Powercube 8830/UKORMO Original Monitor

I ordered the Allocacoc Power Monitor to monitor the power consumption of connected devices, and as the name implies this should be the regular usage for this device.The arriving package looked a bit torn, but as long as the device inside does work as intended, that'll be fine.The monitor has a display opposite side of the plug and therefore the power reading can be done easily, also the 4 sockets on this cube are facing different directions -which looks a bit weird- but enables to connect cables easily.The display functions also as power on/off button.Design is pleasant without sharp corners.Now the unfortunately negative sides:The Display with its thin plastic layer makes a rather flimsy switch as pressing it affects the LCD display and regular use will damage the display.The cube is quite heavy and if used in a wall socket with just 1 cable plugged in, gravity already takes its toll.The fit into the socket is not tight or strong enough to prevent the cube to hang down, connecting external power supply for Radio and a mobile phone charger result in the cube hanging really low.I could still accept this to some degree but now I'm coming back to the main purpose of the power cube:The metering function of this cube is for a fixed price (0.20 /kWh) and can not be changed, also the accuracy is appalling and makes the cube utterly useless for its designed main feature.I contacted Allocacoc about this per email:Hi,I purchased Allocacoc Powercube Original Monitor, 4-way Wall Socket Adapter & Cost CalculatorUnfortunately there are issues with the item, rendering it unfit for purpose.Maybe you could assist and answer the most pressing questions in order to somewhat enjoy using the device?1. How can I change the price per Energy unit, the price per kW is different from what the device calculates.2. I want to monitor the consumption of connected devices over time yet the monitor seems extremely inaccurate and the real energy consumption is much lower than all the devices display.As a reference I used another cheap plugin meter bought on Amazon.co.uk as well the monitoring system of my Sonnen Solar Power System.The Plugin and Battery's monitor displayed the same consumption and was about 800W compared to anything between 2 and 3 £ on your monitor. On different scenarios (short, higher drain of vacuum cleaner or electric kettles) the Allocacoc Powercube went completely crazy and displayed almost 4 up to 7 £ for less than 1.2 kWI received the following reply:From: <[email protected]>Subject: RE: [SPAM] Allocacoc Powercube Extended Energy Monitor Plug - FAULTSDear customer,Thank you for contacting us. We are sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with our products. Hereby, we try to answer your questions:1. The price is pre-set in the factory and cannot be changed. However, you are able to calculate back with the formula that is lasered on the product. This way you can convert the amount of money back to the amount of kWh.2. Our products are made to give people overall awareness of their energy use. Unfortunately, the equipment is not meant to be used for highly accurate monitoring on a professional level as it seems you wish to use it for.We hope this answers your concerns. We apologize if there has been misleading information about the PowerCube Monitor and hope you will find another of our products more suitable to use in your everyday life.Don’t hesitate to contact us with any further questions.Kind regards,To sum up:Extremely Inaccurate monitor, a simple LED indicating there is any energy consumption will be as accurate as this "sophisticated" device.Inflexible as energy price per unit can not be changed.Flimsy on/off switch prone to breaking.Overpriced. There are way cheaper, better and accurate solutions available on AmazonThe item will go return and I'll never buy anything created by that design studio again.They know their products are flawed and branding a home user who just expects an accurate reading from a meter as a "professional" is beyond acceptable.If this design studio were to make watches I bet they'd have only one hand, any additional hand is for professional use...

Built to the usual PowerCube standards, the idea behind this is good. However, in practice, this unit has serious limitations.Firstly, the pluspoints. Pressing the screen (once) allows the user to turn off all the outlets in one go - very useful for turning off external monitors, powered dock, printer, scanner, etc when a laptop is disconnected. Secondly, it uses the same mains inlet system as the travel PowerCube (ASIN B00PGULP7Q), meaning that the UK 13A inlet connector can be unplugged, allowing for the use of any IEC-type lead (UK or otherwise), allowing use in international locations.Downsides: Currency is ALWAYS displayed in ‘Cents’ - not a biggie, I know, but given that the sockets are UK, I would have thought that some form of internal "switch" would have allowed for UK pence or Euro’s. It is also clearly stated that ‘you should not cascade’ these units, for fear of overloading the monitoring systems, thus restricting the user to 4 outlets only (there are no USB outlets). Finally and probably the most serious, is that there is no facility to assign a financial cost to one ‘unit’ of electricity, thus making the ‘Cost’ value utterly meaningless.So, to sum up, could have been far more useful if these issues had been addressed.