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Seasonic PowerAngel Power Monitor Review

With the steady increase in energy costs, homeowners are now becoming conscious of the appliances that they keep on. But how much are you saving, for example, by turning off your monitor rather than allowing it to go into standby-mode? Most of us would rather not hook up a digital multi-meter to determine the difference in the amount of energy a monitor would in either case. Fortunately for you, Seasonic has created the PowerAngel Power Monitor to help determine power-wasting appliances.

Company:

Sea Sonic Electronics Co. LTD, www.seasonicusa.com

Price:

$34.50 US at Newegg.com

Getting Started

Seasonic’s PowerAngel is a meter that will monitor the consumption of any AC power appliance up to 1875w. It is able to read various power specifications such as Voltage, Current, Watt, Frequency, Power Factor, VA, and accumulated kWh and duration. All this information is viewed real-time via the large LCD display.

Now that we know what the PowerAngel can do, let’s see how it works. In the UA labs, we have a rack with the following items:

• Dell 400SC
• Visiontek 17” Monitor
• HP Deskjet 990C
• Netgear FSM726S 24 Port Switch
• Netgear FR114P Firewall/Router
• Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router
• Actiontek DSL Modem

Click on picture to enlarge image

We’ve been wondering how much it has been costing to leave this setup on 24 hours a day rather than shutting it all down when we’re gone. Using the PowerAngel’s feature to determine overall kW consumed, we divided it by the duration we left it metering. If there was a downside to this product, this would be it as you have to do some simple math to determine the actual Kilowatts per hour that is consumed. Once you have this number, you multiply it by 24 (as there are 24 hours per day) and this gives you the actual kWh.

.82 (kHW Accumulated) / 375 (metering duration in minutes) = .002187 (kW per minute consumed)

.002187 (kW per minute consumed) x 60 (minutes) = .1312 (kWh consumed)

.1312 (kW consumed per hour) x 24 (hours) = 3.1488 (kW per day consumed)

Now that we know that every 24 hours, all the above hardware uses 3.1488kW. Now that does sound like a lot, but how much is it costing to keep it all running? To determine this, you will need to have your power bill to determine how much you are charged for each kW.

3.1488 (kW per day consumed) x .0603 (local cost per kW) = .189

So after all it is said and done, it is costing us almost 19 cents per day, or $6.79 in a 30 day month.

Specifications

• Dimension: 133.6 (L) x 70.0 (W) x 39.6 (H) mm
• Weight: 130 grams<
• Approvals: ETL for US and Canada
• Model number: SSM-1508RA
• AC Input: 115 V, 50/60 Hz
• Maximum Voltage: 125 V, 50/60 Hz
• Maximum Current: 15 A
• Maximum Power: 1875 VA<
• Accuracy: 2%<
• Warranty: 6 months<
• Power Consumption: 10 W max.
• Operating environment: 0~40°C, 80% relative humidity

Adding It All Up

Overall, Seasonic has come out with an excellent product that has endless uses. From determining which appliances and hardware are costing us money to keep on, to which big screen TV is the most energy efficient. The money you save by knowing where your energy is going will pay for PowerAngel over and over!

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