Anybody familiar with them? Is the "EZ" (model P4460) worth an extra $15 over model P4400?
I want to see how much electricity my freezers, TV sets, computers, etc are *really* using, plus check the frequency stability of my portable generator and that little inverter than I mounted in my truck.
Thanks, Bob
You may want to get on the Lee Valley mailing list. They had that model as a special last week (now sold out) for $20.
The "EZ" has two enhanced features over the basic model:
If you don't know how to multiply, or do not have access to a calculator, #1 may be necessary. If you want to accumulate readings over a power outage situation, #2 might be a help.
Neither "enhancement" seems useful for the needs you have.
Yes! They are the cat's whiskers.
If you need sizzle with your steak, I suppose so. It appears that the EZ has a built in calculator so you can plug in your electric cost & 'predict' annual costs.
Amazon has the basic P4400 for $20.62 [buy something else for $5 & the shipping is free]. The 4600 is $34. I wouldn't spend the extra, myself. I like the KISS principle-- If I need to calculate cost or future usage I'll do the math in my head or on a $2 calculator. . . or maybe even dig out a pencil.
Jim
It may not work on a freezer. It has built in over current protection that kills power to the device and a freezer may be too much to handle. I know I cant get a reading off my fridge because the compressor start up current is over this limit.
I'd definitely get the EZ model. It's worth the small addional cost. You can enter the cost of electricity per KWh and it then will directly display how much it costs to run the load per day, week, month or year. You can just leave it up on the display and watch it update, glance at it during the day, etc. Much better than just seeing XX Kwh and having to manually do the translation.
Good news is Costco has them for $27.
Bad news is that about 6 months ago I bought one and it was bad. One push button did not work at all. Took it back and got another one. That one, a different button didn't work at all. So, I waited hoping the crap ones would clear out. Bought one last week and it's working perfectly, at least so far.....
I've put one on two refrigerators, a 24 year old one and a new one. It worked on both.
They work fine on a fridge or freezer
The first eye opener for most people is just how little power a fridge actually uses. It is certainly not the power hog most people think it is. (a new one). My side by side, ice in the door Whirlpool used 120KWH in 61.2 days (August September) and it was outside in the Florida summer heat in the pool bar. If it was in the house I would expect a lower number but the difference might show up in the A/C bill..
Frys periodically has the P4400 on sale for $14.99. If you use 120vac devices, you should have at least one. I use them to size battery requirements for UPS.
Depends on the age of the fridge. I bought my kill-a-watt to build a case for buying a new one. Our refrigerator dated to the 1960s and after monitoring for a few weeks with the kill a watt meter, looked like annual usage would be around 2400 KWH, about four times what the new ones use. So the meter was a good investment of $20, we save almost that much every month on electricity with the new fridge. -- H
That is about 60hwh a month, is that a bargain?
I guess I'm missing something here. They give you some data, but other than curiosity, what usefullness does that data serve. Plug a refrig into one and learn it uses x kw and costs x $ per month. But there ain't a darn thing you can do about it except buy a new frig. Ditto for all the other appliances you have in your home. Yeah, I can see figuring what loads you can put on a generator, but other than that, what 'useful' data do they provide?
KC
KC
***********************************************************************The refrigerator has to stay running, but other appliances do not. I guess the main purpose is awareness. Watching the meter on the room AC, you map decide that keeping the bedroom at 75 is cheaper than going for 62. Or running a computer 24/7 when it is rarely used is costly. And yes, it may help you decide that a new refrigerator can pay for itself with saving over time.
Andy comments:
I'd like to suggest an alternative.
You can get a "clip on" multimeter from harborfreight.com (free catalog) for about $10.00 and measure the current consumed by the device by simply clipping around one of the wires (usually the black one) going to the device, and it will work for any device that works on 60 cycle AC. The current, times 120, is the kva in watts. A simple calc yields the cost per hour to run it.
For frequency of your generator, just plug in one of those $5 electric clocks and compare the time to that of your watch. The longer the run time, the better. If the frequency is lower, the time on the electric clock will be less than the time on your watch, by the same proportion.
Neither of these alternatives are as easy as what you have proposed, but use instruments that can be used for other things.
Just a suggestion.
Andy in Eureka, Texas
-snip-
Not exactly the same as a Kil-o-watt meter.. That gives the cost
*for that hour*. There are a lot of variables over the course of a 24hr day. Defrost cycles, number of refrigeration cycles, etc.I can't imagine a household that won't get $25 worth of use from a Kill-o-watt meter in a few years. It is one of those things that once you have it, you find more and more occasions to plug it in.
Jim
BTW, this Sunday has 25 hours (at least in the US where the mess of Damn Stupid Time intrudes on reality).
In an AC circuit, Volt x Amps are not exactly the same thing as Watts due to power factor.
For loads like incandesenct light bulbs and resistance heaters, the power facotr is very close to one so there is little error but for reactive loads like motors, there can be a significant difference.
Mark
Since I use the icemaker to fill coolers, it certainly is.
The $8 a month we spend would not buy 5 bags of ice at the "shop and rob".
It got started by an IBM study on MTBF on hard drives that found a power off/on cycle was worth about 8 hours of running time. Prior to that it was studies on light bulbs and fluorescent finding similar results
If you pack 8 hours of electricity into a five minute warmup, that's multiply by a factor of 96. Suppose my computer draws 2 amps. Well, multiply that by 96 times, and we're trying to draw 194 ampere rate, for five minutes. Is that likely?
My computer warmup is less than five minutes, so we'd have to draw about a thousand amperes, for a full minute.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.