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Newegg has the Kill-A-Watt - Electricity Usage Monitor for $20 with free shipping with coupon code EMCMMML26 [Exp 11/16]. This electricity detector/monitor can help you reduce your monthly electric bill. With it, you can see how much power those pesky power adapters are sucking up even when your devices are not in use.
How long before this device pays for itself?
Why are these devices so expensive? It's just an amp meter.
I wonder how much power you burn to tell you how much power you're burning.
#2, care to show us a true RMA amp meter for $20? Seems like you have it backwards.
The real question is how many people really need one, seems like the first few hundred people who bought it could just get together and make a master list of devices' power consumption so the rest of us don't have to bother running around plugging and unplugging things to get measurements. I mean ballpark numbers, similar devices from different brands will still tend to use close enough to same power.
#4, search for a volt meter at amazon.com. Most volt meters can also read AC/DC currents and they are below $20.00. You can use them for other purposes too. Much cheaper than this single purpose current meter.
#5 you need to shunt the equipment to get the current flow w/ an amp meter, you cant exactly run your laser printer power across the leads on a $15 multimeter..
Unfortunately, no. You cannot measure different kinds of devices' power consumption with a non- True RMS meter. To put it nicely, you do not have enough knowledge or experience to be measuring mains outlet current yourself to not know this, please don't recommend to others what can be a potential safety issue, someone who knows what they're doing and has a true RMS meter would be someone who didn't need to be told they can use it.
Further, how did you plan on hooking the powered device, it's plug, the meter, and socket together? I suspect you have never done what you are suggesting, or if you have then it was either dangerous or you had need for some other additional parts to do it, and again it wouldn't be a valid reading unless it were a purely resistive load which many many things aren't.
Further, even if you're looking to buy a multimeter for other purposes, avoid the cheap junk at $20 and under. They aren't as safe, they aren't calibrated as well (if at all), they wear out faster and are more prone to general failure as well as being more of a hassle to use in general. A decent meter will last 20+ years, it's well worth investing in something nicer than a sub-$20 meter.
Just as with other equipment, or anything in life really, there's cheap junk and there's stuff worth a few bucks more. It need not be a top of the line Fluke or equivalent, there's a large gulf inbetween the cheapest and the best handheld meters that is filled by most multimeter models. On the other hand if you find a good sale, sometimes a minimally featured meter that's not total junk can be had for about $16-20 but they're usually over $20.
I'm not suggesting everyone needs a Kill-A-Watt meter, but if you do desire to measure AC line powered equipment and don't demand utmost accuracy (not very accurate for low single-digit # watts), then for the convenience and added safety of not having to fiddle with wires, outlets, etc to make a series circuit the Kill-A-Watt is worth the $20.
Mine's still in the package, if I can find it. Need to buy another.
When they gonna add 24 hours of memory and a usb port. Then it can capture a history I can load into excel and review. Like how often the fridge turns off and on.
#10, this thing has a lot more than 24 hours of memory. It keeps a log of attached-device power consumption until you reset it. So if you leave it on your fridge for two months, it will tell you exactly how much it thinks your fridge has cost you during that period.
Remember to put the meter on the PC so you can add-on how much power the PC used while you captured and reviewed it.
Measuring things like a fridge aren't very useful, who replaces a fridge that otherwise had much of it's life remaining in an attempt to save power when the replacement's cost may be more than cost of power saved, and it won't necessarily save energy in an absolute sense because it requires energy to manufacturer and transport the new one, and the old one to the landfill.
Besides that, a fridge has an energy sticker on it, you can directly compare these ratings instead of having to measure it yourself and unlike other electrical devices there is no option to just unplug a fridge you use in order to save some power, letting it get warm then plugging it back in to keep below a safe/spoilage temperature would use more power than keeping it on at the equivalent temp range.
The key to run a fridge more efficiently is keep the back coils as far away from the walls and side obstructions as possible, and keep it as full as possible. Fill empty spaces in the freezer with ice blocks, or more convenient is filling old 2-liter or gallon plastic jugs with water and freezing those. This will also provide a time-buffer to keep things chilled in the event of an extended power outage.
#1 If you are willing to buy one of these then your willing to give a try to save energy. Change all light bulbs with energy saving bulbs, Turn off all the computers that you don't use offen. If using Heaters, Try to use low setting or Med but not High if possible same with Air Conditioners. When doing Lanundry change habbits, do it after dark when it colder, use timers for porch, outdoors or motion sensor lights and ECT,ECT..
Personally, I did all above and save about 4 to 6 bucks a month sometimes more, I figur if you can save $4.00 a month it will pay off in 5 months. I really did'nt buy this for the electric bill, Basicly for my computers I like to see how much wattage it use and testing products. Overall not bad for 20 bucks I think,I paid 23 many years ago..
# 12. I had a garage fridge that somehow got frost in the insulation between the inner and outer wall. That frost conducted heat from the outside air into the fridge. Since it was in the garage I didn't notice how often it was running.
Finally I noticed rust and condensation on the outside surfaces. I could have spotted this months earlier before it got so bad if I had a history.
My fridges typically run 20 minutes per hour when not in a defrost cycle. More than that indicates various problems. Note, there are heating elements in the frame and ice maker. Spotting problems with all these various loads can be difficult but with some good history (plots over time) you can detect if something is wrong. Sometimes it is as simple as something wrinkling the freezer gasket.
I'm not looking for how much my phone charger draws, I want to know out of spec. problems. They are far worse than in spec. current draws.