Kill A Watt Meter

[Wildreamz]

How you all test the power consumption of your rig?

Kill a Watt meter?

If so, how much and where you buy it from?

Cheapest I can find on ebay is this: UK Plug Energy Meter Watt Volt Voltage Electricity Monitor Analyzer Power Factor | eBay

Thanks in advance!

 

[royfrosty]

I got mine at sim lim tower. Its at level 3. One of the store. But the one i bought is dusty and like last stock. Lol

 

[jtjt00]

I got mine here from Element 14:
EME-1 - PRO ELEC - METER, POWER, MULTIFUNCTIONAL | element14 Singapore

 

[Wildreamz]

Seems more expensive compared to ebay, and I have never bought from there. So I probably getting from ebay instead.

Thanks anyway!

 

[yusoffb01]

I got the ebay one. Works fine.

 

[jtjt00]

For those getting from eBay, how much it cost with shipping?

 

[gabong]

I'm sure this is what you are looking for.

Qoo10 - UK Plug Monitor Power Energy Watt Voltage Amps Meter Analyzer on Elect... : Household Goods

Anyone actually used one of these??
Accurate?

 

[flee0308]

If just power and not energy can simply wire an ampmeter into the socket to measure current.

 

[Alphas]

Bought one from eBay, should be quite accurate, big screen big letters good.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

For those who are interested in PSUs and power electronics, a consolidation of posts by reviewers on the inaccuracies of killawatt meters

[H]ard|Forum - View Single Post - Power Consumption Wierdness via Kill-a-Watt

Part of the reason is due to APFC nature of modern PSUs. Such cheap meters will give erroneous readings easily for 20% or more of PSUs on the market. As for the remainder, the readings may be in the correct ballpark, but not as accurate as the number of decimal places on the meter might suggest (the meter may be precise in terms of decimal places, but it may be wholly off, ie inaccurate).



tl;dr version: take the kill la kill meter with a big grain of salt. When I mean big, I mean at rock sugar size and above.

If you want reliable readings, buy an industrial grade meter. That will cost SGD$200 or more.

 

[yusoffb01]

I think its quite accurate. For laptop, have programs to show battery drain in terms of watts, when compared with laptop on ac without battery shows quite close readings. connect phone via usb to laptop reading will jump by 6w. Use usb hp charger reading ard 7w.

Use vacuum cleaner reading is 1600w. Switch off after use will show 0w.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

My post is with reference to modern PSUs with APFC. None of what you described use APFC.

Another point I forgot to mention is that due to the sampling rate of kill-a-watts, they are not good at capturing transient spikes in power draw.

 

[Alphas]

Transient spike should not be taken with a watt meter. Most good quality psu should handle spikes well.

 

[zetken]

then got any good one to intro? i feel like measuring my home electricity consumption.

 

[gabong]

then got any good one to intro? i feel like measuring my home electricity consumption.

I've already posted a link for qoo10 above.

 

[gabong]

I think its quite accurate. For laptop, have programs to show battery drain in terms of watts, when compared with laptop on ac without battery shows quite close readings. connect phone via usb to laptop reading will jump by 6w. Use usb hp charger reading ard 7w.

Use vacuum cleaner reading is 1600w. Switch off after use will show 0w.

Thanks for the mini review.

Was thinking of using it for things around the house that I leave on 24/7. Fridge, media server... etc.

Given that some of my home appliances are reaching 10 years old, might consider more green technology to reduce power consumption.

 

[devilwahaha]

I've already posted a link for qoo10 above.

$70 (or $35 with the q-price thing which I dont even know if its possible for a new user to get) is an awful lot of money to pay for a brandless meter, especially when they dont state the specs and tolerance of the product. You'll be better off getting those $10+ ones from ebay with shipping coming up to less than $20, and probably get the same results as the $70($35?) one from Qoo10.

Also it seems like some of those kill-a-watts are bad at reading inductive loads, so probably not a good idea to measure your refrigerator/washing machine with them.

 

[gabong]

$70 (or $35 with the q-price thing which I dont even know if its possible for a new user to get) is an awful lot of money to pay for a brandless meter, especially when they dont state the specs and tolerance of the product. You'll be better off getting those $10+ ones from ebay with shipping coming up to less than $20, and probably get the same results as the $70($35?) one from Qoo10.

Also it seems like some of those kill-a-watts are bad at reading inductive loads, so probably not a good idea to measure your refrigerator/washing machine with them.

Maeda_Toshiie, already mention a Pro version will run us $200 plus and up.

The Qoo10 link is for SGD$35 + shipping. At least it's a local company and you can do a refund through Qoo10. It's an Option for others. If you did check the ebay link (in USD) and the Qoo10 link (both link on this page), the product looks almost the same. Even at a price advantage for the ebay ones, many will still buy local, when you can easily return if not satisfied. I'm pretty sure they are the same OEM version.

Even with a margin of error of 10-20%, I'm not measuring millions of watts. Besides most of my home appliances are below 2000 watts.

 

[Kiwi8]

I have one from eBay. It has UK plug, but has a universal socket for various country plugs.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

Maeda_Toshiie, already mention a Pro version will run us $200 plus and up.

The Qoo10 link is for SGD$35 + shipping. At least it's a local company and you can do a refund through Qoo10. It's an Option for others. If you did check the ebay link (in USD) and the Qoo10 link (both link on this page), the product looks almost the same. Even at a price advantage for the ebay ones, many will still buy local, when you can easily return if not satisfied. I'm pretty sure they are the same OEM version.

Even with a margin of error of 10-20%, I'm not measuring millions of watts. Besides most of my home appliances are below 2000 watts.

My point is not about measurement range, but APFC found in modern PC PSUs can result wrong readings.