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 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: 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.
Customer Review: Nifty tool for controlling electricity costs!
Summary: 5 Stars
The kill-a -watt EZ is a nifty tool to control your electricity costs. It is far, far better that the original kill-a-watt in that it actually calculates the electrical cost on a daily, weekley, monthly and annual basis, just by pushing a button. The older kill-a-watt made you do the calculations(and offerd no advice on how to). The EZ still tells you the cumulative kilowatt-hours used along with Volts, current(amps), frequency and Power factor, all good for diagnosing you electrical system. The EZ will also save all your cumulative readings and costs if you unplug it. Just plug it in somewhere else and read the numbers. you can then write them down and clear the memory to test another appliance.
However, the EZ still has many of the same egregious failings of the original. You have to wonder if every one in P3(the company that makes the product)is brain dead. First, the plug configuration is wrong for 95% of the plugs in American houses, causing the kill-a-watt to plug in sideways(i.e., 90 degrees left than the picture you see in Amazon. If that wasn't bad enough, the display is an LCD with no backlight, meaning that at the low level of the standard plug, you can't see the display unless you get down on your knees, and then, as mentiond prior, crook your neck 90 degrees left. And, to add injury to insult, the kill-a-watt's plug is centered in the case, blocking use of the other plug in the recptical. Take my advice, buy a 3 to 6 foot extension cord of appropriate capacity for the item you're testing and plug the EZ into that so you can have it at convenient height to read.
Customer Review: Kill-A-Watt Does Just What It Claims
Summary: 5 Stars
I received my electric bill a couple of months ago and nearly fainted due to the fact that it had more than doubled! I had seen one of these gadgets somewhere before, but sloughed it off as something I didn't require. I was wrong! Since the power company increased the base price for killowatts lately as well, I decided to do an Internet search and find the Kill-A-Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor. As usual, I quickly found it at Amazon.com, with several choices of vendors and prices. I found the EZ model which is the most bang for the buck. Simply put, I was able to enter the exact amount my power company is charging per killowatt hour, and discover just which appliances in my home were the most cost efficent to run. I was also able to see which appliances were the energy sucking culprits that caused such an increase in my power bill! The unit displays the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cost to run electric appliances. The device also takes into consideration the idle periods in which appliances are not being used. I used a power strip and attached many of my appliances to it. With the Kill-A-Watt installed before all of them, I was able to get a realistic idea as to the consumption of certain key appliances operating in unison on a monthly basis, factoring in their idle periods as well. All in all, this device is very efficent, and is a MUST in penny-pinching households such as mine. The price range for the same exact unit varies greatly, so be careful. For spending around $30.00 at Amazon.com, I will have saved hundreds of dollars of electricity costs in the year to come.Customer Review: A very handy device.
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually bought 2 of these, one was a gift. It works exactly as advertised so that is a plus right off the bat. I bought the EZ model which will make the Kilowatt hour/cost calculation for you; the less expensive model gives you the watt usage only and you have to do the math. For the EZ model you just put in the price per Kwh from your electric bill and it figures out the rest. I would recommend getting (2) 3-pronged extension cords, one to go from the plug on the back of the Kilowatt EZ into the wall socket and one to go from the appliance cord your testing into the front of the Kilowatt. This will eliminate having to get down onto the floor to read the thing. For instance my refrigerator plug is on the floor behind the fridge, not too convenient. If I didn't have an extension cord I would have to move the fridge all the way out and use a flashlight to read the screen. But once you overcome this rather obvious design limitation the product is a lot of fun to use. I was always concerned at how much my Christmas lights must be costing me so I tested it out. My big tree which has something like 700 lights costs $0.03/hr. Less than I expected. My outdoor lights cost about $0.10/hr. Not too bad either. My (2) tivo's use as much juice as my refrigerator which was a bit of a mind blower. Using this thing has made me more energy aware and I find myself shutting off things that aren't being used. I put power strips on certain "phantom" devices that suck power even when off like my TV and Stereo and DVD player. Get one, you'll see for yourself.
Customer Review: Great product
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I'd like to say how pleasurable it is to shop online here at Amazon.com. The whole buying and shipping process is always a breeze and I hardly shop anywhere else online now.
I purchased and moved to a new-to-me house recently and as part of the moving process, decided to reevaluate a couple of our electrical appliances, namely an older 7 cuft chest freezer of unknown vintage and a five year old 18 cuft refrigerator. Enter the "P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor".
I found the monitor easy to setup and use, a big plus.
I was certain that we would want to replace the freezer with a more energy efficient one, so used the monitor on it first. After a weeks use in October in admittedly cool weather, the monitor said it was using about $30/year in electricity. I was certain the usage was going to be much higher than that, but was pleased to see it at such a reasonable level. Not Energy Star level, but not bad. This meant I didn't need to buy a new freezer after all saving me a pile of money.
My newer fridge was measured at $24/year, so I get to keep it, as well. Money stays in the bank.
I am very happy with this product. Recommended.