I am thinking about getting a kill-a-watt meter to monitor various appliances in our new rental (refrigerator looks to be about 10 years old) and am wanting to know what other peoples experiences are with these types of meters and if there are any particular brands / models one should get or avoid.
I was thinking about this one on amazon: P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
Thoughts?
Jason
Hi Jason,
I have two model P4460s from P3 and they work beautifully. I got two so I could analyze a lot of different loads while doing a PV load analysis. You should definitely leave it on for at least a day or two to get an accurate reading. I've had no issues with either of them.
Dave
I too have the P4460 model. I think that they are also called the EZ model and will (if you enter your electric rate) will calculate current and future cost of running whatever is under test. However I am on the second one. The first one just stopped working after about two years. I did like it though so I bought a replacement.
Cheers!
I bought the cheapest model and found it very useful to learn what's what around the house and make appropriate decisions about what to buy, retires, validate manufacturer's specs and also evaluate what "mode" is most practical when you have items that have different power settings (like PCs).
The awareness & education it gives you is alone worth the $20-30 of the device. And, if you also make decisions based off of it, it can easily pay for itself in a matter of months.
I'm so glad I ran across this thread. My electricity use has unexpectedly increased by 400-600 KWH a month since October. I telephoned the power company yesterday for suggestions for tracking down the reason. The service rep suggested a malfunctioning appliance and outlined a procedure for identifying the circuit the appliance is on. If that works, and a high use circuit is identified, this device may help to narrow down the malfunctioning appliance. Thanks!
So I ended up getting a p4460 at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. The unit is great but I need to return/replace it as it seems the first segment of the LCD screen is not working. But overall it is a great little device. I have figured out the my home office workstation (13' macbook pro, 24" Dell LED monitor, powered computer speakers and the ipod charger) pulls about 51 watts and costs me about a 2 cents an hour.
The old crappy fridge that came with our new home rental - not the same kind of energy efficiency. Still testing that.
Thanks to all for posting comments and recommendations.
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