Subject:
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RE: Monitoring household power consumption
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.handyboard
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Date:
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Wed, 11 Nov 1998 19:51:00 GMT
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Original-From:
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Jeremy A. Green <jag@brownout.^AvoidSpam^com>
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Viewed:
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2417 times
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I purchased a power meter from Brand electronics. They have a few
different models. There is one that is suitable for measuring the costs of
one device and there is a larger one that has to be hardwired into your
house. Check out http://www.mint.net/~ebrand/
They are pretty nice little devices.
-Jeremy
> Actually, that little black band is a relic of earlier days when people
> (like myself) had jobs that occasionally required them to sit with a
> stopwatch and count turns. A slide rule was then used to calculate power
> consumption. Each meter had a unique "meter factor" which entered into the
> equation. You actually might not have such difficulty using an LED
> emitter/detector pair to count turns if you shield the meter from ambient
> light. Of course, if you remove the glass dome to get closer to the disk
> the power company will send the sheriff...
>
> The problem with the meter disk is it only spins fast if you are using a lot
> of power, so if you want to track individual small appliances you would have
> to run them a really long time with everything else unplugged. Remember,
> many devices like TV's , radios, doorbells, stoves, ovens, HVAC, and
> telephones, or anything with a built-in battery charger or clock, or
> anything that runs from a "wall wart" (AC adapter), or anything that uses
> refrigeration, or has a built-in microprocessor; will use power even when
> shut off. Just for the hell of it, turn off everything you can think of,
> then take a flashlight and go watch that disk...
>
> All of which is to say that finding the Circuit Cellar article referred to
> by Tom Brusehaver is a good idea. Presumably the article provides some way
> to convert the coil output to DC. You could also buy/borrow/rent a current
> meter or current probe for your multimeter if you own one. These use the
> same principle, except the toriod is hinged so you can snap it over the hot
> wire without having to disconnect anything. You can then make a power
> survey for each circuit in your house by snapping the meter over the
> relevant wires in your breaker panel. To run a long term survey for the
> whole house you need to make and calibrate your own coils. Note that if
> your house is wired in the normal way you need two.
_______________________________________________________________
Jeremy Green
jag@world.std.com jag@brownout.com
http://www.brownout.com mailto:jag@brownout.com
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