P4460 Kill A Watt Ez

Cut your electricity bill with an energy monitor

Summer's heat can lead to some unexpected surprises -- especially when opening up your utility bill. However, with an energy monitor you can keep track of just how much juice that old air conditioner drinks up, and see the effect that setting its thermostat just a few degrees warmer might have. If the air conditioner is a must -- and for some it might be, given the heat wave that's stricken parts of the country -- you can use an energy monitor to identify and turn off those little electrical juice sippers (printers, wall power supplies, etc.) that are often on without you even realizing it, at least taking a little sting out of your electrical bill. Our brand new report on energy monitors covers the details and names some of the best options.

Tracking down those electricity leaks

According to The Wall Street Journal ,  the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy reports that using a home energy monitor leads to average savings of 9 to 12 percent. We found some reports from owners claiming even higher savings after using a simple plug-in electricity monitor for only a month.

A single-outlet "plug monitor" is inexpensive (think $30 or less) but can only measure the current draw of the one device plugged into it. Still, it gives users the ability to get a pretty good measure of just how much power that's wasted through simple things, such as not turning off a TV or lamp when you leave the room. Users say that by just moving an energy monitor around from device to device, you can map out where the leaks in your electricity budget are coming from in pretty short order.

Among basic energy monitors, we saw the best feedback for the Belkin Conserve Insight F7C005q Energy-Use Monitor . That's based on pure convenience. While the comparable P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor costs roughly the same and is just as effective -- in fact, it actually provides information that's a little more detailed -- it plugs directly into the wall outlet, meaning a lot of bending and straining to see the electrical draw. The Belkin energy monitor, on the other hand, is corded and can sit on a table top. Both cost in the neighborhood of $30.

A whole house energy monitor is another choice. Set up is more complex, and sometimes you can catch some grief from your utility company (since you need to attach a sensor to your home's power meter), but it's helpful if you want to keep an eye on your total electrical usage or on the draw from a single major appliance. Among simple whole-house monitors, we saw the best feedback for the Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor . It's one of the easiest of its type to install, is effective, and is relatively inexpensive (less than $50). You can get more information about it, too, in our report .

P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Power Meter | Power Meter

The P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Power Meter is a small power meter you can use to monitor your electricity consumption to save money on your energy bills. You simply connect the P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor into your appliances to determine their kilowatt-hour consumption to determine how much they cost you per day, week or even month. The consumption is clearly indicated on a large LCD display on the meter. Reviewers commented that the P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor provided the best solution to the problem of saving money on electricity bills by customers who used it. One satisfied customer stated in their review that the device is a must-have item for every household as the power consumption reductions in one month paid for the purchase price of the device. can help you in making crucial household decisions such as: "How much you would save if you turned off the computer at night?", "How the speed of your ceiling fan determines your power consumption?", "How much you save when you turn down the thermostat of your air conditioner" or "How much would you would save by upgrading your fridge to a newer model?". One reviewer who was satisfied with the way the P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor showed his family how much it was costing to leave electric appliances on. "We checked our two PCs that we usually leave on as well their old CRT monitors for 65 hours and found that each uses 6.41 which costs $1.17 which translates to $156 annually. For both PCs we were paying $312 yearly in energy bills just for leaving the computers on.