Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor |  | Brand: Black & Decker
Category: Home Improvement
List Price: $99.99
Buy New: $57.97
as of 7/30/2010 11:59 PDT details
You Save: $42.02 (42%)
New (14) Used (4) from $57.97
Seller: Drills for Bills
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 243
Color: Black & Orange
Media: Tools & Hardware
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 8.4 x 4.3
Legal Disclaimer: We do not in any way represent that any part we sell is legal to possess in your jurisdiction. Check with you local authorities to ensure it is legal for you to possess before buying!
MPN: EM100B
Model: EM100B
UPC: 885911099653
EAN: 0885911099653
ASIN: B001ELJKLE
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Energy consumption monitor easily tracks energy usage minute by minute | | • | Completely wireless system allows for easy installation and use | | • | Displays energy use in kilowatts and dollars | | • | Includes wireless, weatherproof sensor and indoor monitor | | • | Requires 4 AA batteries; covered by 2-year warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Go green and save money on energy costs with the Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor. This compact, easy-to-install device lets you track the amount of electricity that your household uses--and the costs of that usage--in real time. This monitor can help you reduce your energy consumption and decrease your monthly bills while helping the environment.  | The Energy Saver Series
EM100B Power Monitor: - Displays electricity use in your home, minute by minute, in dollars or kW
- Shows month-to-date bill and predicted monthly bill
- Also shows day, time, and outside temperature
- Helps households stick to their energy budgets and save money
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The Energy Saver Series Power Monitor is easy to install and easy to use. View full diagram. | 
Click to view the power monitor compatibility guide.
| Simple Installation: No Wiring Required
Getting started is as easy as mounting the sensor to your outdoor electric meter, aligning it, and synchronizing the sensor with the cordless monitor. Once this is done, you can track real-time usage from a convenient, indoor location. The results are immediately available and can help you to make smart energy-consumption choices. You'll quickly discover that doing the little things really does add up to big savings. The monitor's easy-to-read digital display shows your current energy usage in dollars, so you don't have to perform tricky calculations to understand what the readings mean. It also shows you the outdoor temperature, so you can account for heat used on cold mornings, and it displays your month-to-date usage along with an estimate for your upcoming bill. This advanced feature can work with any type of billing rate, including flat rate billing, separate peak and off-peak rates, or tiered billing structures. Track Little Changes that Become Big Savings
A convenient appliance mode feature allows you to track minute-to-minute changes in electric consumption as major appliances are turned on and off, so you can see where your money is going. This makes it easy for you to decide, for instance, which electrical appliances and accessories are really worth their cost, and which of your older appliances are costing you more money than they're worth. You can also quickly tell how much you save by switching to compact florescent light bulbs or instituting other conservation measures in your home. Once you have the Energy Saver Series Power Monitor set up, you'll be surprised how quickly the everyday choices you make in your electrical consumption add up. In fact, lifestyle changes based on the information your family gets from this monitor can save you up to 20 percent a month on your electric bills. Enjoy Durability and Widespread Compatibility
The weatherproof sensor at the heart of this system is designed to handle tough winters, humid summers, and everything in between, so you can rely on it for year-round accurate performance. This power monitor is designed to work with 90 percent of current electricity meters, including those with visible rotating wheels, those with single optical ports, and some models with dual optical ports. What's in the Box
Cordless monitor station, weatherproof sensor, one shim, and one alignment guide.
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| | Families that use the Power Monitor to change their behavior and save energy can reduce their electricity bill by up to 20 percent. |
Product Description
Black & Decker's Power Monitor is the instant and easy way to help control your energy consumption.
This easy-to-use device tells you - in real time - the amount of electricity you're using, as you use it!
The Power Monitor consists of two parts - a wireless transmitter that easily attaches to your electric meter, and a wireless handheld device that uses data from your electric meter to display information about your energy consumption.
Using information about your electric rates, you can track minute-by-minute changes in electric consumption as major appliances are turned on and off. Take control of electric bills and save up to 20% a month!*
*As documented in published research using similar feedback devices.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
 Wow what a great device for managing your power "Footprint" September 24, 2008
Charles Evans (North Carolina)
84 out of 91 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1AGE43H483VMW I a very impressed with the Black and Decker Power Monitor. It is a perfect tool in helping you determine how much energy you are using each day. While I would not buy this device in order to "save" money (it will take many months for your to recoup the cost on the energy monitor) however, it is a great way to fid out how much energy your house uses.
Examlple - when my air condition comes on I see that I pull an additional 3000W which translates into about 0.20 cents per hour. Leaving my kitchen lights on is about 200W or about 2 cents an hour. The Black and Decker Power monitor makes it easy to track your energy footprint and what are your big energy items.
