Ooooh, buttons. You have to have a love for gadgets to consider adding a power strip with a computer inside.
Combine a surge suppressor with the features of a multimeter, and you’ll get the Kill A Watt. This eight-outlet power strip displays real-time details about the current flowing from the wall to your gadgets. Stats geeks can monitor data about amps, volts, watts, leakage, and more. And casual users can keep track of kilowatt-hours to see exactly how much a beefed-up Mac Pro costs to operate. The Kill A Watt power strip fulfills its duties, but there are a few shortcomings.
First, you’ll have to clear some room—the Kill A Watt takes the space of a couple standard power strips. We like the clearance on two of the outlets for bulky power adapters, but we wish we could fit more oversize plugs.
The Kill A Watt’s glowing On and Off buttons work the same as any other surge suppressor, and the clear LCD shows stats in either mode. A blue backlight makes the numbers easy to see in dark rooms, so you can easily track current, voltage, amperage, wattage, and kilowatt-hours.
We liked using the watt and kilowatt-hour measurements to calculate the actual cost to run our computers. For example, a fully loaded Mac Pro and LCD monitor draw between 275 and 300 watts for average tasks and 14 watts when sleeping. While charging, a MacBook takes 40 to 50 watts in regular use and about 16 when asleep. With a full charge, we measured about 33 watts drawn while working and an immeasurable amount while sleeping.
Unfortunately, Kill A Watt adds up the power draw to all devices, so we couldn’t track the cost of just an iPod charging while also running our Mac Pro. And instead of slowly adding up the kilowatt-hour totals, we wanted to enter our local electricity rate to see the actual dollar costs. If you want to do the same, you’ll have to bring your own calculator.
We found a few dumb corners on this smart power strip. But for some users, the novelty of being able to track electrical minutiae will outweigh the gadget’s limitations.
Tracks real-time and saved data about amps, volts, watts, leakage, and more. Provides surge protection and other safety features. Lets advanced users throttle maximum amps
Boxy shape noticeably bigger than other power strips. Room for only two oversize plugs. Can’t input your electric rate for results in dollars. Adds up all devices instead of showing per-outlet stats.
mikes
July 28, 2009 at 3:31pm
That is the real example of the fact that technology is progressing. What a product! I saw a similar product that was used by a member from Dallas Electricians. This is a real commercial product made for professionals.
