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diy solar

Can anybody recommend a watt meter please?

anadiner

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Aug 10, 2021
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Guy on youtube had one.
- Plugged in watt meter to inverter.
- Plugged appliance into watt meter.

- Turned appliance on.
- Displayed watts in real-time.
IE) He plugged in a frig. Showed watts as being used... startup watts as compressor kicked in then what it settled down to.

Wasted $20 on Amazon buying wrong thing.

Im looking for real-time usage not total consumption.
 
Which one did you buy? I thought that pretty much all of them show real time watt usage.
Most also show Hz, amps and accumulated amp hours or watt hours.
Laugh if u want, Im en electrical eng thats on net via a tiny $30 cell phone. I dont know how to copy and paste the url on this thing. LOL

Im saying mark this thread and I will try figure out how to post it.
 
Mine is in my kitchen. It gave me a much better idea how much power it takes to run a microwave, toaster, coffee pot, mixer.
Yes everything has labels but actually usage is an eye opener. I don't think a lot of people completely understand how much power they use at any given time.
 
Which one did you buy? I thought that pretty much all of them show real time watt usage.
Most also show Hz, amps and accumulated amp hours or watt hours.
My version here in ZA shows PF and Cost / kW and total cost over time as well as all the normal functions i.e. Amps , Watts (high and low) , kWh , Volts and Freq. Very nice tool for workshop.
 
Having power factor readout is useful on a wattmeter. Inverter and cabling losses are greater when you have poor power factor. Inverters, generators, and transformers losses are based on VA, not just watts. Appliances with electric motors, like refridgerators, well pumps, and air conditioners are most likely to have poor power factor.

For plug-in devices a Kill-A-Watt meter is good.

If looking for something to put on output of inverter look into a device like this. LED display version power consumption is about 150 mW. There are LCD versions that have less then 50 mW power consumption.

An inexpensive device based on Cirrus Logic CS5460A chip:

Power Factor AC meter 3_AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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