5

Fun With The Kill-A-Watt


Posted by Artem Russakovskii on December 15th, 2007 in Personal, Stuff

Updated: December 19th, 2007

If you haven't heard yet, there's a cool useful little device that you can buy for about $20, called the Kill-A-Watt. You plug it into the power outlet, then plug something into it and observe various fun facts about the plugged in device, such as the power consumption, voltage, amperage, etc. I started plugging things in and recording power consumption that you can see below. Here are the results I got so far (updated often):

  • Vizio P50 HDTV 50" plasma
    • standby: 0-1W
    • on – perfect white screen: 450W (OUCH!)
    • on – bright screen: 350-430W
    • on – medium brightness: 250-350W
    • on – dark scenes: 200-250W
    • on – perfect black screen: 185W
  • Torchiere floor lamp with a 300W bulb
    • 1st torchiere – on: 272W
    • 2nd torchiere – on: 305W
  • Cell phone charger
    • no phone, no LED: 0W
    • no phone, LED on: 0W
    • phone charging (Samsung A900): 3W
    • phone charged (Samsung A900): 0W
  • Dell 90W laptop charger
    • no laptop, LED on: 0W
    • laptop on, screen on, already charged: 33W
    • laptop on, screen off, charging: 74W
    • laptop on, screen on, charging: 85W
  • Revlon 1875W blow dryer
    • low cool setting: 192W
    • medium cool setting: 231W
    • high cool setting: 251W
    • low hot setting: 408W
    • medium hot setting: 644W
    • high hot setting: 1520W (HOLY SHIT! Blow drying your hair may just be the most expensive thing you can do. Don't you have some baby seals to club?)
  • Braun WK200B AquaExpress electric water kettle
    • on: 1430W (SHITx2! If you like to constantly reheat your tea kettle, like some people I know, maybe you should switch to a regular stovetop one)
  • Rowenta electric water kettle
    • on: 1465W
  • Plain 2 slot toaster
    • on: 950W (and 8 Amps! If everyone just gets rid of their kitchens, we will have an instant green paradise)
  • Honeywell 51000 air cleaner
    • on – low setting: 57W
    • on – high setting: 94W
  • Honeywell compact fan similar to this one
    • on – low setting: 28W
    • on – medium setting: 36W
    • on – high setting: 45W
  • Panasonic MC-V5710 vacuum cleaner (10A)
    • on – 900W (8A, guess it's getting old)
  • Norelco electric shaver
    • plugged in – charging: 3W
    • plugged in – in use: 0W (apparently, the shaver can't charge while being in use)
    • plugged in – charged: 0W (no overcharging is done when you leave the charge on for too long)

Got any requests? Post and I'll try to fulfill and publish them here.

● ● ●
Artem Russakovskii is a San Francisco programmer and blogger. Follow Artem on Twitter (@ArtemR) or subscribe to the RSS feed.

In the meantime, if you found this article useful, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee below.