Buy Watts Up? Pro ES USB Electrical Meter With Software and 120000 Record Memory - Watts Up 82756Watts Up? Pro ES USB Electrical Meter With Software and 120000 Record Memory - Watts Up 82756 Product Description:
Product Description
Electronic Educational Devices 82756 Electronic Educational Devices Watts Up? Pro ES USB Electricity Meter With Software and 120000 Record Memory.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Household Power Analyzer
By C. Detter
(4.5 stars) The PRO ES power analyzer met all the advertising claims and, using a laptop, provides an excellent window in to the power consumption characteristics of household appliances. It is a moderately priced power analyzer that displays the basic power characteristics of whatever you plug into it. I am using it with Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop, so it should run even better on your Windows XP machine!I haven't actually used the buttons on the front of the unit; the really cool stuff is found in the Watts UP USB and Watts Up Real Time software. Both applications sample power data at 1 second intervals for the appliance plugged into the PRO ES unit. Each sample is stored in a row of a spreadsheet within the Table tab of the application as it is received. The Graph tab provides a line graph of user-selected power measurements as described in Amazon's product description. Both allow access to the PRO ES's settings (sample rate, $/KWhr, etc.). Both applications stopped sampling after about 30 minutes, but I have not investigated the reason. Both provide good Help files which explain the unit's functions.The Watts Up USB Data Logger application is available without charge from [....] . Due to Windows Vista Data Execution Prevention, I had to download it on a different computer an sneak it in the back door of my laptop (USB memory stick). What a country!The optional $70 Watts Up Pro Datalogger application adds timers to the applications so you can take power measurements at a specified time or on a specified schedule. It also adds an alarm function, which can provide visible, audible, and email alert when any of the measured data (amps, volts, watts, etc.) rises above or dips below a specified threshold. There is no manual enclosed, but the Help is good as noted above.The enclosed manual is brief (two 8.5"x11" pages). Accuracy is described as: "+/- 1.5% + 3 counts. Below 60 watts, amps and power factor accuracy degrades." The half-star deduction was for lack of technical documentation (circuit diagram, device fuse replacement, how calibration is maintained)It does not measure harmonic distortion, so it will not help you diagnose power quality problems or impacts caused by harmonics introduced by the appliance being tested. It does claim to measure true RMS power without providing details. It also provides apparent power (VA) and power factor, so reactive power (VAR) can be calculated.Here's some measurements:"60W" Compact Fluorescent bulb: 12.5 Watts"100W" Compact Fluorescent bulb: 22.4 WattsTivo: 10.5 watts in use, 5.5 watts standby5-disc DVD carousel: 45 watts in use32" JVC 1995 TV: 50 watts idle, 75 watts with blue screen, 75-105 watts in use. Power peaks during bright scenes, dips in dark scenes. Speaker volume doesn't make any measureable difference.Clock radio: 5 watts idle, 7.5 watts listening to FM radio1500W space heater: 21 watts fan only, 754 watts on Low, 1463 watts on Max.The data can be stored to a tab-delimited .txt file and imported into Excel using the Text-to-Columns wizard. It can also be copied and pasted directly from either Watts Up application into Excel. The graph can be sent to a printer.If you have some electrical training and you are curious about the actual power consumuption profile of devices up drawing up to 15A (1800W), this unit and your laptop will make a nice power analyzer. For me, it did everything I wanted with a simple data export function and good presentation.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.Excellent Value - Pros/Cons to Watts Up Meters
By Neil E. Isenberg
