I purchased this meter to understand why my electric bill has become so high. I knew that I had lots of devices connected 24/7 that were each using small amounts of electric power, but didn't know whether that was my problem. Also, I have two refrigerators, but one of them is seldom opened. I didn't know if it was a major contributor to my problem. And finally, I have some devices that we use frequently which clearly consume a lot of power, like our television and home theater system, and I didn't know if watching that for several hours a day was causing a problem.
The product provided answers to all my questions.
What it does
The meter plugs into a wall outlet, and then you un-plug the device you want to measure, and instead plug it into the meter. You immediately can see how much power the device is using at that moment in time. When you do this, you have to remember that some devices have a standby mode, where they are consuming some power, but are not consuming as much power as when they are being used. A good example is a TV set. It uses a little power all the time so it can read the "on command" from your remote control. Then, once turned on, the TV consumes a lot more power than in standby.
So for many devices, you have to measure the standby power, and then measure the power again once the device is turned on.
Almost any power meter can measure these two types of power. However what makes this particular meter so useful is that it can accumulate measurements over time, so you can figure out how much power a device will use, on average, over a cycle of many days. A good example of this is your refrigerator. You can wait until you hear it running and then plug it into the meter and read the power. I did this with the old fridge in our garage and found that it uses 248 watts while running. However, that is not a useful figure because, of course, any refrigerator cycles on and off during the course of the day. What you really need to know is how much power it uses over the course of 24, 48, or 72 hours. With the P4460 Kill A Watt EZ power meter, you can plug in an appliance, walk away, and come back in an hour, day, or week, and read the total amount of power used over that period of time. It is easy to then figure out how much power the appliance will use, on average, during the course of a month, and how much it will cost.
To help you with the cost calculation, the meter lets you enter your energy cost in cents per killowatt hour (a figure you'll find on your monthly bill) and it will then tell you how much the appliance will cost per day, week, month, or year. This is pretty neat, although there is one flaw in this approach. The flaw is that PG&E (our electricity provider) has a multi-tier rate system where we pay very little for the first 90 killowatt-hours of electricity, then more for the next 30, even more for the next 60, and even more for everything after that. You'll have to come up with your own math if you want to figure out which rate to use. My solution was to use the most expensive rate because our bill always triggers the top tier (as I expect most people's bills will do if they own a home instead of an apartment). Thus, any new electricity usage will always be charged incrementally at the top rate.
What it doesn't do
This meter requires that you be able to plug the device into the meter. This means that you have to be able to get at the plug and disconnect it from the wall. By contrast, you can purchase a "clamp on" power meter that only requires that you be able to access a wire that feeds the device, and you then clamp onto that wire, without disconnecting the device, and the meter reads the power by reading the induced magnetic field from the wire. This is a much more elaborate way of measuring power, and these devices cost at least ten times what the P4460 costs.
The meter also cannot help you measure anything that is built in. Thus, you can't measure the power used by all the lights in your kitchen (we have a lot of track lights which are quite clearly consuming a lot of power, but I can't measure this with the P4460). The Kill A Watt also cannot measure 240V appliances like your dryer or electric oven.
Summary -- Is It Useful?
So, having used this meter for a few days, was it worth the cost and is it useful? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES! I was able to find out that the almost ninety devices I have connected to the wall in this house use enough standby electricity (the amount used when connected, but not turned on) to cost me almost $40 per month. Some of the whacko "green" people try to tell me that I should disconnect these devices, but that is not practical. Do I really want to turn off my Internet modem, my router, my wireless access point, my fax machine, my telephone answer machine, my portable phone, etc. and only turn them on at the instant I'm going to use them? I suppose I could, but it would make them far less useful, and would be a total pain in the neck.
However, I did find several devices that used a lot more standby power than I would have thought, and which I CAN turn off. A good example is the furnace. During the summer, I don't need to have these connected (I actually have two small furnaces, instead of one large one). I had never bothered to unplug them. However, the P4460 tells me that they are using 13.2 watts of power, all day, all night, every day. I found that at my electricity rates, every 5 watts of 24/7 power costs me $1 per month. Thus, by unplugging the two furnaces I am going to be able to save about $2.25 per month for about four months of the year.
So, I have identified appliances that I can disconnect, without greatly affecting my lifestyle, and by doing so, I can save money. I'll certainly pay for this gadget within the first year, just by doing this.
I am NOT doing this to "save the planet," because quite frankly what I do -- and even what lots of people like me doing the same thing -- won't make a hill of beans difference (take a look at how much electricity is used to create a pound of aluminum or roll a sheet of steel ...). I am an electrical engineer, and believe me, you don't change things by operating at the margins of the problem.
Instead, I'm doing this because it is going to save money on my electricity bill. The cause may not be as noble as the fiction of "saving the planet," but it is far more real and -- this is the whole point -- far more MEASURABLE!
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Safe for my family - ETL certified electrical safety tested & labeled
Safe for my family - ETL certified electrical safety tested & labeled This electric meter is SAFE having an ETL label and certification number. I had purchased a similar product on Amazon only to have to return it. It was uncomfortably ironic that the other product, that was supposed to be used as an electric meter, was not safe to use in your home. For my moral values, to keep my family safe, to keep other families safe, for my liability insurance requirements, and to keep my home owner’s insurance valid, I only use or install ETL or UL or CSA, or TUV electrical safety certified and labeled electrical products in my own home and in other people’s homes or businesses. These electrical safety certifications are provided by third party electrical product safety testing laboratories that are independent from the manufacturer. You must be wary because the CE label IS NOT a certification of independent laboratory electrical safety testing. The CE label is an UN-certified SELF-declaration for marketing by the manufacturer. Electric product types with the CE Mark do not have to be third-party electrical safety certified when displaying the CE Mark. If you want your family to be safe and want your home owner’s insurance to remain valid you must only have electrical products that have independent laboratory electrical safety certifications showing that the product passed strict outside laboratory electrical safety testing. The attached photograph shows that this product has the ETL electrical safety testing certification label. I showed this picture because I have purchased other electrical products that falsely claimed to have an electrical safety testing certification label. Before installing an electrical device, the first thing an electrician does is to check for the electrical safety testing laboratory Label Logo and Certification Listing number. Ask your city’s electrical inspector if they will approve use of NON-safety certified and labeled electrical devices in your home; and then ask your professional licensed electrician if they will install NON-ETL or NON-UL or NON-CSA, or NON–TUV electrical devices; and then ask your home owner’s insurance agent if your home owner’s insurance will be valid if you install such NON-safety labeled electrical products. Of course, your home owner’s insurance agent will not inspect your home electric appliances until AFTER the fire, or electrocution, so that the insurance claim can be denied.
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Miguel AngelReviewed in Mexico on November 11, 2018
Consumo de energía eficiente
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Ardillita pachecosaReviewed in Mexico on May 16, 2016
Funciona bien
Pattern Name: MonitorVerified Purchase - Anthony DReviewed in Canada on May 5, 2016
Kill-A-Watt EZ Review
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