P3 Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor review

The "Kill-A-Watt" is a handy device for measuring the AC electricity usage of an appliance and for monitoring the line voltage and frequency of the power that the utility company is supplying to you.

The Kill-A-Watt is more accurate than a multimeter and it keeps a running total (with timer) of the kW/h usage of whatever you have plugged into it. I just wish the plug area had a smaller size so it wouldn't occupy the space of two outlets on the wall while providing only one outlet for your use.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• p3
• international
• p4400
• kill-a-watt
• killawatt
• kilowatt
• electric
• electricity
• ac
• mains
• utility
• voltage
• hz
• frequency
• current
• amp
• amperage
• kwh
• kw/h
• usage
• meter
• monitor
• monitoring
• measuring
• device
• appliance
• phantom
• power
• test
• review
• demo

[uxwbill]

@fortyfiveplayer The ones I remember seeing were power factor correctors, which made practically no difference to anyone not billed extra for messing up the AC waveform with devices having a lousy power factor. I guess people quit buying them when they realized that there was basically no difference--and the demos I saw always featured an unloaded electrical motor! (There was a reason for this but I don't recall it now. Something about it did make the demo very effective, though.)

[fortyfiveplayer]

There used to be a related device that actually starved appliances especially compressor equipped ones in an effort to minimize power consumption. Not sure whatever became of those..

[uxwbill]

@vwest7ife I guess it would blow up spectacularly on 220/240V. Line voltage at the Roach Palace was high (around 130-135 volts AC) until I called the power company and complained. The Kill-A-Watt did not appear to have a problem at that voltage, nor did it complain.

I was referring mainly to the wattage and amperage measurements in the original comment.

[vwest7ife]

@uxwbill So would a 220/240V line kill the Kill-A-Watt?

[uxwbill]

@uxwbill It's also worth noting that the Kill-A-Watt will read in excess of its published limits. (Mine does, although it beeps unhappily every second or so and flashes the display.)

[coolbluelights]

I keep thinking of getting one of these....

[Dell0304]

I was going to get one of these. I should have....

[talldude123]

@lenoat702 Oh, didn't realize that. Thanks for sharing Lenoat702!

[lenoat702]

@talldude123 NO, you would only use as much power as needed. Your PSU is Capable of delivering 450W.

[talldude123]

I may be mistaken, but does a desktop PC only take as much power as the power supply states? My PSU would be 450 watts, so I guess that's how much it draws?

[themaritimeman]

I plan on getting one of these sometime - it would be very interesting to see exactly how many watts things like my computers draw.

[uxwbill]

Here I'd have figured that you would already have such a thing in your arsenal of goodies! It's very, very handy and seems pretty accurate. The company that really makes it (Prodigit) has a number of other interesting meters and timers on their web site.

The grounding pin is a weak point and broke off of mine. I haven't figured out how I plan to fix it, as it pulled out of the solder on the PCB. It's not very robust.

[TheMrmagnetophon]

ours is 125 volts here.

[CoolDudeClem]

We have something that does a similar job at our house, but it uses a clamp on the cable that goes into the main fuse box to measure how much power were using, only trouble it it don't work and always shows a lower reading than what we're actually using, that or I've set it up wrong (probably the latter of the two)

[talldude123]

Eagle-Eye Cherry? Haven't heard of them in a while, same for Eiffel 65!