Customer Reviews:
 Works, but could be much more useable April 15, 2007
L. Harris (Winter Haven, FL USA)
61 out of 75 found this review helpful
This little guy does what it's supposed to do. The amount of information you gather with it and what you do with that information is up to you. I commend anyone who takes energy conservation seriously enough to use this device and modify his usage based on what he learns. I've been energy-conscious for years, so I haven't come across any new ways to reduce my electric usage, but maybe I will some day. I did learn that once I turn a fan on the speed doesn't have much affect on the power consumed, so I've turned one up now. I guess that means the Kill A Watt has encouraged me to use more electricity. LOL I also used it to check the voltage drop when I turned a high wattage device on, which was interesting.
One of the more interesting experiments I did with it was to test the power consumption of my audio system. Amplifiers are labeled with the standard power consumption labels, but their actual power consumption varies significantly depending on the volumes they have to reproduce. So I plugged the Panamax that protects the front end of my A/V system into the Kill A Watt (the side and rear amps are on other outlets) and found that even though I have three 200-watt amplifiers rated labeled as using about 300 watts each, and a powered sub with a 400-watt amplifier labeled as using 600 watts, I couldn't get the actual power usage up much over 500 watts while watching U-571 (which makes serious use of a subwoofer) at volumes no one would ever tolerate if I had guests, and that includes powering the display and my digital processor. At normal volume levels, I was looking at peaks of around 350 watts.
But here's why I knocked it two stars:
- The prongs on the back are so high that the bottom of the unit blocks the lower receptacle of an outlet if you plug the Kill A Watt in the upper receptacle. If they'd reversed the vertical offsets of the prongs on the back and the receptacle on the front you could use the bottom receptacle while this is plugged in the top.
- The display is on the front of the unit. Since most receptacles are 18" or so off the floor, this means you pretty much have to get on your hands and knees to read the thing. It would have been much better had the display been at a 45 degree angle so you could read it comfortably while looking down on it.
Both of the previous two issues go away if you use a good extension cord to connect the Kill A Watt to the outlet, but both could have been addressed by simple design changes.
- As someone else noted, there is no backlighting, so for many uses a flashlight will come in handy, especially if you don't use an extensions cord.
So with three very minor design changes it would have been a lot more convenient to use.
- I think it's overpriced. Designing a device like this doesn't require an electrical engineering degree. A kid with an interest in electronics could do it and it can't cost more than $2 to make in China. They probably justify the price on the premise that it will save you a lot of money, but realistically you can save just about as much using common sense and turning stuff off or unplugging it when you aren't using it. (If it's warm when you aren't using it, it's wasting energy.) Also, this only works with things you can plug into an outlet. If you're looking to save energy, remember that there are lots of devices in most homes that won't work with this, such as room lighting, outdoor lighting, heat pumps, water heaters, ceiling fans, and so on.
I have learned some very interesting things with it, but nothing yet I can use to save me money. Your mileage may vary.
 Works as Advertised September 29, 2004
R. Garth (Montego Bay Jamaica)
48 out of 49 found this review helpful
I have had one of these for 3 months and it has worked very well. I started by testing 60W and 30W bulbs and the meter gives me a dead on accurate wattage reading so I assume that the wattage that it reads for my fridge and other items is accurate.
I next started to use the unit to gather data on how much power my home devices where using and locating which items where power hogs, one great surprise was that my Ceiling fans use about 1/3 the power of my Bedroom AC units! If most people realized that the power consumption was that high they would probably not install them. After testing I decided that the cooling effect VS $$ it was a better value to go back to using my AC.
For people who are using Solar Energy or RV owners this gadget is very handing for mapping out your power use, just keep in mind that it only reads 110/120 volt devices
 Great Gadget, Excellent for for Monitoring Energy Usage January 16, 2006
Patrick S. Pope (Chicago, IL)
32 out of 35 found this review helpful
There were two primary reasons that I purchased the Kill-A-Watt: 1) to measure the [questionable] energy savings performance of the Power Planner by Energy Smart (see review) 2) to disprove the stated 2900 Watts on my Bellissima Ionic Volcano Hair Dryer (see review). Tertiary reasons included a general interest in energy savings. As it turns out, the Kill-A-Watt demonstrated that both aforementioned devices did not live up to stated manufacturer claims.
The Kill-A-Watt plugs into any typical grounded three-prong receptacle. It also has a receptacle so it acts as a splice, presumably measuring voltage and current to determine power in watts (ohm's law V=IR, Power=VI). In addition to measuring power, voltage and current in real-time, it can also measure kilowatt hours (kwh), via an imbedded timer. This unit, kwh, is the measure by which your electric utility company bills you.
In general, the Kill-A-Watt is extremely easy to use. There is a large LCD display indicating the value of interest. The digital readout and buttons make it extremely easy to navigate through the various functions.
Particularly interesting is observing the difference between the stated wattages and realized wattages of various consumer devices. It is also interesting to watch the energy creep caused by thermal factors (in p=ir^2). FYI, for typical resistive elements "R" goes up as temperature increases.
As you can see, the Kill-A-Watt allowed me to disprove various manufacturer claims.
Measured Wattages:
Belissma 2900 Watt Hair Dryer
Ionic Hair Dryer (aka Volcano) ...1525 Watts
ConAir 1875.............................1515
Hair Made 1875........................1540
Andis ProStyle .........................1250
Other Consumer Devices:
Heated Towel Warmer (stated 100 watts)....... 131
Lights:
Sunbox Sunray Full Spectrum Lightbox (stated 120 watts)....123 watts
Lights of America Fluorex Outdoor Lamp (stated 65 watts).....65 watts
Lightwitz 30 watt light bulb..... 30 watts
Lights of America 200 Watt Equivalent Compact Fluorescent (stated 42 watts)....45 Watts
It is important to note that the Power Planner by EnergySmart was intended to save money on devices with older electric motors. In my review of the Power Planner, I outlined the test results using the device on my parents 40+ year old secondary refrigerator. Sadly, the Kill-A-Watt showed that there was no realized difference using the Power Planner over multiple 24 hour periods.
If you have any interest in energy conservation/savings or are questioning manufacturer claims, I would highly recommend that you purchase the Kill-A-Watt. It is great for measuring instantaneous power, current and voltage, but also power consumption over a period of time.
"Kill-a-Watt" Electricity Usage meter September 17, 2005
Stan L. Suring (Wisconsin)
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
This piece of test equipment has just saved me hundreds of dollars by avoiding our purchase of a new freezer. While our chest type freezer is over 25 years old my wife and I suspected that it was the cause of our high electric bills. However after monitoring it for a number of days with this meter we discovered that the power it was taking to run it was very nominal and there would be no payback for at least 10 years to replace it with a new one.
THIS SAVED ME $35.00 A MONTH December 27, 2005
Stan Lam (Los Angeles, CA)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
I bought this and figured out my 25 year old refrigerator was using over $50.00 a month on electricity. I went out and bought a new refrigerator that only uses $15.00 a month. Now I am saving $420.00 a year on electricity. THIS IS A MUST HAVE DEVICE.
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