Customer Reviews:
 doesn't come with the extend cord. November 29, 2008
it will be nice to have the extend cord so that the gadget won't take up two sockets
 Dont Buy. November 29, 2008
I may be returning this thing.
The hardware MAY ? be OK ..... dunno...
but the user interface is VERY crude
and clumsy and erratic.
So it's hard to say if it's worth the
effort to troubleshoot the thing or not.
Meanwhile I dug out an old clamp-on
style AC ammeter, made a little split-wire
AC extension cord for it and quickly measured
the current drain of all my computer stuff
and my wall-warts, in various states of
on-off-asleep-standby-etc..... and quickly
came up with an arrangement of multi outlet
powerstrips which allows me to save a few
watt-hours of our vanishing energy store
for the use of my kids.
I wanted to do that with the Kill-a-Watt but
found it not so easy to get working so
abandoned the effort.
Sorry.
 What's it gonna cost you to run that Plasma all day? November 25, 2008
I was curious about what it was gonna cost me to run a 600 Watt gaming desktop everyday for a year, and was surprised at how much the P4460 estimated; just around $60, for A YEAR. Put in mind that I'm not playing Crysis or running 3d Mark or Folding @ Home 24/7, so my desktop is usually idle at around 185 watts(The Kill a Watt is showing me right now), but I was at relieved that my computer wasn't responsible for the high electricity bills arriving at my household, some close to $100. If you're in doubt about how expensive(or not) it will be to run a certain appliance, the Kill a Watt P4460 is a must buy(my reason was to just find out how many watts my PC uses).
What the P4460 does is it adds up the total number of kilowatt hours that the device you've connected it to uses, and multiplies them by the rate it costs to run 1 KWH(i.e. $0.085, $0.135, etc.). Your cost may vary, and mine will never be 100% accurate since there's more than one rate on my electricity bill. What I ended up doing was I multiplied my own rate with the total number of kilowatt hours on two separate bills and checked to see how close I could get to each total cost. I ended up going with a rate of $0.122, which was only off by about $1-2, not including tax.
It's been a good month since the Kill a Watt was hooked up, and so far I've used an estimated 36.23 Kilowatt Hours by the time of this publishing, with the total cost only coming up to around $4.50. Very satisfied. I'm still skeptical about the estimated yearly cost since I've only been using this device for a month, but the Kill a Watt is suppose to get "smarter" or something with time(more info = more accuracy).
Besides the rate and KWH estimations, you can view the current total cost of running the connected appliance, or see an estimated cost for hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly usage. There are also options to see the current amount of watts being consumed, Volts, P.A., Amps, VA, Hz, and how long the Kill a Watt has been connected. Built in memory helps if later on you want to do a quick run on any extra electronics, without erasing all of the data analyzed. These options are all great, but I only find myself using the P4460 for the latter ones.
What I would really like to see in the future is the option to add more than one rate(for taxes, or two different energy suppliers), then the accuracy of the Kill a Watt would be greatly improved. That's one reason I'm giving this monitor 3 stars. Another is that I often find myself pulling the device outward and facing it to either my window or switching the light above me just to see what's showing on it's display. The option for a lighted screen(instant toggle) couldn't hurt either. My last reason for giving the P4460 3 stars is that the device blocked off the second socket when I plugged it into a wall outlet. If the P4460 had stayed there, a lot of cables would be running across the floor right now. Luckily, I connected it between a power strip and an extension cord, so that problem is dealt with. Regardless of the cons, I highly recommend buying this monitor to anyone who's in the dark about what electronics are assaulting their electric bill.
(Off Topic: The PS3 uses an estimated 170 watts, completely idle)
Solid Product November 25, 2008
Great product. It is very simple, so don't expect it to perform computations or anything, but it will easily tell you how much electricity a device or appliance is pulling.
Kill A Watt works! November 25, 2008
I'm very pleased with this device. I've been working my way through our various appliances to get a good picture of our monthly energy consumption.
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