Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 41-45 of 333
 Does the job March 15, 2006
Dean Frazier (San Jose, CA USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Kill-a-Watt did exactly what I hoped it would --- tell me how I was running up a $450+ electric bill every month. Among other things, I discovered that the 5 PCs we have running continuously in the house consume almost 1000 watts. (And this only drops to about 650 watts in standby mode.)
Very simple and straightforward to use.
With rising energy prices power is knowledge. April 4, 2006
T. Feltner (Dallas, TX)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Knowledge, often, is power. Other times knowledge will get you another slice of pie in Trivial Pursuit. But the Kill-A-Watt is a tool of true knowledge.
With Kill-A-Watt you'll be able to monitor how much wattage any appliance (computer, television, home stereo, floor lamps, etc) with a standard electrical plug is consuming per kWh.
This is probably one of the most overlooked gems on the entire internet. For those of us who like to micro-manage costs it's an invaluable tool.
This not only tells you kilowatt hours but also the following:
* Volt
* Amp
* Watt/VA (Vrms Arms)
* Hz/PF (Power Factor)
Though not an electrician by any stretch of the means I know the first two will tell you if your socket is up to par or not.
If you truly want to be nerdy break out an Excel spreadsheet and calculate your cost to run the appliance per day, week, month or year. Granted you're probably not going to do without when it comes to the home theatre but it is at least nice to know how much your entertainment is costing so you can justify to your wife how much money you're saving by staying home.
Great overall, but could use some work October 28, 2006
J. Paroline (Gainesville, FL)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This device is great. It's relatively cheap (far cheaper than anything similar I've seen out there) and it does exactly what they say it does. It's very useful to know how much power the major devices in your home are using. For example, I had no idea that my computer was drawing 200W at IDLE, so now I know that I should upgrade my power supply to a more efficient one.
Rave reviews aside, the design of this device could certainly use some work. If you plug it into an outlet, you will lose both outlets as it is so big it covers both no matter which one you plug it into. The screen is flat, extremely difficult to read at any sort of angle, and does not tilt. This is not a very intelligent design for a product that will typically be plugged in about 1 foot off of the ground. What they could do to fix this: instead of plugging directly into the wall, give it a cord. Then you could at least pick up the device to read it, and you wouldn't lose both outlets.
SO EASY TO USE, Informative Display December 13, 2006
Gary Smith (Mountain View, CA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Well I certainly justified the back-breaking task of reaching down under the desk to shut my computer's power strip off when I am through computing. Between the modem supply, monitor, CPU, and printer, I was burning over 40 Watts in "OFF" mode. "OFF" my eye! What a crock. I then could estimate which of my appliances were the most offensive to my power bill. A fun toy to play with. Originally purchased for sizing a generator, I use it to eliminate waste.
 Dead on arrival December 6, 2007
Rich O
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
The product I received was dead on arrival.. nothing displayed on the LCD screen (although the plugged in appliance did work). This was probably just a lemon, but product support was very unhelpful in resolving this issue - my emails and phone messages were never returned, so my faith in the company is not particularly high at the moment.
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