best/cheapest place to buy a kill-a-watt?

[VirtualLarry]

Looking to purchase a couple of kill-a-watt devices for a friend of mine that owns a home.
Also curious about the different models, and which one is considered better.
Looking for best price, from a legitimate online (or even offline) retailer.

Asked at BestBuy, they couldn't help me. Seems like they don't carry it. CircuitCity used to, but they went out of business.

Edit: amazon

 

[ch33zw1z]

This is the one I usually see people talking about, it's $5 cheaper than last time I looked.

 

[dtgoodwin]

If you have a Costco near you, they may have the EZ model. My local Costo has them for $26.99. The EZ model allows you to input your cost/kwh and will tell you what your device is costing you to run instead of having to calculate it with the regular model.

 

[Deptacon]

Oh Snap...that thing is cool. I can actually see how much juice my machine is using.

Does it read out what your machine is actually using? or the PSU is automatically drawing 750W for example?????

I've never seen one of these before... new toy

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Deptacon
Oh Snap...that thing is cool. I can actually see how much juice my machine is using.

Does it read out what your machine is actually using? or the PSU is automatically drawing 750W for example?????

I've never seen one of these before... new toy

It measures what is being used between the power connector on the back of the pc and the wall outlet. What the power supply is outputting is totally different and will always be less than that.

 

[Winterpool]

I too have been wondering which of the various Kill a Watt models to buy. I think I've seen some for less than $10. I don't need it to do any cost calculations, etc. I just want an accurate reading.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Deptacon
Oh Snap...that thing is cool. I can actually see how much juice my machine is using.

Does it read out what your machine is actually using? or the PSU is automatically drawing 750W for example?????

I've never seen one of these before... new toy

It measures what is being used between the power connector on the back of the pc and the wall outlet. What the power supply is outputting is totally different and will always be less than that.

Right, but just multiply by the efficiency of the PSU and you should have the internal wattage being consumed. For fun, let your PC idle at the desktop and then fire up Folding@Home CPU and GPU2 clients all at once. Running at 100% utilization, my system can draw around 490w at the wall. I like to have a large capacity excess and room for later expansion, hence the 910w Silencer in my rig.

 

[jonnyGURU]

If you're looking for something even the least bit accurate, I would suggest against the P3 Kill-A-Watt and tell you to get a Brand Electronics meter:

http://www.brandelectronics.com/meters.html

 

[nyker96]

i think they are usually 20 on sale. forgot where i got mine but it was 20.

 

[DrMrLordX]

$150 for the entry-level Brand Electronics meter, but as they say, you get what you pay for . . .

 

[Texun]

I've seen the Kill-A-Watt (or perhaps a clone) at Harbor Freight for $15 before but I checked their online catalog and didn't see one. It may be a "store only" think. Might check it out if they have one near you.

If you are not in a big hurry add your email to the price alert flag at NewEgg. I've seen them before for $14.99

 

[OddJensen]

Originally posted by: Golgatha
Right, but just multiply by the efficiency of the PSU and you should have the internal wattage being consumed. For fun, let your PC idle at the desktop and then fire up Folding@Home CPU and GPU2 clients all at once. Running at 100% utilization, my system can draw around 490w at the wall. I like to have a large capacity excess and room for later expansion, hence the 910w Silencer in my rig.

Keep in mind that efficiency isn't constant tho. It'll also be different depending on input voltage. (230V countries benefit from high efficiency compared to 100-115V countries).