Forum Kill-A-Watt meters? Details inside.

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Forum Kill-A-Watt meters. Good or bad idea?

  • Good idea

  • Bad idea

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F

Farfrumhumpn

Banned
Nov 22, 2009
210
0
0
Okay, I know from time to time I and I bet many others wonder how much power thier systems actually draw so here's an idea and bear with me as I'm not even sure this would be the appropriate forum.

Forum Kill-A-Watt meters. Basically, a moderator or trusted long-term member gathers donated funds from people like me who hesitate on a $25 Kill-A-Watt meter and use those funds to purchase a few Kill-A-Watt meters. Then, a sturdy, small, resueable cardboard box is used for packaging individual meters. If a member wants to use one they simply pay the current holder of one of the meters for shipping ( probably only in the $5 - $7 range ) and in a sense are merely renting the meter.

Given there will have to be guidelines on who can use the meters because we wouldn't want our donations to end up in someones permenant posession and there would also need to be a maintained thread showing who has meters so people know who to contact or possibly a signup sheet and meters will be shipped in the order the people make thier post to use one of the meters.

I don't know about you guys but I would rather pay $5 - $7 to use one of these meters for a day or to to access the power useage of my machine then to buy one at $20 - $25 to use once in a great while only to have it collect dust the rest of the time.

So, good idea or bad idea?
 
R

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
A kill-a-watt meter in general is not a good idea, they are not a accurate way to measure a PFC PSU. Good for a rough idea but i would say only accurate to around 50w or so on a 400w+ system.

I have a friend that used to do CRT monitor repair for a living and he has all the high end electrical load test equipment and he recorded my system drawing 475-550w under load gaming, depended on the game, crysis and GTA IV being the most draw from the games i tested. My kill-a-watt measured around 425-450w no matter what the game was. This is why it took me so long to realize after going to a 4890 that my AC 550W PSU was the problem as i was having major stability issues.
 
dualsmp

dualsmp

Golden Member
Aug 16, 2003
1,627
45
91
Rifterut said:
A kill-a-watt meter in general is not a good idea, they are not a accurate way to measure a PFC PSU. Good for a rough idea but i would say only accurate to around 50w or so on a 400w+ system.

I have a friend that used to do CRT monitor repair for a living and he has all the high end electrical load test equipment and he recorded my system drawing 475-550w under load gaming, depended on the game, crysis and GTA IV being the most draw from the games i tested. My kill-a-watt measured around 425-450w no matter what the game was. This is why it took me so long to realize after going to a 4890 that my AC 550W PSU was the problem as i was having major stability issues.
Click to expand...

If the high end electrical load tester measured from the wall your 550w PSU should have technically been fine. If you have a 80+ psu: 550w(AC)*.8 = 440w (DC). It's possible your PSU was faulty though or simply couldn't deliver the load.

I've noticed my KAW measures a bit low, possibly on the order of 10% which can be more of a problem at higher loads. I know some review sites that use the KAW have to compare several of them to get one that is fairly accurate. The KAW isn't a bad tool though as it puts you in the ballpark range if your just curious what kind of wattage your drawing. A good test is to measure a few light bulbs of different wattage to see how it compares.
 
R

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Yeah that PSU is a little weak i found out it only has like 440w(i think) on 12V rails, was the Artic Cooling 550RF unit. It isnt defective though as its been running my server 24/7 for months now just doesnt seem able to deliver its rated power.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,583
13,805
126
www.anyf.ca
It will cost about 20ish bucks to ship to someone, so they might as well just go buy one.

Also I'm wondering, would a true RMS multi meter be more accurate then a kill a watt? I've been wanting to buy one as I tend to be curious as to what something is using but if it's not accurate, then maybe they're might be a better way? The multi meter method is not exactly the safest though but with a properly rigged "testing box" it could be safe enough.
 
BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Nov 26, 2005
15,194
403
126
Today I just picked up a Reliance appliance load tester (32$) and ran it on both rig 1 & 2

rig1 idles at 108w
rig2 idles at 139w
(not including monitors - straight from the PSU cord to the tester to the wall outlet)

It also gives amperage. The watt range goes from 0 - 1875w; and the Amps goes from 0 - 15

How accurate this thing is, ?? i'm not placing any bets on it.

