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Which watt meter?

Tuckles

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Mar 27, 2021
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I have a Kill-0-Watt meter but is there one that records both the start and run wattage's for an appliance?
 
Fluke (and other brands as well), make amp clamp meters with inrush measurement on them:

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/blog/clamps/how-and-why-to-measure-inrush-current

In the above linked article, they show a Fluke 381 has the 'Inrush' measurement feature on it (as one example of a suitable device).

Then you can take amps x volts and calculate watts if desired.

These kinds of industrial style measurement tools have much faster sampling rates, a Kill-A-Watt is not designed to read quick changes in realtime. The right kind of oscilloscope using an inductive amp probe on one channel could also chart out amps/volts (using 2-channels) across time to give visual indication of inrush tapering to running draw.
 
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If you are wanting to measure surge current, this is relatively cheap and works well for me.


You can use the Kill-A-Watt to measure how much an appliance/device uses during normal running as well as during a day, week, or whatever for normal use. The surge measurement would tell you what type of startup current it uses, so you can plan accordingly.

I use this, because the basic Kill-A-Watt doesn't retain accumulated usage if you lose power. You can get an extra price Kill-A-Watt that does, but this is cheaper and serves the same purpose.

 
Fluke (and other brands as well), make amp clamp meters with inrush measurement on them:

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/blog/clamps/how-and-why-to-measure-inrush-current

In the above linked article, they show a Fluke 381 has the 'Inrush' measurement feature on it (as one example of a suitable device).

Then you can take amps x volts and calculate watts if desired.

These kinds of industrial style measurement tools have much faster sampling rates, a Kill-A-Watt is not designed to read quick changes in realtime. The right kind of oscilloscope using an inductive amp probe on one channel could also chart out amps/volts (using 2-channels) across time to give visual indication of inrush tapering to running draw.
Thanks for the reply and information!
 
If you are wanting to measure surge current, this is relatively cheap and works well for me.


You can use the Kill-A-Watt to measure how much an appliance/device uses during normal running as well as during a day, week, or whatever for normal use. The surge measurement would tell you what type of startup current it uses, so you can plan accordingly.

I use this, because the basic Kill-A-Watt doesn't retain accumulated usage if you lose power. You can get an extra price Kill-A-Watt that does, but this is cheaper and serves the same purpose.

Thanks for the reply. Do you know off hand if it records and holds the surge measurement and run measurement? I am alone and its hard to make some things cycle on while I watch a clamp meter. It would be great to find a Kill-A-Watt type of devise that would do this for a regular appliance like a refrigerator or freezer or 120v shallow well pump etc..
 
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