TrickleStar TS2001 Plug-in Energy Monitor. Display instant energy consumption in Watts, Cost, CO2

Works, basic no thrills monitor

As described

I started tracking loads in the house in order to size a backup generator. I made lots of assumptions based on online generator sizing tools, but I thought I should measure them myself. Boy am I glad I did! Online says a refrigerator is 700W, but this monitor measured it at around 150W!!! Same with the deep freeze, the TV, and a bunch of other things. Unless this Trickle Star monitor is grossly inaccurate, it may have saved me from buying a wildly oversized generator.I deducted one star for a few reasons:1. Is it actually accurate? I don't know, I don't have an energy meter to measure the accuracy of the energy meter.2. The display is not backlit. Not a big deal but mildly annoying.3. And probably the most important to me, is that it has no min/max tracking to capture fluctuations in power that you won't see if you're not watching it constantly. I'd like to know what the max power of the fridge is when the motor kicks on, or when the autodefrost heating element is on. I know this tool is meant to help people watch their overall energy usage, but a simple min/max tracker would be extremely helpful.

Excellent! Plug in energy monitor! Immediate viewable energy monitoring results!!!

According to the description and the manual, this device is expected to show accumulated historical usage, which would be very welcome feature to estimate device's cost per month especially for the devices that work by intervals, like refrigerator. But it does not work like that. It shows only instant consumption (which is then multiplied by day or month if you select that), but in order to see true accumulated consumption for a month for a device that is not on all the time, you would have to leave it plugged in for a month. Here's from my correspondence with their Tech Support:----------------------------------Me: Dan, sorry for being annoying, but in the manual I read the following: "Note: The Energy Monitor reads your appliance’s energy usage continuously while your appliance is on and off, and calculates the estimated energy information based on real time and historical measurements. We recommend you leave the Energy Monitor measuring an appliance for several use cycles, to obtain a more accurate estimate"------------------------------------This look exactly as I want – one estimate based on several cycles. How to achieve that?Response:I have not had success with the historical estimate through Energy/Cost. For your purposes, I think Energy Count is the best way to go.Dan Richardson | Operations ManagerI should note that this monitor has some features that are hardly expected from energy monitor: one is countdown, with the monitor being able to cut off the energy after time interval; another is surge protection.Overall, the device leave wondering about state of mind of those who designed it and wrote the manual.

It works well!

Using this to monitor a chest freezer. Instructions on all features is lacking in detail, needs a rewrite. The energy count feature is especially confusing, even a call to their tech support didn't clarify it. Base unit has a too-bright glowing green "protection” bar, but the display lacks a backlight, which is sorely needed.

It's a nice idea for a watt meter with a detachable screen and easy to use. But the kwh wasn't accurate, it kept giving me same readings for different appliances. Returned