Customer Reviews:
 Problems Easily Overcome August 4, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
To those who have griped here about such issues as inconvenient positioning and lack of backlighting: there is a simple and obvious solution. Simply connect the Kill-A-Watt to the electrical outlet with a 3-prong extension cord, then use it wherever you want, including in the light. You can even get a 2-prong extension cord with a pigtail to overcome the 2-prong outlet problem.
This is a good gizmo which will do everything most people would want, except calculate the actual dollar cost of your electricity.
Problems easily overcome August 4, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
To those who have griped here about such issues as inconvenient positioning and lack of backlighting: there is a simple and obvious solution. Simply connect the Kill-A-Watt to the electrical outlet with a 3-prong extension cord, then use it wherever you want, including in the light. You can even get a 2-prong extension cord with a pigtail to overcome the 2-prong outlet problem.
This is a good gizmo which will do everything most people would want, except calculate the actual dollar cost of your electricity.
A must have. June 30, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This product is a must-have for any household, and it's great to see them finally priced reasonably.
It could be improved -- for example, if plugged into a wall socket the unit blocks both plugs. However, it's still a 5-star in my book.
I think a lot of folks like me would love to see a delux unit offerred that can be attached to a computer (perhaps wirelessly) for ongoing data collection.
 Works as expected; could be smaller/backlit June 29, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bought this when I was trying to understand a sudden spike in our power bill. This unit does exactly what it says: measure kilowatt-hours used. It also measures some other power stats, but I didn't have time to experiment with them.
In terms of how it works, you plug it inbetween the wall outlet and the appliance you want to track. As time passes, it measures how much power the appliance consumes and shows it in a nice, big digital display. It resets when you unplug it.
It is a bit unwieldy to use in cases where the appliance is large and placed in a recessed area (e.g. dryers, fridge). The case is a bit large, so you have to maneuver a bit to get it plugged into the wall. Also the display resets when you unplug it, so it would help to have the results persist for a minute or two so you can still read them.
Great gadget to have around June 12, 2006
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
This is great - it did live up to my expectations, and at about $30, it's definitely a great buy.
This shows the volts, amperes, watt, KHW, line frequency, and so on. The power consumption is the best feature - it leads to quite a few pleasant and unpleasant surprises! It was great to find, for instance, that the tower fans use under 50 watts - compared to a 1200-watt AC, that's a great savings! However, it was not-so-nice to see that my hair dryer consumes close to 1800 watts with the heat on high.
While not a terribly cost-saving device by itself - it will have an effect on your power consumption, and may lead to smaller power bills. At least it tells you how much power your gadgets consume, unlike the packaging which is often misleading and rarely contain the power rating.
As another reviewer mentioned, desktop computers were the biggest surprise - with a core duo churning out Seti at Home work units, I was surprised to see it's costing me about 300 watts an hour, or about $27 a month - whereas, using the PC for just 4 hours a day for my personal use, I end up with less than $5 a month! Ouch!
My only complaint - this unit has only one outlet, but is designed in such a way that it guards both the outlets on the wall. That means, I run one outlet short of what I had before. Of course, I can buy a outlet duplicator from the dollar store and put it on this, but it would have been nice if this just took the space of a single outlet - just shifting the prongs a half-inch towards the edge would have solved the issue.
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