Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor
Customer Review: Good way to determine your big hitter appliances
Summary: 4 Stars
Installation took me 20 min for a top side optical port electrical meter. I left the handheld unit in the kitchen for all to see and it helps everyone to be more energy conscious. 4 stars for only updating every 30 seconds, but a wonderful tool overall.Customer Review: Great Idea, Moneysaver and Easy Installation!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great product and a great idea. It was easy to install, worked right away but required entering some of the setup info twice (my fault though). For what it does it is an absolute bargain.
The people that complained really do not understand the product, what it does or how much it would cost to do it any better. To actually monitor home power usage accurately down to 0.1 kwh or lower would cost significantly more because you would have to tap into the power line coming into your house. Besides there are inexpensive devices that can measure low power by plugging the appliance directly into it. We have that type and other measuring equipment.
This power monitor works by bouncing an infrared beam at the rotating meter disc and detecting when the black section goes by. It then counts that as one rotation. When you enter the power factor, that tells the monitor how much power is used per revolution. It then transmits that info to the receiver (display) once every 30 seconds. It only transmits every 30 seconds for two reasons, keep battery usage low to increase battery life and because the meter disc rotates rather slowly itself.
What this device can do is show you big spikes in power usage easily and remotely. It can also keep track of your total usage. I have a friend whose power usage jumps dramatically and they do not know why. With this device they will be able to detect when that occurs and then try to figure out why and what is causing it.
This device is actually made by Blueline Innovations and can be found for less$ at different sites.
It took me about 10 minutes to install, setup and configure the system. And it started working immediately. The only nitpicking that I can do is that the instructions are not the best but reading twice everything came clear. What I do like are the displays. It has a clock, temperature, rotating equiv to the meter disc, overall usage, current usage and max usage. And you can select between KWH or $$. And the device came with Batteries!
If you are having big power usage problems, then this device might help identify when they are occurring. If you are looking to measure the power draw of a lightbulb then there are other better suited devices.
Customer Review: Great Product - Should Cut Most People's Bill
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great product - easy to setup, monitors the whole house, and you can quite easily determine how much a particular appliance is costing you. The delay that people talk about does not at all defeat the purpose - most of the time by the time you turn on the appliance and walk over to the monitor it will be displaying the extra $ (i'd say between 30-90 secnods). Anyone who needs more than this is really a maniac about monitoring their electricity consumption.
I discovered my pool filter was costing me 20 cents an hour and my auto pool vacuum another 20 cents an hour. If left on full time the filter would cost me almost $180 a month - ouch. I dropped it down to 8 hours a day.
Having said the above, make sure you check the manufacturer's website on compatible meters (works with most but not all, we have an older dial type that works easily) and I'm using it on a flat rate - the monitor also works with other pricing schemes but I don't have experience with those.
Customer Review: Great device to monitor overall power consumption
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned this device for three months now and find it to be very helpful. I bought mine from the Black & Decker eBay store, and happened to need to contact customer service regarding the purchase, and they were extremely helpful.
Regarding the product itself, it works exactly as advertised, and is seemingly well built. It was simple to setup with the provided directions.
It is very helpful to quantify the use of large electrical appliances, such as the HVAC system and the cloths dryer. It can either display your electrical consumption in terms of actual kWh units, or in dollars per hour ($/hr). $/hr is a great way of showing family members how using certain appliances can quickly add to the electric bill. Moreover (and unexpectantly), it can also show where a great deal conservation effort may not be warranted for certain uses if cost savings are your only concern.
Although, it works perfectly as advertised, it could use a couple of minor improvements. The time must be reset with battery replacement and you must go though the steps of initial setup again to do so, but it remembers your other settings. Also, it only displays real-time usage, and does not have options for display of historical usage at all. It would be even more useful if it could output its data to an SD card, or USB cord for data manipulation on the computer, or otherwise had historic usage functionality.
UPDATE: I found an additional device that supposedly adds quite a bit of functionality (on the PC) for this device. See: http://amzn.com/B003RRY8VK
Customer Review: Great idea but doesn't work on all meters.
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this product for my father as a Christmas gift who loves gadgets like this. He was unable to use it because it did not work on his electric meter. This device does not work on all meters. Great concept but wished it worked on all electric meters.