Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More power!, September 24, 2008
Now this is a really interesting product. I have several individual energy monitors that will tell me how much power the device (or several devices on a power strip) are using. But, the real heavy-hitters aren't small appliances, they are the large ones like central air conditioning and electric clothes dryers. Plus, what are all those lights I tend to leave on costing me? I just can't tell that from an individual meter, and my power bill includes everything in the house, so I can't narrow it down.
I investigated various solutions for monitoring how much power my home is using. There are a couple of them out there. They are pretty expensive (hundreds of dollars), and they need to be installed by an electrician (there's a pretty big risk of death if you don't know what you are doing).
When this one came along I was interested, but I figured it would be pretty similar to the other ones. Luckily, it differs in two important respects. It is easy to install, and it is much cheaper. Installation consists of putting a battery-powered transmitter on the outside meter. The meter doesn't need to be opened, and it isn't directly attached, so you won't need an electrician. On my meter, which is electronic, it interfaces with it by blinking a light into a little port that is on the meter and reading the response. It works with mechanical meters as well, by sensing the little wheel turning inside the meter. I suspect this is more accurate than the type that connects directly to the power lines, as the meter is what the power company is basing your consumption and cost. I also like the fact that I can't die from attaching it. The downside is that it has a battery that needs regular replacement. The manufacturer recommends lithium AAs for the outside sensor, and those aren't cheap. I'm not sure how long it lasts, but I have several wireless outdoor temperature sensors that go at least a year on a set of standard alkaline batteries, so if it lasts a couple of years on lithiums I'll be happy. Still, it would have been nice of them to throw a set of batteries in the box, even if they had to raise the price a bit to do so.
The display unit, which goes inside and gets information from the wireless sender unit outside on the power meter, is very clear and easy to use. It displays the current energy use along with the month to date cost (you tell it what your power rate is during setup), along with the outside temperature. The amount of money the power is costing is a lot more useful than how many kilowatts are being used, so I was pleased to see that it does the calculation for me. The only hard part here is that you have to do some math from your last bill to determine how much each kilowatt is costing you, but that wasn't especially hard to calculate. They do tell you how to do that in the instructions, but my bill didn't look much like their example so I had to puzzle it out.
One thing I really wished for is a computer interface with graphing software. I wasn't expecting it at this price point, but that would be a great feature. Nothing beats looking at a color-coded graph for seeing where your peak electrical use is happening, and what is causing it. Tie that in with outside temperature, and it is easier to determine how much power is going to the heating and cooling systems during seasonal changes. Maybe they'll release a "pro" version that has that.
Overall, this is an interesting, easy to use, and reasonably priced item. If it helps you lower your energy bill even a little bit each month, it won't be hard to justify the purchase. Plus, now I know that leaving my kitchen lights on all the time is costing me eight cents an hour!
Recommended.
Sean P. Logue, 2008
|
|
|
61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow what a great device for managing your power "Footprint", September 24, 2008
Length:: 1:42 Mins
I a very impressed with the Black and Decker Power Monitor. It is a perfect tool in helping you determine how much energy you are using each day. While I would not buy this device in order to "save" money (it will take many months for your to recoup the cost on the energy monitor) however, it is a great way to fid out how much energy your house uses.
Examlple - when my air condition comes on I see that I pull an additional 3000W which translates into about 0.20 cents per hour. Leaving my kitchen lights on is about 200W or about 2 cents an hour. The Black and Decker Power monitor makes it easy to track your energy footprint and what are your big energy items.
If you want to save "money" my suggestion is to replace your incandescent lights with flourescent (or however it is spelled) this will save you about 30%. However, if you want to find modest savings while reducing your unneeded energy consumption this is the item for you. 5 stars
PS - installation is not "Easy" but it can be done with the use of some trial-and-error... budget about an hour.
|
|
|
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paying By The Numbers, October 2, 2008
After viewing the product image and seeing the name, I assumed that this product was Black and Decker's take on the Kill A Watt. The Kill A Watt, by P3 International, is a popular device used to measure the energy consumption of a single device. To use it, a device is simply plugged into it, while it is plugged into the wall. The reason I explain this is because, while my initial assumption was incorrect, these products both compete and bolster each other in ways I will explain below.
The Black and Decker Energy Power Monitor is a very interesting device. It consists of an outdoor unit, which attaches to an electric meter, and an indoor unit, which displays and interprets data collected by the outdoor unit. The reviews here seem to conflict about the ease of installation of the outdoor unit. My experience was extremely positive. All I had to do was extend the sensor by pulling a lever and tighten it onto the the electric meter's glass dome with a flathead screwdriver. My electric meter is the old fashioned electromechanical (spinning disc) type, which may explain the relatively fast and painless installation. The indoor unit feels surprisingly high quality, despite being all plastic, with very durable buttons and some heft. As a bonus, they have also included an outdoor temperature reading. The display is very nice and large, but the low resolution, which is similar to a digital clock, limits the amount and type of information available.
And that is where the caveat lies for me. Given this very powerful method of reading energy use and broadcasting it long-range wirelessly, one might expect a plethora of data and the ability to monitor various aspects of energy usage over the course of weeks, months, and years. Unfortunately, that is not the case, but what is offered is the core components needed to derive that data in a simple and fun format. Two main screens can be toggled between, with one showing the energy usage in terms of cost and the other in terms of electricity used. The "Cost View" gives the estimated amount of money spent per hour, updating itself every thirty seconds. So, you might unplug an appliance and check if a substantial difference is made in the hourly cost. Monthly cost can also be estimated. There is also a "clr" button to clear all costs and find the accumulated cost since it was hit. The "Power View" essentially displays the same information, but in kilowatts rather than dollars. For example, the amount of kilowatts used in a month can be estimated.
While these tools are powerful, I found that the lack of a way to track that data over time diminished their value to some degree. I think that a simpler question is how much electricity a single device consumes, which can be used to understand if the device is worth the cost and if upgrading to a more energy efficient version would be sensible. Thankfully, the device can do just that via the "tare" button. If you use a scale to measure food, you are probably familiar with taring. In that case, you put a bowl on the scale, hit tare, and then put the food in the bowl to weigh it. By taring the bowl, you make sure that the bowl's weight is not counted, because you only want to weigh the food. In the same way, the Power Monitor's tare simply subtracts whatever energy is currently being used. So, if I wanted to see how much energy my dryer is using, I would hit tare, then turn it on. This is great, because unlike the Kill A Watt, it doesn't matter that I am measuring a 240V device. Unfortunately, any deviation in power, such as a refrigerator popping on to cool or a heating unit turning on and off, will lessen the accuracy of the reading because it was not taken into account by the tare.
So, the much less expensive Kill A Watt is superior for measurement of power used from a single 120V device. However, the standard version does not have the ability to measure some of the most power hungry devices, such as a dryer, oven, or air conditioner. That is where the Power Monitor shines. Despite my criticisms related to the lack of tracking options, which could have been simply alleviated with a computer interface and basic software, it is a very solid and valuable product that I would highly recommend. A "best of both worlds" device would consist of small Kill A Watt type devices that could be individually identified and communicate with a central hub. In this way, power usage for each member of the family could be quantified and the total energy use from all devices could be compared with the reading at the electric meter to check for energy leaks, which can also be costly and will not be revealed by either device alone. Certainly, this is far too much to ask from a device in this price range, but I look forward to future innovations from the company and applaud this solid step into the arena.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
