The Black and Decker Power Monitor tells you exactly how much power you are using at that the moment. The idea is to be able to better control your homes usage of power. And it helps keep anyone from blowing a fuse, or throwing a breaker.

If you are in a home, this monitor is great since you can place it within wireless range of your meter.

This handy device can also help you track back your energy foot print to determine which devices are using the most power.

To do this: Make sure that everything in your home is turned off initially. Totally off. Press the tare button and turn everything back on.

This device can be used, based on your input, to determine the charges for your power use. This may differ from your power bill due to fees added by your power company for other electrical related service charges. These charges supposedly can relate to costs incurred by some utility companies while managing pollution, among other things.

The power monitor is deigned to be mounted on the power meter with a circular metal adjustable band.

The power monitor can be mounted within sixty feet of the power meter. The device comes with a wall mount designed to house the hand held portion of the device.

The Black and Decker power monitor updates information every thirty seconds. The minimum reading possible is 300 watts in temperatures from 40° F to 140° F.

The power resolution is 100 watts. And the frequency this power monitor works on is 433.92MHz.

The sensor of the outdoor portion of this device goes right over the circular meter disk on the power meter.

The sensor will also need two double AA batteries.

After you install the batteries, press the reset button on the front of the sensor. This will cause it to start reading the circulating disk.

If you want to get the right results you will need to enter the correct info into the hand held or wall mounted half of the device.

Find out from your power company if they bill your address by time-of-use, flat rate, or tiered rate.

You will have to reset the count at the beginning of each billing period. To do this it is not necessary to turn everything off then back on again.

If you are living in a tiered rate area, then you will have to enter the tiered rate change when it comes about based on your usage at the point of each rate change.

Once you have all the relevant information input into this usage calculator the device will oscillate between displaying current accumulated charges, and gauging and estimate of what your monthly charges are going to be.

In the long run this device is useful for fine tuning your, or your house holds energy consumption habits. And over long periods of time the Black and Decker Power Monitor will start saving you money if your entire house hold adjust from the use of the monitor in order to cut back unnecessary energy consumption.