Watt's My Line?
Imagine trying to lose weight without knowing which was more fattening: carrot sticks or leftover pecan pie? One look at your most recent electric bill will probably make an energy diet seem like a good idea, but how to know which appliance is the wattage-wasting equivalent of pecan pie? Enter the Kill A Watt, an inexpensive ($30 street price) electricity-usage monitor that you can attach to an appliance to determine how much it costs to run. Knowledge can be more than power; it can be power-saving.
Thanks to Cool Tools.
2 Comments:
The Kill A Watt, along with several other low-cost "true" power plug meters like the WattsUp? by EED have been shown to be fairly inaccurate in measuring the kinds of electronic plug loads that are common in many of today's homes. Low power factor loads presented by numerous consumer electronic devices like many computers, TVs, etc. confuse these meters and often result in under-reporting of actual power draw.
The best meter I've found to do the job is the PowerAngel by Seasonic. Still not lab grade, but it gets much closer to the mark than the meter featured in this story.
I would have to disagree with the other comment that says that the PowerAngel is more accurate than the Kill A Watt. I do not own either product yet but I can say that in my opinion they are both the same thing. If you look at the product images on http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html and http://www.seasonicusa.com/power_angel.htm you will see that the only difference is the shape and color of the plastic housing. The buttons are even in the same order from left to right(Volts, Amps, Watts/VA, HZ/PF, and KWH/Hour.
I realize the original entry is from December of last year but I thought I would point this out to anyone else who finds this page.
Post a Comment
<< Compass Main