Equipment Monitor Kill A Watt Review

We got a large electric bill in the mail one day and my wife wanted to know why it was so big. There were only two things we had recently done that could account for the jump in electric usage: running the dehumidifier and getting a cordless electric lawn mower. Surely a battery-powered electric lawn mower couldn't use that much power, could it?

To find out, I bought a P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ, model P4460, which looks like the picture at the top of this review. I got it from Amazon for about $25.

What it is

The P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ has a three-pronged plug on its back, which will plug into any standard outlet. On the face of the unit is a standard three-prong outlet. You use the unit by plugging it into any wall outlet, then plugging the device you want to check into the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ. It's very simple.

At the top of the unit is a large readout that tells you various things about the power that is connected to the unit. Using the buttons under the readout, you can see an instantaneous measurement of voltage, current, kilowatt hours and power usage in Watts. I was interested in finding out how many Watts of power were consumed by various devices, and the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ allows me to check that.

Using it

Plugging the device into a wall outlet usually works fine, but sometimes it results in the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ being located at an odd angle. This can be worked around by plugging the unit into a short extension cord, which then allows me to look at the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ at any possible angle. This is important because the unit's LCD readout is frustratingly dim and hard to read. I really have to look at it straight on to be able to see it, and must wear reading glasses even though the numbers are reasonably large. The readout is so dim that it requires reading glasses, at least at my age.

The various buttons let me select the parameter I want to measure, but I almost always want to measure power consumption (Watts). It's easy enough to step to the wattage reading but the display is so dim that I really have to study it to be sure I measuring Watts. Once I'm at the correct selection, the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ has given me some interesting measurements.

For example, my dehumidifier measures 480 Watts during normal operation, significantly less than the 700-800 Watts I expected. My cordless electric lawn mower measures about 15 Watts when it is charging, tapering off to a Watt or two when the mower is fully charged. The electronics module in my new exercise bike draws 2-3 Watts when I'm pedaling away. My bottom line is that I do not know why my electric bill was so high a couple months ago, but we suspect builders next door may have plugged their power tools into our outside outlet.

Summary

The P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ P4460 is a good idea and it's packaged well. If the readout had decent contrast and the indication for the measurement mode (Volts, Amps, Watts, etc.) was easier to see, this would be an excellent product. As it is, I squint at it all the time, and that's annoying. I like the P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ but it's just too hard to read to recommend it wholeheartedly.