Kill A Watt EZ from P3 International

Greg: Would anyone have bought this product off the shelf? Tracy: I would have bought the product to gather this information as I am always looking for better ways to save and to find out how things are "running" in my house. David: I would have as I am an optimist and like to believe that I will make a change. Photo courtesy of CableOrganizer.com. Greg: I would have bought it for the general interest factor (and to see if I used more power than my wife!). Dan: I am generally not interested in electronic “gadgets,” especially ones with the potential to make me feel guilty! However, I would buy a Kill A Watt if I thought I was having an issue that I needed to troubleshoot like a refrigerator compressor that was possibly running too often, for example. Trey: I wouldn’t have purchased this before, but now that I have seen how much power is being consumed around the house I would definitely buy one. Greg: I was surprised I spend $87 a year to run my PC and monitor. Does anyone have any examples of how much it costs to run specific household items? David: My coffeemaker costs $.40 a month. This seems cheap to me. Trey: My heated dog bed—a little heating pad that we keep on eight hours a day—costs $.40 a month. Dan: It will cost about $60 this year to run my computer, LCD monitor, backup disk drives and my Xbox 360. My satellite boxes are about $5 a year each. Greg: My TV will cost $41 a year. Trey: It will cost me $75 a year just to run my cable modem, Linksys and VoIP equipment. Tracy: I used the Kill A Watt on our HD, plasma TV/DVD player/HD satellite cable box. Based on the kilowatts we used per week, the total was $94.38 for the year—just for the electronics in the living room. Halldor: It will cost about $19 a month for my TV, cable box (DVR) and stereo. David: My computer and peripheral gear were $21.80 a month, my home theater center was $4.30 a month, charging an iPhone was $.40 was a month, a subwoofer was $1.60 a month in standby mode. I would love to test our 220-volt dryer, but the unit does not support it. Greg: How much are each of you paying for electricity per kilowatt hour? David: $.1399 north of Boston, Mass. Tracy: $.1177 cents in Central Mass. Dan: $.0776 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Trey: $.1525 north of Boston, Mass.. Halldor: $.15 north of Boston, Mass. Greg: $.11 in Central Fla. Greg: Do you think you will be able to reduce electricity usage by using this device? Will you continue to use it? David: I believe I can reduce my usage on non-essential items and in low-trafficked areas of the house. But essentials, in reality—that may be difficult for me. Tracy: Yes. I am going to make a better effort to unplug devices or add a power switch so there's not a continual draw of energy. Halldor: Yes. I'm going to try to lower usage on my PCs. Trey: I believe I will be able to lower my usage 10 percent from this knowledge—somewhere in the ballpark of $10 to $20 a month. Over a year, I think $150 would be a nice goal. And not by changing lifestyle, just our family habits. I am thinking about setting up timers for things that I want on all the time I am awake like media servers, routers and printers. I may add motion detector switches. Greg: So, this device can pay for itself in the right hands in two months. That is a pretty good investment. Greg: What is your overall impression of the Kill A Watt EZ? Dan: My takeaway was that I’ll just try to do better. It definitely raised awareness of our household energy usage. I am not going to buy a new TV or refrigerator to use less electricity. As a reminder to be more aware of wasted or unnecessary power consumption, it works. I can do little things that over time will make a little difference and be a little better off for the effort. Tracy: I think it does a good job of reminding us that we are using electricity when things are plugged in, even when they're not in use. My takeaway is that for the affordable price of less than for one of these units, you can learn a lot about where your energy usage is in your home and begin to take measures to lower it—whether it's shutting off/unplugging, adding motion sensors, timers, etc. Also, it’s good ammunition for me to tell the energy hogs who are PEOPLE in my house to be more mindful! David: We found ourselves shutting things off. I often find that tools like these are great at raising awareness but not so great at getting us to make life changes. Electronics need to be made to be more efficient!  Maybe that is how this helps in the long-run—to get consumers to demand better products. Greg: Thanks to everyone for participating. Editor's Notes: This roundtable discussion was conducted via Instant Messaging on March 23, 2009. Reviewers were: Greg Vazzana, Webmaster; David Masher, Vice President of Design and Development; Trey Simmons, Art Director; Dan Newberry, Vice President of Sales; Tracy Quinn McLennan, Managing Editor; and Halldor Utne, IT Director. Greg Vazzana acted as Moderator. The Kill A Watt EZ was provided by CableOrganizer.com for review and is available on its Web site for purchase here.

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