This review is for the "Watts Up?" metersPROS:------(1)Excellent Current Wattage, Cumulative Watt Hours, and Max/Min Watts measurement EVEN AT LOW WATTAGE (<5w, <10w) when Amp measurement error increases.Wattage is furthermore measured 2,500 times per second regardless of how frequently you choose to log. Thus Cumulative Watt Hours and Max/Min Watts figures are going to be fairly accurate regardless of your log frequency.(2)The ability to position the meter at a COMFORTABLE READ POSITION and fit the plug into tight spots is very nice.(3)It has a measurement available called POWER CYCLE which counts up each time power is lost/regained, which of course if not accounted for could greatly affect accuracy.(4)It automatically puts the information into its own built in spreadsheet making my CUT AND PASTE INTO EXCEL easy. Of course it creates a delimited text file for import, too.(5)Found the meter EASY TO LEARN AND USE, and the software took at most 5-10 minutes to learn.(6)Most expected values tracked, though most folks will perhaps be mostly interested in:- Cumulative Watt Hours- Current Watts- Power Cycle (which tracks if power went off during measurement).Others measures: Min/Max Watts, Power Factor, Volt Amp (apparent PWR), Avg Mthly Kwh, Elapsed Time, Duty Cycle, Frequency (Hz), Cumulative Cost, Avg Mthly $, Line Voltage, Min/Max Volts, Current Amps, Min/Max Amps.CONS/SUGGESTIONS:--------------------- Please add a built-in clock like most other data loggers. Right now you note down the start or end time of the sampling and enter it in the program, or just put it into your spreadsheet as I do, however, a product like this should have a built-in clock to date/time tag the log. I will raise it to 5 stars when time logging is added.- More records storage would be nice. I'd like to sample with 10 second frequency for over a week, for example.TECH SUPPORT:---------------I called twice with a few questions, their tech support was both FRIENDLY and TECHNICALLY KNOWLEDGEABLE.NOTES:-------- To increase the logging points and thus the time it has to log, reduce the variety of measured values (for example, to just Cumulative Watt Hours, Current Watts, and Power Cycle).- If you didn't note it from above, the Current Watts is an instantaneous measure, it isn't using the 2,500 samples/sec data that the cumulative watts and min/max watts are using.GET TO KNOW THE OTHERWATTS PRO METERS:-------------------------I suggest reviewing all models of the Watts Up line-up on their website before choosing a model. The models are:- Watts Up?- Watts Up? Pro- Watts Up? Pro ES- Watts Up? .NetI think of the "Pro" version as a sweet spot in the line-up. There are 4 models (listed above), 1 below it and 2 above it feature-wise. I would assume anyone interested in this kind of product would want at least the "Pro"'s features.If you expect to measure power that is either (A) sourced from an inverter sometimes or (B) affected by the source or environment by extreme levels of line noise, then you probably want the ".Net" model version (or for the latter buy a line filter). It has more shielding, more strategic separation of components, etc. If you have a problem with either case you will know right away as the data will go bonkers in an obvious way, I'm told.The "Pro ES" and ".Net" models store 4x the records of a "Pro" (120,000 vs. 30,000). For example, if you wanted to only track Cumulative Watt Hours, Current Watts, and Power Cycle then you can save 40,000 data points (120,000/3). With 1,440 mins and 86,400 secs in a day, you can determine which you need. Remember that the Cumulative Watt Hours and Min/Max Watts calculation is always based on the 2,500 samples/sec no matter the logging frequency.SUMMARY:----------Highly recommend these meters if they meet your needs.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Watt's Up with no onboard clock?
By sbdoug
This product works reasonably well if you want to know how much energy a specific appliance or piece of equipment is using, but pretty useless for trying to monitor any kind of short term power fluctuations. You would think that when they we designing a $175 meter, they could have included a 98¢ clock chip to provide some accurate time stamping on the data samples. Instead it relies on a kind of hinky software patch to address this problem. When you are looking to match this meter's data log with another log, say from a UPS, this software time stamp kludge is just not accurate enough.So if you just want to know how much your refrigerated is costing you to run or how much juice your TV is drawing when it's turned off this is a good choice. If you want to find out why the UPS connected to your computer switches to batter every couple minutes, forget about it.
Latest Price: See on Amazon.com!
More Info: See on Amazon.com!
See Customers Review: See on Amazon.com!