If you want to save "money" my suggestion is to replace your incandescent lights with flourescent (or however it is spelled) this will save you about 30%. However, if you want to find modest savings while reducing your unneeded energy consumption this is the item for you. 5 stars
PS - installation is not "Easy" but it can be done with the use of some trial-and-error... budget about an hour.
Did You Know Your Electric Meter Has an Optical Port with an LED Constantly Tramsmitting Your Electrical Usage? Check It Out. October 29, 2008
Bob Feeser (Springfield, PA USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
There are 3 different types of electrical meters. Even the old dial style has an optical post on the face. Type 3 meters has one on the top. Look for a small round protruding pipe which is an optical port with an LED (Light Emitting Diode) in it. It is constantly transmitting your real time electrical usage. Why not tap into that resource, and be able to go through your home with a hand portable receiving unit, which also has a snap on desktop base, so you can monitor usage on the fly.
The refrigerator kicks on and you can instantly see what a difference that makes in your dollars, or Kw usage. Maybe the old fridge is costing you more per month in electricity than the payments for a new more efficient one, or maybe not? How do you know? Black and Decker Power Monitor to the rescue. It even does the calculations for you. Input the numbers off of your electrical bill once, and wah lah, you have the dollars and cents of it show up right on your screen.
Setting it up seems like a few minutes, but in reality it takes you more like an hour, but everything is easy. The instruction manual takes you through it with illustrations.
1) This is how you strap the sensor to your outside meter; including how to get it centered over your optical out LED. Once centered the sensor starts to blink, and then you tighten it down; done.
2) Then you want to determine your billing mode; peak/off peak, tiered, or flat rate billing, and the billing individual rates, which are printed in a column on your electrical bill; for example, generation charges 0.06840 + transitions charges .00560, plus distribution, and transition charges. If you add up all of those individual rates, the total sum is your total cost per kilowatt hour; then multiply that by 100 and you get your "billing rate". Keep that number handy for when you program your main unit, they refer to as your digital display.
Other than that all you need is your "Power factor", which is a number printed on the meter; e.g. usually 7.2Kh for an electro-mechanical meter, or 1.0Kh for an electronic meter. You can go outside and see what yours says; it is printed on the face.
So armed with your "Billing rate" number, and your "Power factor" printed on your meters face, you simply hit the program sync button on the top of the digital display, and enter the information when it asks you for it, as well as the day of the week, and the time, and your done. The manual walks you through all of this step by step.
The first time you go through the setup, as you read each part, you will say, "Oh I see". After you do one, you will say, "I could install another one of these in less than 3 minutes".
The Power Monitor will show you; Your current electrical usage, the usage of a single electrical appliance, your accumulated electricity usage over an hour, a day, or any time period, and your estimated monthly usage.
So to summarize; you may be using some devices like a small electric space heater in a bedroom, that you discover is consuming $50 per month worth of electricity, and you computer monitor plus a couple of light bulbs are only drawing 1 or 2 cents per hour. It is all at your fingertips. With the 2 double A battery driven digital display, you can sit in your armchair, and continually know what the total per penny/per hour usage is costing you. If someone is using something that costs you a fortune, within 30 seconds (the refresh results rate) of when they turn it on you know it. On the other hand you know when to not sweat the small stuff, and just what that small stuff is.
I don't know whether to place this in the "something for somebody who already has everything" category, or something for the frugal who want to put a lid on wasteful spending. Month after month, year after year amounts can really add up, especially if you don't know where the leaks are. For the latter it will more than pay for itself after a few months. Overall highly recommended. Well designed, engineered, and setup is a breeze as long as you do it one step at a time.
Unbelievably easy to set up, accurate estimates, will save you money! October 24, 2008
Modern Blue Argonaut
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've been using this for about a month now and have been very impressed since day 1 with the usefulness of this power monitor. If you are looking to get a handle on what things in your house cost to run (hot water heater, air conditioner, dishwasher, entertainment center) this is a great gadget to get a handle on actual costs. Additionally, the outside temperature meter has come in useful this Fall here in Florida. I'm able to see when the temperature dips to a comfortable level so I can turn off the air conditioner and open the windows. I can now hear my neighbors air conditioners kicking on and off all day while my windows stay open with a cool breeze blowing around the house.
I am on a tiered system here, the first 1000 kWh are billed at 9.9 cents per kWh and above 1000 kWh I'm billed at 11.9 cents per kWh, so I just input 10.9 to keep things simple. I generally stay around 1000-2000 depending upon the season, and August as usual finished up on the high end.