Bought it at Lowes.
 
Gillbot

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
I would say, for safety it would be better to charge replacement cost to rent it and refund the difference after it's returned. Otherwise, bad idea since it's only $25 to buy one to begin with.
 
dualsmp

dualsmp

Golden Member
Aug 16, 2003
1,627
45
91
BTRY B 529th FA BN said:
Today I just picked up a Reliance appliance load tester (32$) and ran it on both rig 1 & 2

rig1 idles at 108w
rig2 idles at 139w
(not including monitors - straight from the PSU cord to the tester to the wall outlet)

It also gives amperage. The watt range goes from 0 - 1875w; and the Amps goes from 0 - 15

How accurate this thing is, ?? i'm not placing any bets on it.

Bought it at Lowes.
Click to expand...

Looks about right. Both your PSU's are a bit oversized, but pretty much everyone is guilty of that these days. :) Your idle would come down a bit with lower rated PSU's. Rig 1 would be ok with a 500w,and Rig 2 would be fine with a 600w. It wouldn't be worth it though to swap them out (go and buy new ones) that is unless you have a few lower rated PSU's lying around which wouldn't cost you anything.
 
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BTRY B 529th FA BN

BTRY B 529th FA BN

Lifer
Nov 26, 2005
15,194
403
126
dualsmp said:
Looks about right. Both your PSU's are a bit oversized, but pretty much everyone is guilty of that these days. :) Your idle would come down a bit with lower rated PSU's. Rig 1 would be ok with a 500w,and Rig 2 would be fine with a 600w. It wouldn't be worth it though to swap them out (go and buy new ones) that is unless you have a few lower rated PSU's lying around which would cost you anything.
Click to expand...

I've often thought about the Seasonic X650 for playing around with my Q9550 build ... it still might be the next thing on my list even though its up for sale ... actually im in the middle of trying to think my way into not buying it...

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=169
 
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dualsmp

dualsmp

Golden Member
Aug 16, 2003
1,627
45
91
To the OP, some libraries rent KAW so you might call around to see if they are available. Also you can get a KAW for under $20 if you check slickdeals.net. Mine was $17.50 shipped at supermediastore when they ran a special.
 
mpilchfamily

mpilchfamily

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2007
3,559
1
0
A Kill-A-Watt is a nice item to have. It doesn't cost allot and can give you a good idea of your power usage around the house but isn't all that great for monitoring PC power usage.

I use mine to help me control a home built soldering station. I have a dimmer and wall recetical in a box that plug into the wall. I then have the Kill-A-Watt in the receptical and the soldering iron plugged into that. Then as i adjust the dimmer i can see about how many watts the iron is pulling and have better control of my soldering.
 
A

AkumaX

Lifer
Apr 20, 2000
12,647
4
81
actually i thought the point of a KAW is to get measures of how long you've plugged in all those appliances to your wall socket (along w/ the fluctuating of idle/load) :D

plugged into my power strip, is a comp + 1 lcd + 1 hdtv lcd (both hooked up to my compy) + a phenom II X4 @ 3.0ghz (running 24/7)

i recently had a power outage about 5 days ago, so the KAW restarted. but i can tell you, the meter right now has been keeping track for the past 55 hours, and i've used about 9140 watts of energy (or, on average, 166w/hour), and @ $0.12/kwh, has costed me $1.08 on the lowest tier :p
 
F

Farfrumhumpn

Banned
Nov 22, 2009
210
0
0
Gillbot said:
that's assuming you could fine someone to be the "handler", which IMHO would be tough to do. They basically have to ship this thing all the time and check it when it gets back for nothing.
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Well, ideally, the person that would handle this at the start would only be buying then shipping them to the first people that would be starting the use. From there it would make more sense for them to go from one person straight to the next person on the list.
 
D

dmw16

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2000
7,608
0
0
For something that is so inexpensive (~$25) it hardly seems worth the trouble.
 
Engineer

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
dualsmp said:
To the OP, some libraries rent KAW so you might call around to see if they are available. Also you can get a KAW for under $20 if you check slickdeals.net. Mine was $17.50 shipped at supermediastore when they ran a special.
Click to expand...

Mine was $14.99 shipped. Slickdeals.net. Don't remember the store though.
 
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