Customer Reviews:
 Poor form factor, no backlighting - otherwise does what it should May 26, 2006
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
Like most of the other reviewers, I got it because I was interested in knowing how much power my applicances were using, in real life. Most of them will tell you the AC voltage, frequency and power requirements when turned on (look for a label on the back if metal or for the information to be molded into the plastic), but in real life, appliances are turned on and off all the time, either manually (by the user) or automatically (by themselves). For example, in a modern fridge, the compressor will turn on and off throughout the day. It will cycle on/off more frequently in warm weather, and when the door is open. My fridge uses about 650 watts when the compressor is on, and only 30 when it's off. Clearly, you can't just pick one or the other, so you have to average over a time period.
In order to accurately measure true usage, in daily life, you need one of these. You just plug the applicance into it, plug the meter into the wall, and come back in a day (or week), to get a better picture of what's really gobbling power in your house.
My only gripes are:
1. as others have pointed out, it is big, and you can't plug anything else into a duplex outlet with it. (It's also got a ground plug, so you can't plug it directly into an older-style two-prong outlet, but grounding is a good thing, so I can't complain.)
2. although it powers itself by tapping off a little power from the outlet, I think it would have been very convenient if it included a little backlighting (of course, in order not to draw too much power, and mess up the readings it's taking, it should only come on when you press a button, then go out again five seconds later). Outlets are generally close to the floor, frequently behind furniture, and generally out of the way. Once you unplug the meter, the information is lost, so I often found myself on my hands and knees, shining a flashlight at it from an oblique angle (so as not to shine right through the LCD display). Seems like an obvious enhancement that would really make a difference.
3. It would be useful if it could handle 240volts, for electric dryers, but that's a minor point, since the dryer is on when it's on, and off when it's not, so it's completely different from a fridge.
All in all, a useful product, though I think once you've done an initial survey of your house, you won't use it again until you get a new appliance.
Money saver May 15, 2006
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
The item works as advertised. I did have one device that never registered a reading (aquarium pump) despite having metered it for over a day. I metered a lamp that I expected to have high consumption and it proved to be so.
 With rising energy prices power is knowledge. April 4, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Knowledge, often, is power. Other times knowledge will get you another slice of pie in Trivial Pursuit. But the Kill-A-Watt is a tool of true knowledge.
With Kill-A-Watt you'll be able to monitor how much wattage any appliance (computer, television, home stereo, floor lamps, etc) with a standard electrical plug is consuming per kWh.
This is probably one of the most overlooked gems on the entire internet. For those of us who like to micro-manage costs it's an invaluable tool.
This not only tells you kilowatt hours but also the following:
* Volt
* Amp
* Watt/VA (Vrms Arms)
* Hz/PF (Power Factor)
Though not an electrician by any stretch of the means I know the first two will tell you if your socket is up to par or not.
If you truly want to be nerdy break out an Excel spreadsheet and calculate your cost to run the appliance per day, week, month or year. Granted you're probably not going to do without when it comes to the home theatre but it is at least nice to know how much your entertainment is costing so you can justify to your wife how much money you're saving by staying home.
fun little geek toy, great for tightwads, useful for accounting too. March 22, 2006
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
I own two of these toys. I bought my first to run around the house measuring power consumption of my other toys. It was very useful for reducing my home energy consumption, which i did by almost 50%, without suffering. I bought the second so that i could, in combination with my first unit and some good power strips, meter all power consumed by my home office (It is not in proportion to the square feet of my home office/total sqft, the usual metric used in accounting). The added electricity savings of knowing what my high consumption appliances really were, paid for the first unit in a week. My tax savings generated by accounting for my office's true power consumption paid for the second unit in 2 months. My only complaint is that I can't reset them without unplugging them.
Does the job March 15, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Kill-a-Watt did exactly what I hoped it would --- tell me how I was running up a $450+ electric bill every month. Among other things, I discovered that the 5 PCs we have running continuously in the house consume almost 1000 watts. (And this only drops to about 650 watts in standby mode.)
Very simple and straightforward to use.
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