I found out that when the water heater or air conditioner are running it costs me about 50 cents per hour. Of course, they don't run for nearly an hour at a time, but it was interesting to find out that these are the biggest energy black holes in my house. The washer and dryer surprisingly used far less energy, about 12 cents per hour each. Fans and lighting were less than a penny, even when all were turned on at the same time. I do use General Electric 97659 13-Watt (60 Watt equivalent) Energy Smart Soft White Spiral T3 Light Bulb 6-Pack throughout the house, including bathroom vanities, overhead spotlighting, lamps, outdoor lighting, and even our dining room chandelier with upturned lamps. I switched over to CF bulbs completely over a year ago and estimate that alone saves me over $20 per month.
Knowing the outside temperature allowed me to open the windows sooner and has probably saved me $40 over the past month. More than those things though, just being aware of what various things cost to run by isolating them through the tare function has motivated my children to turn off their lights, stereos, TVs, and more to keep costs down.
This tool brings real world costs to the appliances and other electrical items we run daily without any guesswork.
Although the cost is a bit high, I would expect that you could easily see the cost savings in under a year. It's fun to experiment and see what the washer costs to run using cold vs. using warm/hot. Running it with cold water is a huge cost savings because you are no longer running the hot water heater as well as the washer. That is something I had never really given much thought to in the past. I haven't done a cost comparison, but I expect that it's less expensive to buy cold water detergent and run your washer on cold rather than normal detergent and running your washer on warm.
I will caution you though that the batteries run out fast! We put rechargeable batteries in and within 2 weeks they needed recharging. The manufacturer recommends lithium batteries for longer battery life.
If you are looking for an energy monitor, a competing product is the P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor. I have both. The Kill A Watt was useful, but now that I have the Black and Decker EM100B, I no longer use the Kill A Watt. The Kill A Watt is limiting in that many products, especially the big energy hogs do not have traditional plugs or are in hard to reach areas, so not everything can be measured. Additionally, the Kill A Watt takes time to monitor your energy usage, and only monitors one appliance at a time, so it would take months to move it around the house to gauge everything.
Spend the extra money and get the Black and Decker EM100B. You'll have instant results, power usage estimates, cost estimates, and individual appliance cost of operations.
This Thing Rocks! October 27, 2008
Thomas W. Dwelle (Northern California)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have a Blue Line power monitor. They look so much alike, that I'd suspect they are both made by the same manufacturer. Anyway, my pet peeve with my power bill is that it's like a credit card. Once a month you say ouch and then forget about it. This thing is a constant reminder. My wife bought in immediately. It lives in the center of our house and the wife and I reference it constantly. Instant gratification. Turn off the air conditioning and watch the # get smaller.
I don't have teenagers, but I suspect that they would buy into this thing.
I used 30% less Kilowatts this summer. My power bills have a tiered rate system, so the actual $ savings was more than 50%. Paid for itself this summer. Now it's all gravy and I've got a much better understanding of my power usage.
I was without it for 24 hours (didn't have new batteries to put in the sending unit - yes it had been warning me for a week) and I felt naked.
Like my uncle said about his TIVO, there are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those with a power monitor and those who don't know about it yet.
FINALLY, a tool that makes Awesome sense! October 14, 2008
FLYingG0D (GLENDALE, AZ USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I better give a little more info on how this hooks up to your meter. The sensor straps on to your power meter with a hose-clamp. It doesn't look as horrible as that sounded. It looks cool. There is a sensor on an arm that sits over the spinning mechanical wheel on your meter, or over the little IR port on the meter. It works on many different styles of meter, which is something I was a little worried about.
The box and meter claims it will help you save money on power. Well, it will not directly save you money. It helps you see what things are using a WHOLE lot of power, so you can save money by knowing what things you should turn off or replace because they are costing a whole lot.
You will want to make sure your power meter is within 30 meters (if I remember correctly) of where you can use the remote hand-held unit. I was really worried it would have issues with my wireless networks, but this uses a 400 MHz range signal, so it works great along side my wireless devices, with no interference! That was relief!
I really have to say, this is the greatest power metering device I have found yet! I have been using other devices, that meter individual outlets, but have been wishing for this item for a long time now!
You can program it for your power plan, whether you have peak hours that cost more (like me) or a different plan structure. The meter shows you how many watts used (in kilowatts) with a 100 watt resolution. It will also show you how much power you are using by price, say, $1.20 per hour for instance. You can see how much your A/C is costing you when it turns on. It has a "Tare" button so you can temporarily set it to zero, and turn something on and see how much power that item is using, instead of doing the math.
The Meter sensor uses 2 'AA' batteries, and so does the hand-held unit. They can not be turned off, and run constantly, but I have been going for quite a long time on normal batteries. When you connect the unit, it starts metering from that point. It will not match your power bill exactly, unless you reset it at the time your meter gets read every month. I really love this handy tool!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
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