Just bought a Kill-A-Watt electricity consumption meter

[Who]

I'm pretty sure they do... The accuracy drops but who needs even 10% accuracy to measure a 2 watt plug load.

[newtonsfirstlaw]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

Mine measures down to 2W IIRC. I don't think I've measured any 1W devices, and the 2-3W was an old microwave.

Maybe it has something to do with the voltage difference. Either that, or it's just a different unit. It does have 3 buttons as opposed to more on the kill-a-watt. (up, set and func).

The story I heard from my Australian supplier was that they had such demand for the things in the US that they didn't have the time to make any for 240V!

[Gone4]

I've read about this meter at literally tens of places. Ever since I first saw it at Thinkgeek I was curious, how well does it measure power usage on inductive loads?

[AndrewJ]

I just bought one today.

I saw fit to warn the wife that I'll be an even bigger "power nazi" once I get it.

[Erdrick]

The Kill-A-Watt is pretty accurate in my experience. My Wii uses 2 watts in standby (with wiiconnect off). I always keep it unplugged. Most things in my house are on their own power strip, with individual switches to turn each device off as I see fit.

I have a main switch that gives power to the power strip, and the power strip is then divided by device. Very nice stuff, but I am not sure that you can find anything like this outside of Japan. Over here they are common everyday items though...

So to answer newtonsfirstlaw's question, the Kill-A-Watt does display amounts between 0-5, in whole numbers.

[roflwaffle]

I have had some problem with inaccuracy, but only after having it plugged in for a while and turning the device it's measuring on and off.

[AndrewJ]

Originally Posted by newtonsfirstlaw

my CRT only used 60W, and it's 19 inch. Of course, an LCD can use half that, easily.

Damn, I got my Kill-A-Watt yesterday and soon discovered that my TV uses 25 watts when it's turned off!! When I turned it on the real carnage began. 162 watts, I guess that's the price I pay for a 44" projection screen

I already convinced the wife to sell the beast when we move, LCD here we come!

[bennelson]

Just wait until you try all the other things around the house and see how much they use when "off".

My biggest suprise was that my GAS oven uses about 300 watts of electricity while on!

Makes me want to bake pizza on top of my wood stove....

[Erdrick]

AndrewJ: There is a lot of hype behind LCDs. I will warn you though, that they are NOT as efficient as you would be led to believe. I personally have noticed a trend that LCDs use about 25% less than tube-based t.v.s. That really isn't a make or break in my book. The pollutants released during the manufacturing of the LCD far outweigh any savings you would get in electricity. I say stick with your unit that you currently own, and trade up when it dies.

Has anyone checked their refrigerators? I hooked up the kill-o-watt to mine and ended up with about a 17kwh draw per week. This was back in the summer though, so it may have dropped since then. I think I will actually go test it right now!

[bennelson]

I ran my fridge through the Killawatt for about a month a while back.

I don't remember the exact KWH, but it was about 1/6 of my total electric bill.

My Fridge is a full sized, LG, which was one of the most effecient ones for its size.

I still plan on getting a Sunfrost for my next fridge.