P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
by P3 INTERNATIONAL
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List Price: Our Price: $22.41 You Save: $37.54 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $18.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
Customer Review: Everyone should own one of these
Summary: 5 Stars
The P3 P4460 is one of those things that you never knew you needed until you have one. I was amazed at how much electricity some of my appliances used (space heater, 1500 watts!). I'm finding myself plugging most of my appliances and electronics devices in for a few days and seeing how much they are costing me per day/week/month/year. Definitely an eye opener. I will be saving more money in electricity in one year than this monitor costs due to my changed habits. When you see that a certain lamp costs $15 (or whatever) in electricity per year for every hour it's in use every day, it makes it much easier to remember to turn it off when not in use. This adds up fast.
Positive:
* Easy to use once you've read the manual.
* Can keep a running total of electricity used even after it's unplugged. It's sister product, the P4400, cannot do this.
* Does the math for you (cost per day/week/month/year) once you enter in how much you're paying for electricity per KW/H.
Negative:
* You must read the manual to understand how to use this to it's full potential. The interface is NOT intuitive.
* Must be plugged in in order to read the display.
* The display is not lit, so reading this under a desk or behind a cabinet can be a little awkward.
Other: Max 1800 watts of power can be monitored. I knew this ahead of time, but it would have been nice to be able to monitor my refrigerator or clothes dryer. I can't say this is a negative, however, because this limitation is documented and is quite reasonable.
Final thoughts: Buy this. You will save more in one year than this costs once you realize how much money you're throwing down the drain with appliances (lights, stereo, TV, whatever) that you keep on for no good reason.
Note: The first one I received has a display problem; some of the LED bars didn't work and made the display unusable. A replacement was promptly shipped from Amazon and the replacement works perfectly. No company can make sure 100% of their products work out of the box and this problem was resolved quickly, so I didn't knock off any stars for this problem. The quality of this monitor seems good.
Customer Review: Super Easy, Great Money Saving Device
Summary: 5 Stars
I am always fascinated by the number of electronic devices the average modern household uses. Many of us leave these "energy vampires" - like VCRs, DVDs, cell phone chargers and other things, plugged in all day long. They drain our electricity and rack up our electrical bills! How can you know how much money they cost you? The answer is the Kill-A-Watt device!
P3 P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor Operation of this device is VERY easy. You lug the Kill-a-watt into your power outlet. Then you plug your electronic toy into the Kill-A-watt! That's it! Instantly the device starts figuring out how much electricity the electronic object is using - EVEN WHEN IT IS OFF. A lot of devices like cell phone chargers sit there drawing electricity all day long.
For example, I leave my laptop plugged in all day. I have it "shut down" - but it's plugged in. It turns out I'm paying $3.76 a month to have it sitting there. I know that might not sound like a lot, but if you start multiplying that by all the other objects in your house that stay plugged in, it can add up quickly.
Just how much is that old computer of yours costing you? It might actually be MUCH cheaper to buy a new one that consumes far less electricity, rather than powering the old behemoth every month! You could be amazed at the amount of money you can save, just by unplugging some things when they're not in use. Invest in some power strips with on-off buttons. Turn them to OFF when the items are not in use, and see your savings soar.
I love that you can program in your current electrical cost - this is always found on your electrical bill. So for my home in Massachusetts that is $0.187 per kwh. The device then lets you see - at the touch of a button - how much the current object will cost you each hour, each day, each month, each year. The longer you leave the specific item plugged in, the more perfect your reading is, as it averages the device's fluctuations over day and night.
HIGHLY recommended. This is perfect for any frugal liver, to determine exactly what devices in their homes are energy hogs and to organize what to do about it.
Customer Review: Now I know what various things cost to run!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been able to trim my average $224 monthly utility bill to about $125 per month by converting to 100% CF light bulbs, even above bathroom vanities, and in overhead and outdoor spotlighting. I was very happy to see my bill drop by about $25-30 a month on an annual comparison basis. Next, we started unplugging and turning off fans and lights that were not being used and then turning the thermostat up a degree.
