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Recommendation on Kill-A-Watt meter?

Retsam

Retsam

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
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So, over the past few years or so, we have kind of been in the top tier of power consumption at the house. Out of curiosity, I want to get something to measure what each computer and hdtv, etc might be sucking up.

Is there any recommendation on a specific and cost friendly, bang4buck kill-a-watt meter? Does it matter which one? I dont know.

I was just looking at like this -> http://www.amazon.com/P3-Internation...3171379&sr=1-1

I really want to see how much power my computer is sucking up and was also considering comparing a Nvidia card to an ATI card.

Are these things pretty accurate?
 
I'm also randomly interested in this topic on this same day.

Also of interest to me is finding out if there is a way of measure power draw from the circuit breaker box in order to find out where the offending appliance might be. Our power bill is approximately double that of our neighbors and people in the same city with a similar size house.

Any power experts out there?
 
I have the meter P3 meter you linked to myself, and it seems to do a good job. I guess I've never tested it against anything else for accuracy, but we've used them extensively where I work too... so I believe they are considered reliable.
 
Yeah. I wanted to test some different video cards for giggles but on the more serious side, our household seems to be in like top tier with power usage. Would like to pin down what is sucking up all the power, if its the computers or the tvs or what.
 
Retsam said:
Are these things pretty accurate?
Click to expand...
Not always, but they're good enough for getting a general idea of your power consumption. Something significantly better would cost you a lot more money.
 
I use a BluePlanet Electronic Energy Meter. It's pretty nice and relatively accurate from what I can tell. Has a bunch of features, including kwh recording and cost factor (after you input it). Only thing I wish it had was blacklight or something.

I don't know if the sell them in the states but in Canada they sell them in Candian Tire.
 
They're useful enough to track down the serious power suckers, for sure.

On a side note, I just recently read something about DVR's pulling as much juice as a fridge. Think it was on this site in fact.
 
Superjoe said:
They're useful enough to track down the serious power suckers, for sure.

On a side note, I just recently read something about DVR's pulling as much juice as a fridge. Think it was on this site in fact.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that is kind of what I am talking about. Its just time to figure out what is pulling the juice cause it seems like we dont do anything extraordinary, but always have high electric bills. I wouldnt think computers would pull all that much juice but we do have them on and in use almost 24/7. That is actually kind of helpful cause my parents love their DVRs. They actually have (2) of them and, interestingly enough, 2 refrigerators. :p Ill have to remember to test the DVRs.
 
Zero82z said:
Except you need a true RMS multimeter for that, which costs quite a bit more than one of these cheap power meters.
Click to expand...

True, and for the price of one, and the effort of splicing the cable, the kill-a-watt is a pretty attractive alternative.
 
Retsam said:
Yeah, that is kind of what I am talking about. Its just time to figure out what is pulling the juice cause it seems like we dont do anything extraordinary, but always have high electric bills. I wouldnt think computers would pull all that much juice but we do have them on and in use almost 24/7. That is actually kind of helpful cause my parents love their DVRs. They actually have (2) of them and, interestingly enough, 2 refrigerators. :p Ill have to remember to test the DVRs.
Click to expand...


http://www.hardocp.com/news/2011/06/26/cable_boxes_dvrs_use_more_power_than_refrigerators/

There it is. Do you have central a/c in your house? That's obviously a big killer there. I live in Vegas with 2 units for a 3300sq/ft house. It uses so much everything else seems trivial. But I try really hard to power everything off when it's not in use. Are your computers really "in use" 24/7? Or are they just on? Because generally speaking computers draw a lot, over the course of a day. You can use sleep mode to save electricity but still have them available quickly.

Could also consider switch light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs when the incandescent bulbs die.
 
I have a Kill A Watt but bought a Belkin Conserve Insight and only use that now.

Much more convenient as it has a cord so you can plug it into wall but have display on your desk.

Shows Watts and you can program it for $/month but I don't use that, only the wattage....

DSC_0580.jpg
 
DVRs are huge, as are other "vampire devices" like TVs and receivers that keep drawing power even when "off." I know my mother turns off all of her power strips when she leaves for work in the morning (cause I had to mount them all in places where she could reach them). I believe her bill is quite low. I don't go that far, but if I'm leaving town for more than a day I unplug everything--and that causes quite a dip in the bill.
Belkin, I think, makes a power strip that supposed to manage power for vampire devices--it cuts power to other things once you turn off a central device or something like that.
I do have a Kill-a-Watt and have been happy with it (though backlight would be nice...). It at least told me how bad each of my systems were in relation to each other.
 
Which ever one you get, it should pay for itself after you find some things you should keep unplugged.
 
shawnoen said:
I have a Kill A Watt but bought a Belkin Conserve Insight and only use that now.

Much more convenient as it has a cord so you can plug it into wall but have display on your desk.

Shows Watts and you can program it for $/month but I don't use that, only the wattage....

DSC_0580.jpg
Click to expand...

That's pretty sweet. I'll be getting one of those. Would like to just have something to show my girlfriend how much money she wastes when she doesn't turn stuff off :)
 
hound said:
DVRs are huge, as are other "vampire devices" like TVs and receivers that keep drawing power even when "off."
Click to expand...
You can include computers in that list and the truth is that all these items do not consume that much individually. Generally I have measured items on standby at between 2 and 6 W. At 5 W it takes 200 hours (8 days) to consume 1 KWh which may be like 15 cents and that is the price for the convenience of having the device on standby. To most people it is worth it.

An idling computer with the display turned off can consume in the range of 75 W which might mean say 10 cents overnight. I generally turn them off as it also gives them a clean restart in the morning but sometimes I leave them on overnight I am too lazy to save and clear all my running programs.

Much more significant savings can be achieved by using less the big energy consumers like air conditioning, heating, clothes washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc. That is the first place to look for savings.
 
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