Watts Up? Pro Electricity Consumption Meter

by Electronic Educational Devices

Product Features

• Determine what it costs to run any appliance
• Displays information in true dollars and cents - no need to do the conversions
• Take it with you when you go appliance shopping for on-site testing

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000CSWW92
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,659 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #28 in Toys & Games > Learning & Education > Science > Chemistry
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Product Description

State of the art digital microprocessor design -- The Watts Up? Pro incorporates sophisticated digital electronics that allow users to precisely and accurately measure the power consumption of any 120V AC appliance. -- Simple to use. Plug the Watts Up? into any standard 120V AC wall outlet, plug the appliance being tested into the Watts Up? and turn on the appliance. The sampling rate starts at one (1) second intervals. Tells you how much power an appliance is comsuming. -- The state of the art digital microprocessor design utilizes high-frequency sampling of both voltage and current measurements for true power. Records current watts, min/max watts, power factor, cumulative cost, average monthy cost and 12 other energy consumption parameters. -- It can quickly store power profiles of Multiple devices and has a non-volatile memory that requires no batteries.The data recorded can then be stored into memory and downloaded to a PC. Using the included software (on CD-ROM), data can be graphed and charted or turned into spreadsheets for further analysis. Measures 7" x 4" x 2" / 18cm x 10 cm x 5 cm Weighs: 1.5 lbs/0.7kg. -- Includes: Watts Up? device, software on CD-ROM, USB connector for downloading measurements, and instructions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I wanted, December 3, 2007

By 

SFHandyman (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This is a terrific tool. It works great. It collects a huge amount of info, that is easy to download to your computer. There are analysis tools in their software package (the meter itself does a lot of calculations on it's own, you don't have to download the data to get a lot of meaningful numbers) but the software works on one set of data at a time (that I've found). To do multiple items, I'm going to need to write a spreadsheet that will analyze the data while combining different items, or time periods, but I'm sure it will pay off.

Already found some surprising things: Coffee Maker with timer, uses almost a watt when NOT in use. That's around 10-15 cents a month to sit there. I know it's not much but why waste? I'm unplugging it now. When brewing and keeping warm, it uses 878 Watts. That's about $11-20 a month at 3 hours per day. I think I might look into getting a thermos to keep the coffee warm after brewing. It should reduce the cost to about $1-3 a month to brew 1 pot a day (maybe less - I can't remember exactly how much time it takes to finish brewing a pot). Then I'll keep it hot in the thermos. The thermos will pay for itself in 2 or 3 months. I should be able to get some more years use out of the Coffee Maker also.

Computer with way too many bells and whistles, is much more efficient than I thought. $5 to 8 dollars a month if I run it almost 24 hours a day.

The transformer chargers for cell phones, pda, etc. which so many people insist use lots of energy when plugged in and not in use, don't. My pda DC Converter, uses about 1 cent a month when not charging. Voltage is so low it doesn't register. I'll pay a penny to avoid having to unplug and plug that in constantly. When charging it consumes between 2/100ths to 5/100ths of an amp.

Same with the cell phone charger. When plugged in but not charging. It doesn't consume enough wattage to register and the monthly cost of leaving it plugged in is 1 cent. Maximum consumption while charging is 1/10th of an amp.

I've also noticed, that many items have a spike in power draw when first turned on or plugged in. I wouldn't be surprised if I found that the converters use more power by continuously spiking when plugged in repeatedly. I'll have to run an experiment.

Empty battery chargers are worse though, but I already unplug those when not in use. My four slot AA/AAA charger uses about 4 cents per month when not in use. While charging 3 AA's it consumes about 70 cents a month but that is if I used it constantly. I only use it about 4 or 5 hours a month.

Oh, and my old Tivo that I mindlessly left plugged in when I bought a new Tivo was consuming $1.50 - 2.50 a month.

Still need to run 24 hour tests on this stuff to get the best averages, but it's been interesting finding out what individual products really use.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Watt mater / power analyzer., October 2, 2005

By 

D. Griffin "Number Cruncher" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I great device and very handy. I have regular watt meters and the various features of this one add a lot if insight with power level and spike powere uses. The data logger is not at all easy to use or set up (and we are data services) but in our case it is not needed to do the job.

I was surprised that the Tivo and TV takes 38 kw a month,
and the fish tanks 48 kw a month, more than my freezer or fridge.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saved me 70% off my refrigerator electricity bill, February 23, 2006

By 

Stan Lam "Stan Lam" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

My electricity bill at my house was over a $100.00 a month. I couldn't figure it out until I bought this machine. Apparantly, my 25 year old refrigerator was working well, but was sucking up over $50.00 a month on electrity. After I used this machine, I bought a brand new refrigerator that only uses $15.00 a month. This is a must have unit.