Mini Review of the P3 International Kill A Watt Model P4400

A few years ago I did an electricity audit of everything that used electricity in our apartment. At the time, I borrowed my friends expensive metering device. While flipping through a catalog I came across the "Kill A Watt". It was a similiar device that meters Volts, Amp, Watt, VA, Frequency, Power Factor, and KWH. However it was only 30 dollars. I tried to find some actual accounts on the web whether it actually worked or not. I didn't find anything so I decided to just try it out. Here's a mini-review...

The Kill A Watt works as expected. I don't have another meter on hand to see how close the readings are. However, I've tested it with various electronic devices and the results are reasonable. The packaging claimed 0.2% accuracy.

The controls are pretty simple, and for 30 dollars, provides what you would expect. More advanced meters often have the ability to log more detailed data, and even upload the data to a computer for archiving or further analysis. The Kill A Watt doesn't have this capability but it does keep track of KWH which allows you to plug a device into the Kill A Watt, come back some time later and see the KWH used. This is useful for devices which use a varying amount of electricity throughout the day. The KWH and Timer display roll over after reaching 9999 KWH and 9999 hours respectively.

The only real annoyance with the device is the shape is a bit cumbersome when plugging it in. When plugged directly into a wall outlet, it's size covers the second outlet.