P3P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

Ever wonder how many watts an appliance is using? I have. That's why I bought this; I was wondering if my "tea machine" Tiger PDN-A50U Electric Water Dispenser, 5.0-Liter was an energy hog or a conservation appliance. Thanks to this, I now know it's an energy SAVER.This could not be easier to use. Simply plug the meter into any wall socket. Leave it there as long as you like and use this meter like an electrical outlet. When you want to measure an appliance's electricity use, you simply press the "Watt" button & the LCD display will show you the real-time wattage usage. For example, with my "tea machine," when it boils water, it uses about 900 watts. Once it stops boiling, it uses just .3 watts, on average, to keep warm. When dispensing, it uses 62 watts (to power an electric pump), then immediately reverts back to its .3 watt "keep warm" usage.This can also be used as a voltmeter (measuring the electricity flow INTO the outlet). For American household power, this is roughly around 120 volts (except in "brown out" conditions). Useful to check during brownout conditions, simply because using some appliances during low voltage conditions can potentially damage them (this, fortunately, rarely happens in the US, but some Californians have occasionally experienced this).There's also a purple KwH button. This will let you measure the KwH usage of an appliance over a period of time. If you have an appliance (say, like a stereo subwoofer) that you suspect might be a Vampire Power Energy Hog (one that uses a lot of power, even when turned off), you can easily confirm this suspicion by plugging it into this meter, pressing the KwH button, & then check in 24 hours and see how many KwH your appliance has consumed. If your subwoofer's an energy hog, just unplug it when you're not using it & you'll lower your electrical bills.I LOVE this device, because it's helped me logically evaluate actual energy usage, instead of just going by my "gut" feeling. Knowledge is Power!This is easy to use & well worth every penny of its cost. In just a month, it more than pays for itself, if you've not been paying sufficient attention to your energy use. Now, instead of guessing how much power you're actually using to operate an appliance, now you can know. Great for everything from rice cookers, tea machines, toaster ovens, computers, printers, stereo equipment, battery chargers & more. A+!

It works just as described.

Don't bother buying the more expensive models of the Kill-A-Watt. The P3 model is more than enough. It will give you how many watts your device is drawing, as well as the number of amps, number of volts (at the outlet), and frequency (60 hertz). It also keeps track of the total number of kilowatts hours your device has used during the length of time you have been monitoring the device. To calculate how many kilowatt hours your device will use in a month, you just need a bit of simple math:(Watts/1000) x (number of hours device is turned on per day) x (31 days) = Kilowatt hours per monthExample for a 100 watt light bulb that is left on continuously for a month:(100/1000) x 24 x 31 = 74.4 kwh per monthNote that a kilowatt is 1000 watts and 1 kilowatt hour is the equivalent of ten 100 watt light bulbs burning for 1 hour.Electricity is billed in kilowatt hours so you can find out how much each kilowatt hour costs by contacting your electric company or looking on their website. Your electric bill should tell you how many kilowatt hours you used in a given month. It is easy to calculate how many tons of CO2 your electricity use produces. The EPA website estimates 6.8956 x 10-4 metric tons of CO2 per Kilowatt hour. I pay for 100% wind power through my utility, which only adds about $1.80 per month to my electric bill and we use a lot of electricity (about 1200 kwh per month). Part of this large number is the fact the landlord installed an electric water heater (a gas water heater would be much more efficient).I finally ordered a P3 Kill-A-Watt and wish I had ordered one 10 years ago because it would have paid for itself many times over. If you check various items in your home, you will be surprised at how much electricity things use. Many electrical devices draw 2 to 5 watts or more when they are turned off but left plugged in! When you count how many things you have plugged in in you home, this adds up. I now unplug things I am not using.One of the biggest energy wasters is the common light bulb, which wastes 98% of its energy as unwanted heat. For comparison, I have an old style Sony 32 inch TV (picture tube, not flat panel) that draws 150 watts. A single reading lamp with a common 150 watt bulb uses the same amount of electricity as this large TV. You are much better off using compact fluorescent bulbs which use FAR LESS electricity. Amazon sells GE compact florescent 100 watt (equivalent) bulbs that actually use only 26 watts. (Type "compact fluorescent 100 watt" into Amazon search). The compact florescent GE 60 watt (equivalent) bulbs actually use only 13 watts. These bulbs screw right into your existing lamps and light fixtures and will pay for themselves many times over. The downside of compact florescent bulbs is that they contain a significant amount of mercury (about 5 grams). There are special cleanup procedures you should follow if you accidentally break one inside--open a window, do NOT vacuum--see the EPA's "Cleaning Up a Broken CFL" article for the full procedure [...]Because compact florescent bulbs contain mercury, they must not be disposed of in regular trash. Call your local municipality to learn how to dispose of items that contain mercury--many municipalities have recycling programs for mercury containing items. A much better alternative to compact florescent bulbs are LED bulbs (do not contain mercury) which are a new technology and consequently expensive at the moment but prices will come down with time.A final note on the Kill-A-Watt regarding computer power supplies. I build computers and, prior to owning a Kill-A-Watt, ended up buying much larger (and more expensive) power supplies than I really needed because of some misleading information on the web. For example, the computer I am typing this on with a good Intel CPU and an expensive video card draws 130 watts at idle and 270 watts with both CPU and video card fully loaded (running Prime95 and 3DMark simultaneously). Unfortunately, I put a 750 watt power supply in this computer, which was totally unnecessary. It is important to purchase a high quality power supply, but you definitely don't need a 750 watt power supply for a computer that draws 270 watts at full load.