P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor
Customer Review: Electricity Usage Monitor
Summary: 4 Stars
This product is easy to use and provides useful information for energy-conscious consumers. It shows the actual energy usage & cost for any 120v appliance. For instance, I found that my TV/Cable Box combination used more energy than the refrigerator! You can also use it to compare the energy usage of CFL (compact flourescent) bulbs vs standard incandescent bulbs (and yes CFL's do use much less energy).
The only issue I found is that you can't use this device to monitor 208/220v appliances (such as electric stoves, water heaters & clothes dryers). These are probably the highest usage appliances in the average house. To be fair, the monitor is neither designed nor advertised for this purpose.
Overall however, I would certainly recommend this device.
Customer Review: Everyone should own one of these
Summary: 5 Stars
The P3 P4460 is one of those things that you never knew you needed until you have one. I was amazed at how much electricity some of my appliances used (space heater, 1500 watts!). I'm finding myself plugging most of my appliances and electronics devices in for a few days and seeing how much they are costing me per day/week/month/year. Definitely an eye opener. I will be saving more money in electricity in one year than this monitor costs due to my changed habits. When you see that a certain lamp costs $15 (or whatever) in electricity per year for every hour it's in use every day, it makes it much easier to remember to turn it off when not in use. This adds up fast.
Positive:
* Easy to use once you've read the manual.
* Can keep a running total of electricity used even after it's unplugged. It's sister product, the P4400, cannot do this.
* Does the math for you (cost per day/week/month/year) once you enter in how much you're paying for electricity per KW/H.
Negative:
* You must read the manual to understand how to use this to it's full potential. The interface is NOT intuitive.
* Must be plugged in in order to read the display.
* The display is not lit, so reading this under a desk or behind a cabinet can be a little awkward.
Other: Max 1800 watts of power can be monitored. I knew this ahead of time, but it would have been nice to be able to monitor my refrigerator or clothes dryer. I can't say this is a negative, however, because this limitation is documented and is quite reasonable.
Final thoughts: Buy this. You will save more in one year than this costs once you realize how much money you're throwing down the drain with appliances (lights, stereo, TV, whatever) that you keep on for no good reason.
Note: The first one I received has a display problem; some of the LED bars didn't work and made the display unusable. A replacement was promptly shipped from Amazon and the replacement works perfectly. No company can make sure 100% of their products work out of the box and this problem was resolved quickly, so I didn't knock off any stars for this problem. The quality of this monitor seems good.
Customer Review: Excellent diagnostic tool
Summary: 5 Stars
Kill-a-Watt P4460: For about $30 this product is a terrific value. It is a more advanced version of the P4400 "Kill-a-Watt" which I also own. It does everything the P4400 does (volts, amps, watts, KWH, VA, PF, Hz, & elapsed time), but in addition, it has an internal "power-off" memory, and a KWH cost calculator (enter your specific KWH rate and it will calculate actual dollar cost). 120 VAC only, 15 amps maximum. I've had my P4400 for over a year and it works perfectly. A very well made device. I strongly recommend it. Some technical knowledge is suggected. The only improvements I can suggest to this device is the addition of a short power input cord and a illuminated display.Customer Review: Excellent product: Gives useful information to monitor power use
Summary: 5 Stars
This product does an excellent job of indicating current power use, as well as historical use per hour/day/month/year (estimated based on usage thus far).
I have the usual criticisms about how it should come with a power cord so viewing the values would be easier ... but I've gotten around that by using a power strip that can take upto 1800 Watts.
I'd highly recommend this product. For the price, you get more than what you get in a lot of other items you might buy on Amazon! -ag
Customer Review: Extremely useful
Summary: 5 Stars
This was an extremely useful product, I have used it throughout the house on multiple appliances. It would be good if it had a battery backup so that when it is unplugged the information could be reviewed; you will need a short extension cord for this product as its size prevents anything else being plugged into the other socket at the same time you are useing this monitor.