P3 International, P4400 Kill A Watt power meter - $19.00 + S/H

[Zepper]

The P4400 Kill A Watt is a cool tool! See my review of it here: Review .

This is the deal link: For some reason I can't get a link to work - go to www.supermedi@store.com . The Kill A Watt is linked from the home page. Anand doesn't seem to like this store - won't even let me post the name of it... Put an 'a' where the '@' is. Its reseller rating is poor and there are other prices close using Froogle. Anyway, it's a good excuse to recommend the KAW to you.

Kind of expensive on the shipping (the retail packaging is as heavy as the item itself and is oversized to require an unnecessarily large shipping box for yet more weight) - check eBay and the price engines if you "gotta have it!" as there may be a better deal unless you can go down and pick it up. Over $8.00 for ground to the east coast.

.bh.

 

[Zepper]

up

 

[Zepper]

take it for a spin 'round the block

.bh.

 

[addikt1337]

Dude,

It's not *that* big of a deal that it needs to keep getting spammed to the top of the list. The other KAW posts have been around this price range in the past and really isn't the holy grail of the tech world.

 

[zixxer]

actually these things are pretty awesome


oh and bump for zepper

 

[Zepper]

And a happy Sunday to you too...

I don't know anyone that browses farther than 4 or 5 pages so I like to keep my HD posts within that range. And I also know that it is nothing that a person with a DMM and a calculator can't do, but it's very convenient for doing things like sizing UPSes and finding Watt guzzlers in your home so you might be able to figure something out to cut the bleeding...

I know also (and as I said in my post) there are better bottom-line deals from better resellers thru ebay and Froogle - personally I would avoid the listed store as it has an RR in the 50s.

Plus I get a chance to link my review. So I had to do it.

As always, if the item doesn't interest you, just cruise on to the more interesting threads - TCing doesn't do anyone any good (unless they're just a noob trying to up their post count... ).

.bh.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Zepper

And I also know that it is nothing that a person with a DMM and a calculator can't do,

Really? How can someone with a Digital Multi Meter and a calculator measure the phase between current and voltage (which is needed to calculate power in Watts)? Let's ignore the extreme danger in measuring current on a 120V line for a moment (assuming the meter has an AC current dial).

Edit: Bump for a good product.

 

[0roo0roo]

check out the vampire plugs u got all over the house and how they drain power even when the electronics are off oh the suckiness. by law they are phased out with moer efficient solid state stuff now, but i'm sure everyones got plenty of heavy ass socket hog plugs left

 

[mikeford]

Still not a hot deal its the regular price for an item that somebody always has on sale, typcially buy.com etc.

 

[Zepper]

Buy.com is currently at $25. and out of stock. You can price things at whatever you want if you don't have any stock... I paid $35 for mine including shipping so I figure around $25. shipped is not a bad deal. Several of the Froogle hits are in that vicinity. Some eBay too.

.bh.

 

[amdskip]

I got one from buy.com like a week ago but I'm not exactly sure how to use it. From what I understand, I can calculate useage by using the kilowatt/hour setting and let the electrical item run for an hour and then check to see how much it has used.

 

[zixxer]

you need to check your electric bill and see how much you pay per kwh. use the device for an hour (notice the kwh setting has a timer) and see how many kwh it uses in an hour... then you can see how much you are paying to run the device

 

[Zepper]

Yes, the manual is junk as noted in my review linked at the top. A 100Watt light bulb run for 10 hours uses ~ 1kWHour of energy. So you plug the meter into the wall and the item you want to test into the meter. Note the time when you start the test (hit the KWH button). If the item is low power or switches on and off during the time like a refrigerator or furnace motor, it may take some time to get a significant reading. I'd let it go four or five hours or whatever period would capture all significant usage periods (like a refrig around dinner time). When you think you've gone long enough, note the time, take down the kWhour reading. multiply that number by your electricity rate as mentioned above and then divide by the number of hours of the test to get the cost per hour. You can then multiply that by 24 to get cost per day and that by 30 to get cost per month and then that by 12 to get cost per year. It won't hurt to leave the meter plugged in as long as you need to capture the usage pattern. It might take a week to get a representative test period for a furnace motor, for example.

.bh.

 

[doan]

amazon has them for $30 with free shipping

 

[1ucid]

how much power are the phantom outlets draining ?