LCD Energy meter

CataclysmZA

CataclysmZA

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I need some help from the forumites here at MyBB. I've searched through all the retailers I know and I'm looking for something like this:

energy-meter-setup.png


I need an energy meter. You may have seen an international brand sich as Kill A Watt with their LCD meters and some others just record to SD card. I need a basic one where I can just read power consumption and do my own calculations from there. Preferably somewhere online, although if someone knows a chain store that sells these kinds of things I may be able to make my way from there.

Thanks in advance, guys!
 
SouthBit said:
IIRC it was R600/R800ish
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Jesus, that's a lot more than what I was expecting.

Fudz, I don't want to do the BoB thing just yet. New is the better option for me since this is going to be used for reviews.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
I need a basic one where I can just read power consumption and do my own calculations from there.
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I'd wire a multimeter into a multiplug. Voltage is known so you just need amps which you can get from an inline multimeter DIY. For the 800 South quoted you can get a rocking multimeter that you can easily reuse.

FFS be careful though...its is enough juice to possibly kill you.

Also don't push to many amps through it. Most multimeter should be good for quite a bit, but if you ran half your house through it then it might become an issue. ;)
 
DX sells many cheap models (price includes free delivery to SA). I think they even have the same one in the BoB link (~$14) - the accuracy seems to be quite decent judging by the reviews.
http://dx.com/s/energy+meter
 
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I would vote for a tong tester they are cheap and easy to use
 
Get yourself a cheap clamp meter, it will give you a good idea of how much each appliance/PC etc is drawing. Got one for R120 the other day.
 
Nice GPS...I might just grab one of those.

SouthBit said:
Get yourself a cheap clamp meter, it will give you a good idea of how much each appliance/PC etc is drawing. Got one for R120 the other day.
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Isn't that dependent on the thickness of the cable though? I seem to recall that you need an adjustment factor for cable thickness...
 
Isn't that dependent on the thickness of the cable though? I seem to recall that you need an adjustment factor for cable thickness...
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Not that I have experienced. The only trick you need to do is to have the unit you are measuring hooked up in a certain way. It was a while ago so I forget exactly, let me try and find a picture...
 
Builders had a special on these for R220 a few weeks ago.
 
HavocXphere said:
Nice GPS...I might just grab one of those.


Isn't that dependent on the thickness of the cable though? I seem to recall that you need an adjustment factor for cable thickness...
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I think it needs to be one cable only.
 
I recall now what the issue was. I was talking to someone who told me they battle with the clamp units because you get different shapes of bus bars. SO if you have a large rectangular bus bar then the clamp doesn't fit & it screws the reading.

soz had issues confused.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, GPS nailed it and that's exactly what I was looking for. My PSU's already arrived for review, so I'll have to contact that retailer and see how quickly they can haul ass.
 
HavocXphere said:
I'd wire a multimeter into a multiplug. Voltage is known so you just need amps which you can get from an inline multimeter DIY. For the 800 South quoted you can get a rocking multimeter that you can easily reuse.

FFS be careful though...its is enough juice to possibly kill you.

Also don't push to many amps through it. Most multimeter should be good for quite a bit, but if you ran half your house through it then it might become an issue. ;)
Click to expand...

Voltage would need to be measured as well if you want any kind of accuracy. GP's mains voltage ranges from under 200V to over 240V depending on where you are and what the grid feels like on the particular day.

To avoid using a multimeter to measure amps on something, and this is how they do it on boats, you get this copper bar that has something like 1Ohm resistance, with a couple of points specified on either side where you are supposed to measure voltage drop, from which you can calculate the current. For the life of me I can't remember what you call these things, and obviously you want to be careful since it's effectively an exposed wire (so you want to seal this thing in a container of some form).

Honeywell manufactures a Hall-effect sensor that can measure current without any physical contact with the wire. Be prepared to fork out some cash for that one though.

You can also give Communica or someone similar a call and ask for prices on cheapo amp clamps. They do the same thing as the Honeywell hall-effect sensor but can handle lower currents (better sensitivity) and are often integrated into a multimeter. Should sort you nicely.
 
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Messugga said:
For the life of me I can't remember what you call these things, and obviously you want to be careful since it's effectively an exposed wire (so you want to seal this thing in a container of some form).
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Besides of safety, accuracy is very distorted, as you don't take into account phase (in case of pure sinusoidal) and in case of distorted shape, the scaling of the device. Most of multimeters are meassuring average voltage/current, which is scaled to RMS value for sinusoidal shape, not a true RMS value.
 
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