliterates any instantaneous factor readings taken when you were measuring the device.
There are certainly many better ways to do the display - for instance locating the display on the top of the unit facing up. In addition a backlight could be added. And the parameters could be larger and clearer. In that way all you would have to do is bend down to find out your information.
I also find the menu system and toggling a big nuisance. The older unit was much easier to use. Each button had its own function. The readings were clear and straight forward - what you pushed was what you got. Now the menu and toggling system is obtuse, and time consuming. In addition in my unit the press switches did not work correctly - with sometimes nothing happening and other times it would jump three pushes with just one touch.
A last criticism is that the display should stay on when the unit is out of the wall. A small watch battery should be able to provide years of a nice contrasty display.
To sum thing up - I am very dissatisfied with its viewability and readability. It is very inconvenient to use. I am also dissastified with the logistics of the menu system - as it is haphazard and very poorly thought out. And I am dissastisfied with the control buttons which are intermittent and jumpy.
I will be returning my unit.
Customer Review: My review of the P4460 Electricity Usage Monitor
Summary: 5 Stars
Please read this entire review. There is an eye-opening surprise to the use of the P4460.
My office has been experiencing frequent partial power outages. Although we have a couple of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) that are supposed to power the servers, telephone system, and a couple of administrative work stations in the case of power outages, we are finding that the battery back up supplies are simply shutting down without providing any power whatsoever to the hardware. We soon realized what was happening was that we had each UPS unit completely overloaded with too much equipment, so when the UPS battery was supposed to kick in, the UPS units would simply shut off completely, and we would lose all power.
Accordingly, I ordered the P4460 to take power readings of each piece of hardware so I could evenly distribute the power requirements over three different UPS units, thereby not resulting in overloading any one UPS.
Although each piece of equipment had a power consumption rating on its label, what I discovered with the P4460 completely shocked me. When each piece of equipment is powered up, there is a VERY sharp spike in power consumption, and the hardware's use of electricity reduces when the unit is up and running. For example, the phone system's video monitor power use was rated at 6 Volt Amps (VA), but when it powered up, it spiked to 85 VA. Likewise with Amps. Idle power was rated at 3 Amps, but spiked all the way to 68 Amps on startup. I found this to be the case with every piece of equipment. One server's idle power rating was 0.97 Amps and 90 VA, but on startup it jacked up to 1.92 Amps and 247 VA.
If I had only used each piece of equipment's listed power consumption on its label, I never would have known about the power spikes on startup, which, when combined, will absolutely overload a UPS, even though the combined idle power consumption falls within the UPS battery backup tolerances.
The P4460 is a terrific little unit and can even be used for extended periods of time for accurate power readings on equipment that cycles on and off, such as refrigerator compressors.
It's a bit more expensive than its smaller cousin, but worth every penny. Provides several types of readings and comes with very detailed instructions on how to use it so even a complete novice who knows nothing of electricity can benefit from its use.
I give this little unit a solid 5 stars.
Customer Review: Works great; fast results.
Summary: 5 Stars
I was amazed at some of the things I found around the house that draw power just sitting there doing nothing. This thing is easy to figure out and program in your cost per Kwh.
A couple of things I found by using this device:
-- the entertainment center costs me $11 a year to have just sit there in standby mode. This is a 32" LCD TV, surroundsound system, DVD player, Wii, and subwoofer all plugged into a Monster HTS 1000 MKIII PowerCenter with Clean Power Stage 2 (8 AC outlet, 2 coax, phone & network). If I watch a DVD or play the Wii, it costs me 40 cents a day, or about 3.33 cents an hour.
-- My gaming computer (Dual Core, 500 watt power supply and 19" LCD) cost me $99 a year to run 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. That includes the occasional laser printing and occasional 2.1 speaker usage. So I turn it off more often.
-- Cell phone charger: .86 cents a year, but when charging it costs me $1.73 a year.
-- New coffee pot costs me between 5-7 cents to brew a pot of coffee and let it sit for a couple hours.
-- Toaster at 350-degrees costs me about 11 cents an hour.
-- Dell laptop charger costs me about $1.70 a year to keep it plugged in. It's about a penny and hour to charge the laptop's battery.
-- NOAA handheld weather radio costs 86 cents a year to run 24/7
In the end, it seems like it is only really worth the trouble to unplug the entertainment center when not in use and turn off the computer more often. Sure, everything draws power, but we factored in the hassle of it versus the cost.
We have been unplugging stuff around the house when we are not using it, and began to wonder how much we are saving. This thing has helped out in deciding what's worth going through the hassle of unplugging each time, and the results are almost instantaneous. I highly recommend using this device to settle the score in the fight against wasted energy usage or even in helping decide which devices/appliances around your house aren't worth owning due to ridiculous power draws.
I'm still testing more items around the house, so check back later for updates.