I added double layer window treatments as well to keep the heat out. Every improvement had paid for itself and sheer curiosity led to the P3 International Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor.
I plugged the power strip for my home entertainment center into this after plugging in my local utility rate, and then sat by with bated breathe waiting for the initial estimate. Nothing came through. I found out that this needed to run for at least a couple of days before it would come up with a number. Once I got a number I left it plugged in for a month and then checked again. Overall, I was very pleased. We have a 42" HDTV, HD-DVD player, xbox 360, stereo receiver with two speakers, Cable box, CD player, and a Squeezebox Duet system. Annually, the total cost is $54. I felt that was very reasonable, and it was nice to have a number. Next I plan to plug it into a lamp, and since all of our lamps are using the same bulb, I will be able to get a very good estimate of their annual (average) cost of operation as well.
If you're a big numbers person, or are looking to find ways to reduce your energy cost, this could lead you in the right direction, and it's a fun gadget to have.
Cons: screen is not too bright, and if you have it plugged in low behind things, it's hard to get to and read. Solution: buy a power strip liberator.
I think that the power companies should rent and/or loan these out to their customers (with a deposit of course). They're always trying to get people to use less energy, and this could be an affordable eye opener.
Customer Review: Very Useful Meter
Summary: 4 Stars
I have all three models of Kill-a-watt, but prefer this model because it has a memory function but not a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker on the most expensive model (P4480) is a negative in my case because it will trip when momentarily inductively loaded (e.g., by an electric motor such as in an AC unit or small air compressor)
New P3 INTERNATIONAL Kill-A-Watt Graphic Timer LED Powered LCD Backlight Zero Power Crossing Switch
I've used the 4460 for about a week now to monitor my electric space heater usage. It works very well.
The ability to hold memory is well worth the extra $10 or so over the cost of the P4440, and the option to read the usage in $$$ makes energy usage a little more relevant and realistic.
I only have two complaints about the meter. Neither affect its usefulness ("Functionality" in nerdspeak).
1.It's a little bit hard to set the time and $/KWH. It's not very intuitive, but it's also not a big deal. Do it three times and you'll have it memorized.
2. Its very hard to read the labels. The numbers are large, but the captions are actually very small. This is aggravated by the lack of a backlight, and the fact that most plugs are down near the floor where lighting is poor.,
It is especially hard to read because most outlets are low to the ground and in poorly lit areas. I always need a flashlight even though i have 20/20 vision. If possible you will want to plug this into a power strip or extension cord so you can pick it up to look at it.
If tripping the built-in circuit breaker isn't a problem for you, i would recommend the P4480 as it has a nice backlight and can show the display even when not plugged in.
Customer Review: Does what I needed
Summary: 5 Stars
I took the chance and bought a P4460 Electricity Usage Monitor, even though some of the reviewers recieved some bad units. Fortuneatly, mine works fine.
I think the interface is very easy to use, and it does what I'm looking for. Plug it in and an appliance into it, and right away it measures volts and watts and starts keeping track of time and kilowatts (as well as other items). Enter the cost per kilowatt from your electric bill, and it gives you a running tally of what you are paying to run it. The two values it adds over reading the manufactures tag on power consumption and doing the math is that the tags can be off by quite a bit and are usually geared to reporting the max the appliance uses. The other is that this captures how much you are actually using the appliance, especially one like an air conditioner that might use 100 watts when just the fan is running, but jumps to 1000 watts when the compressor kicks in.
Time will tell how durable it is, but the construction appears to be solid.
As far as accuracy goes, I did a few tests, but I did not have a reliable/calibrated known load to measure. I used a lamp and swapped in numerous bulbs of different wattage and a good quality electric heater with 700 watt & 800 watt heating elements. For everything I measured other than one bulb, the meter reported a lower reading than what the manufacturer claimed (e.g. 630 watts for the 700 watt heater setting), generally about 5 to 10% lower. I guess it's possible that the meter is correct. I compared it's voltage reading to a pretty good quality volt meter and they were about 1 volt apart. Even if it's off by 5-10%, it's fine for my purposes.