image: DIY Kyoto Wattson
The DIY Kyoto Wattson will reveal how much electricity your home is using

Review: DIY Kyoto Wattson peripheral

Know how much energy every electrical appliance in you house uses? Wattson does

Written by Simon Williams, Computeract!ve

Larger Image

Verdict:

Good points

  • Easy to set up and use
  • Colour energy display
  • Can plot usage over time

Bad points

  • Expensive compared with conventional energy meters
  • Cost display is not much use

Overall An effective smart energy meter, which doubles as a conversation piece in smart homes.

Rating:

4

Price:

£150

Saving energy has two good purposes: not only does it reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emited from power stations, but it also saves you money.

To do the job properly, though, you need to know how much energy each appliance in your home uses, which is a job for which Wattson is designed.

Advertisement

Wattson is a smart energy meter, with some useful extra features that separate it from most of the competition.

There are three main components: a sensor that clamps around one of the mains electricity cables coming into your domestic meter, a transmitter that attaches to the sensor and a display unit to be positioned anywhere within transmission range.

With its retro white and black acrylic case, the display unit has a faint hint of the kind of box electronics hobbyists used to use for home-grown projects, which adds a nostalgic touch to the product.

There's no obvious display or meter on the box. Instead, a row of five pink digits (which can show letters and numbers) is displayed through the Wattson's white acrylic top, showing either the current power use in watts or kilowatts or, with a quick flick of the unit, your electricity costs for the year if you were to continue running the home with exactly the same energy use. This is unlikely - energy use changes with days and with seasons - so the cost display is not hugely useful.

A bank of red and blue lights underneath the display also changes colour, depending on the power consumption. From blue to purple to red, you can see at a glance how energy hungry your home is.

The display unit uses rechargeable batteries so it can be carried around the house, and so it's possible to unplug appliances in turn to check how the energy use changes as different things are in use. It can also be connected to a PC using the supplied USB cable and by downloading the Holmes software (see the name connection?) from the DIY Kyoto website, you can plot energy use over days, weeks or months to make a graph of savings. The main problems is that you'll need to like the look of Wattson as a design installation as well as an energy meter to justify its relatively high price.

Vista compatible: Yes

See more Gadgets

Tags:

Reader comments

More from Computeractive

News

The latest home computing news

Downloads

The best PC tools, applications and more

Reviews

Independent opinions on new hardware and software

Step-by-step guides

Easy-to-follow projects with pictures

PC Help

Solve PC problems with our Q&A

Videos

PC projects demonstrated and product reviews

Articles

An in-depth look at how to get the best from your PC

Magazine

What's coming up in Computeractive

Forums

Get help with your PC problems from our readers

Competitions

Your chance to win computing prizes

Shopping

Great deals on products, services and more

Computeractive CD Rom 10
All 26 issues of Computeractive from 2007 on one CD-Rom.

Ultimate Guide to PC Troubleshooting
Everything you need to know to solve your PC problems.

Driving Test Success
The UK's best-selling driving test software.

Computeractive Back Issues
Missed an issue? Click here to find a back issue

Compare prices now!

Save money on hardware and software with our price comparison service: Best Prices

Compare prices

Advertisement

Free email newsletters

Techno babble demystified...

[Display all definitions]

Or type in any computer-related word and click "Go"

Blogs

Windows Watch

Windows Watch

Keeping an eye on the latest XP and Vista news

Geek gender studies

17 Nov 2008We received a press release today advertising a new How to Be a Geek Goddess , by Christina Tynan-Wood , published by...

Download Junkie

Download Junkie

Your daily dose of download discussion

Secure your PC by referring to the official 'Get Safe Online' campaign

17 Nov 2008Use your computer online, even if it's to keep in touch with friends, and you run the risk of being a target...

The test bed

The test bed

The hottest products, news and gossip from PCW's Labs

AMD's roadmap steers clear of ultra-lights - but not the confusion

17 Nov 2008People at AMD must have very strong arms if, as we report today , they consider 2.27Kg to be ultraportable....

Primary Navigation

© Incisive Media Ltd. 2008. Incisive Media Limited, Haymarket House,
28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, is a company registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number 04038503

Search computeractive.co.uk