How to measure AC appliance surge wattage?

[Comenius]

Other than sitting and staring at a Kill A Watt and waiting for a surge to occur on an appliance such as a refrigerator, how can I measure the surge wattage of a plugged in AC appliance? Is there some other brand of wattage meter that I can leave sitting for a few days to record peak wattage and not just cumulative wattage over time?

 

[SCClockDr]

There are AC clamp meters that you can set to capture max current. the drawback to using them is they tend to average the inrush current over a short time & do not capture the instantaneous peak.
Here is one example https://www.amazon.com/Auto-Ranging...c+clamp+peak+multimeter&qid=1574015795&sr=8-4

 

[Steve_S]

Would be terrific if there was something like a Kill-A-Watt with logging capabilities you could access via phone/wifi or something. There are commercial units that do that but expensive as all heck or "Smart Panels" which are even more $. There are products from Schneider, Sense, Eaton etc but that's another game altogether.

I looked into an IoT Smartplug (version 2) from Samsung which could do it BUT their cellphone app demands 100% access to your phone and it's contents. Head Shaker ! The only thing they want that for is to sell your data, I think. But there is an interesting on IoT power/energy monitoring here: https://community.smartthings.com/t/power-energy-monitoring/107080/8

 

[jasonhc73]

Emporia VUE shows the spike.

Gen 2 Emporia Vue Smart Home Energy Monitor | Real Time 24/7 Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering | Track Circuits Without the Guesswork | 3-Phase Option sold separately - - Amazon.com

Gen 2 Emporia Vue Smart Home Energy Monitor | Real Time 24/7 Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering | Track Circuits Without the Guesswork | 3-Phase Option sold separately - - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

I have the 8 circuit module. But I seldom look at each circuit separately.

It is VERY easy to install.

Emporia VUE logs everything and saves it to the cloud in a CSV. My two-week file had 1.5 million entries.

 

[krby]

Would be terrific if there was something like a Kill-A-Watt with logging capabilities you could access via phone/wifi or something.

There is a community of Kill-A-Watt user modifications, but I've never looked at them in detail. Here's one that I've seen come up several times in the past: https://lowpowerlab.com/2012/12/28/wattmote-moteino-based-wireless-killawatt/

 

[Comenius]

These are all really interesting options, thank you!