Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 333
 You need this. April 20, 2007
Zatoichi
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Love it!! Awesome simple little device. Opens your eyes to many things we take for granted. Electric bill was way too high and kept getting higher. Called electric company and told them to do actual reading not estimated usage. Still was high. Got this device and began connecting everything to it and was shocked. So many things that we think is off is constantly drawing power. With this device and now using better energy habits, like putting things on power strips with on/off switches, helped reduce Kwh down 50%. Cable box uses 13W while off. Same with my audio system. Just displaying the clock on the audio system while off was using bloody 22W!!
Using the specs on the back of most items just lists the max input values but really they don't use it all. My cable modem which I thought was 60W (Label said 0.5A at 120V) was really using 3W.
I even switched all my appliances to different switches on my house and turned off extra switches not really being used. I have 6 switches and currently just using 3 now. Sad thing is I found that one switch has like 80% of all electrical power. Really bad installation IMO. Lucky all appliances just use 9A on this 15A switch.
I was originally planning on building one of these devices myself since I found plans with all the specs to build one. But in reality, you need to buy all the parts mostly in bulk so it will come out more than if you have all the parts lying around. I was even considering making a real dangerous and cheap one buy splicing a power cord, attaching a resistor and connecting it to my multimeter, but for $23 was worth not putting my life and my components at risk. About the design yes really dumb if you connect it directly to the wall. USE A POWER CABLE for that. Like those AC power cables should be fine.
Some findings-
Switch light bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent: 535W down to 143W
Computer and Monitor will be shutoff at power strip when not used. Saving 5W
Keep Printer, USB Hub, HDD enclosure, Wireless AP on separate power strip and only turn on when needed. Saving 9W
I even made an Excel sheets with all values, made charts and mapped switches in the house. If you love playing with numbers this is gonna be addicting.
Brings your purchases into reality August 13, 2007
Lee A. Dye (Simi Valley,CA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Our summer electric bill at my old home (built in the 80's) located in So Ca. hovered over $800 a MONTH! EEK! Our new home with it's enhanced insulation and double pane glass though double the size averages around $450.00 per month. Still, with gas prices and a new baby I figured this would be a pretty good time to see if I could save further as well as make a difference for the environment.
Basically this unit plugs into a power outlet and whatever electrical device you want to meter plugs into this unit. The results are immediate. Keep in mind though that this will not calculate the actual cost of the electricity being used, only the amount of electricity being used and then you will have to use the going rate off your power bill to calculate the cost.
The unit works great though I would recommend an extension cord to plug into at times as it can be a tad difficult to read in tight places as the screen does not light up.
I suppose I could be considered a techno nut with all of the latest in gadgets and so I decided to start there as I hear and read so much of wasted electricity going to electronic devices that are turned off.
So what did I find?
All of these were tested while OFF.
The Klipse Ipod kitchen unit uses 12watts.
32" LCD office tv uses 15watts.
27" LCD Xbox 360 monitor (12watts)
50" HD Panasonic plasma(9 watts)
60" HD Sony LED TV (8 watts)
30" Dell computer monitor (0 watts!)
22" garage LCD tv (5watts)
42" downstairs plasma (11watts)
Again, be mindful that the above is pulling power when switched off. A little surprising for sure and all of them are listed as Energy Star! I have other electronics such as a few more monitors in the house that I do not use often and so I simply put them on a switch where I turned them off.
Though I would not call it fun, it is interesting to check the electrical pull of various items throughout the house and one finds themselves running around the house to see what they can plug into next. My aquarium? How about 65 watts of continuous power. Anyone want to come over to have fish for dinner?
The screen readout is very small and difficult to read but is workable. One can switch between volts,watts, Amps per hour,etc.. with just a press of a button.
Unit appears to be built pretty well so no concerns there.
Other readings:
My hi end customer gaming computer rig with the best of everything, 580watts! Eeek! Editing videos is more expensive than I once thought.
My large compressor in the garage (400watts) when on.
50" plasma (355 watts!), Panasonic makes the best plasmas but eat up a lot of juice.
60" Sony TV (198 watts)
My total theater room entertainment center (lights, 60" tv, Denon 3808 A/V receiver , PS3(Blue-Ray), 590watts! EEEK!
The stuff adds up quick.
With this unit I was able to reduce my summer average bill by $29.00 a month without any sacrifice in my quality of living by simply unplugging devices that are seldom used. Now of course TV's are difficult at this as you would have to input the new settings each time. But other devices can simply be unplugged to save a bit of money and help out the environment though yes I agree I use a bit more than the average person I suppose.
This is also a good device to compare various items if shopping.
I would highly recommend this unit to everyone and can say that it has paid for itself in just the first month by reducing wasted power consumption in my house.
You may be surprised to learn what uses electricity: I was. November 10, 2006
tomh (Newton, MA United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I plugged my Kill-a-Watt into my stereo and TV system. With the TV on and all the components (receiver, cable box, TiVo and a couple other gadgets) I was amazed to see that it drew almost 300W! I started turning things off and while the TV was a lot the one that amazed me was the cable box, which runs 24 hours a day and drew over 100W!
The freezer in the basement was also a surprise. Flat screen monitors are vastly better than CRTs. Some things we heard were bad aren't really significant (some of those "vampire" transformers have tiny usage compared to a simple thing like replacing an incandescent light bulb in a lamp with a compact florescent bulb.
My only gripe with this device is that it covers both plugs in regular duplex receptacle, and because it's bulky doesn't fit in all places and you have to get into tight places sometimes to read the measurements. They should just add a three foot extension cord which would solve these problems. So once I did this, the problem was solved.
Through awareness, I have been able to understand how turning off the TV completely, and a few other minimal changes can make a significant difference.
 very poor form factor February 5, 2006
Seth Wandersman (ny, ny USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I spent the morning using this and the results were useful. For example, there's a stereo that will now remain unplugged instead of off.
In using this at every location I found its shape awkward. Not only does it take up all the plugs below it and off to the sides its just large enough to take up the area above it. There were a couple of powerstrips where it took up the whole thing. This is inconvenient for a quick test and very inconvenient for an extended one.
Unlike others I don't expect to use it much after this initial burst. I hope others at my job will want to borrow it.
easily finds wasted energy August 19, 2006
Moonlite
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a must have tool. It is very easy to use.
All most every electronic device in your home will use power if it is plugged into a live outlet, even though it is turned off. This power use is known as "phantom power". The phantom power comes from the component of the device that converts AC current into DC current. All electrical processing devices use DC current... like a cell phone. Try testing the power cord that connects to your cell phone. Then disconnect the power cord from the cell phone and notice the power cord is still sucking power from the outlet. The Kill-A-Watt will allow you to find and determine how much phantom power a device consumes instantaneously or over a period of time.
On that note, a simple cure is to plug in the electrical devices to a switchable power strip and turn of the power strip.
Conservation is key!
|
