Power Measuring Device

[SoFarAndNear]

Does someone know where I can buy this in Thailand? I want to check how much watt one of my devices is using.

[Crossy]

Never seen them here, loads on eBay (where both mine came from), just make sure you get one for 220V and use plug adaptors.

I have this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120921025659?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 not the cheapest but it measures all sorts of parameters and ships to Thailand.

What is your device? Most have a rating plate informing of the power consumption.

[Pib]

Here's something you might want to consider to measure voltage/amps/power for your entire house if you are a DIYer electrical-wise...and since you can measure the whole house this means you can measure the amps/power of any individual item in the house.

It's a 300VAC/100A panel meter (1% FS accuracy) which comes with a paired Current Transformer (CT) to slip over a wire up to 15mm in diameter to measure current/amps and another connection to measure voltage. It's basically does the measurements of an AC voltmeter and a clamp-on ammeter.

OK, it reads voltage and amps...so how do I figure out watts. Well, Power (watts) = I (current/amps) times E (voltage)....or just remember PIE like you eat. Ex: if the meter reads 220V and 1.5A...then 220 times 1.5 = 330 watts.

Anyway, the Ebay link to the one I bought for less than $10 including free shipping from Hong Kong to Bangkok is listed below. I received it in less than two weeks. Many other Ebay sellers selling the same meter for around $10-$14 including free shipping but watch out as some of the meters are paired with a different CT which can only handle a wire diameter of around 10mm (i.e, the CT hole is smaller)

And believe it on not I ordered some $20 LED lights for my SUV from a Hong Kong Ebay seller very recently and received the lights in 6 days just via the standard air mail free shipping the seller used. No customs or VAT applied to any of my China/Hong Kong Ebay buys...but all buys have been small baht buys of less than 1,000 baht per item and have been arriving in approx. two weeks or less. Can't say the same for shipment from mainland China as they seem to take 3-4 weeks but I haven't had any customs/VAT charges on mainland China Ebay buys either. All items shipped through the regular postal systems...not UPS/FedEx/DHL

Ebay Link for the 300VAC/100A Panel Meter with CT: Link

And below is a picture of it hooked to my main circuit box I bought a plastic electrical box at a hardware store for about 25 baht, cut-out a hole for panel meter to snap into, extended the hookup wires a little, hooked the meter voltage wires to input of the main breaker in my main circuit panel and also dropped the CT over the incoming Live wire (a 35 sqmm wire for my 100A service) to the main breaker. Note: I could have also placed the CT on the incoming Neutral wire as current flow should match the Live wire unless you might have a ground fault somewhere...like maybe there was some small current flow occurring between my TT Ground System to the Live wire...with the CT on the Live wire I'm pretty much assured of being able to measure any current flow path leading to the Live/Hot/Line/220V wire. Here the picture of the installed panel meter...with around 8 amps of the total 11.3amps being shown on the meter being the amps pull of one 18K BTU split air con running....he rest is just lights, fans, TVs, frigs, etc., around the house

Picture of Panel Meter Installed:

I've been turning stuff off and on around the house to see what current/amps change occurs which tells me the amount of amps/power it draws. Like my clothes dryer pulls 12A when set to Medium Heat and 22A when set to Regular Heat. Each of my 6000W shower heaters pulls 25A. And I'm able to easily/quickly measure the amps draw of all/any of my split A/C's which are the big power users in any residence. Since I know what the normal operating amps draw is for each A/C from a specifications panel on each A/C when the amps is significantly higher than the rated current draw that is telling me that the outdoor/condenser unit is probably dirty/needs cleaning like in this Apr 13 ThaiVisa thread on High Power Usage By Split A/C which includes talk on current draw. This incident I had with one of my split A/C's motivated me to install the panel meter so I can easily monitor/measure amps draw of any device in my house, especially the A/Cs. And I now know my voltage slowly varies from 225 to 231V during the day and night. Like right now it's reading 228V...but when I took above picture about 30 minutes ago it was at 230V. I know, in comparison to some others in Thailand I'm lucky to have steady and adequate voltage.

In closing, I'm even going to do an upgrade of my panel meter box. Yesterday I ordered a panel frequency meter (0.1 Hz accuracy) shown at this Ebay Link for less than $9 (including shipping). And today I picked up a plastic electrical box for Bt59 which is just large enough to hold the above Volts/Amps panel meter and the Frequency panel meter I just ordered. So hopefully in a few weeks I have my little panel meter control box installed that will show Volts, Amps, and Frequency at a glance. Total cost for all of this around $20.

[Crossy]

OK, it reads voltage and amps...so how do I figure out watts. Well, Power (watts) = I (current/amps) times E (voltage)....or just remember PIE like you eat. Ex: if the meter reads 220V and 1.5A...then 220 times 1.5 = 330 watts.

Watts = Volts x Amps except when it doesn't. I can show you a circuit where V(voltage)=220V, I(current)=1A (or 1000A), Power = 0 (ZERO) Watts.

It is not possible to work out the power consumption of an AC circuit using a Voltmeter and Ammeter, multiplying Volts x Amps you get VoltAmps (VA) which are not Watts unless the load is purely resistive (a water heater).

Google: Power Factor.

You need a device that can measure the phase angle between V and I. Your electricity meter does it electro-mechanically (it really measures Watt-Hours) these plug-in devices do it electronically. The unit I linked to displays, Volts, Amps, Watts, VoltAmps, Hertz and Power Factor.

That said, V x I x 0.8 comes pretty close in a domestic situation.

[ETatBKK]

this is exactly the question I want to ask - appliance meter. thanks OP.

appliance meter is just plug-and-play, and you may need couple of them ( provided they are not so expensive ). problem is, it cannot measure 'installed' big appliances those have no plug, like fridge, oven, A/C . . .

PIB's panel meter is a more sophisticated option. I am not able to handle the complete installation as such, yet I doubt if a Thai electric contractor could do it neither.

I did ask Bticino ( my system supplier ) for similar monitoring system 5 years ago, it was just too many zero on the quote, can't afford one.

[Pib]

OK, it reads voltage and amps...so how do I figure out watts. Well, Power (watts) = I (current/amps) times E (voltage)....or just remember PIE like you eat. Ex: if the meter reads 220V and 1.5A...then 220 times 1.5 = 330 watts.

Watts = Volts x Amps except when it doesn't. I can show you a circuit where V(voltage)=220V, I(current)=1A (or 1000A), Power = 0 (ZERO) Watts.

It is not possible to work out the power consumption of an AC circuit using a Voltmeter and Ammeter, multiplying Volts x Amps you get VoltAmps (VA) which are not Watts unless the load is purely resistive (a water heater).

Google: Power Factor.

You need a device that can measure the phase angle between V and I. Your electricity meter does it electro-mechanically (it really measures Watt-Hours) these plug-in devices do it electronically. The unit I linked to displays, Volts, Amps, Watts, VoltAmps, Hertz and Power Factor.

That said, V x I x 0.8 comes pretty close in a domestic situation.

Yes, I know. I figure some one would talk Power Factor and I probably should have added a few words about Power Factor to my post. But with today's more advanced power supplies in electronic equipment...much less use of transformers and reactive devices (or more power efficient reactive devices)...the power factor is less of factor. Plus many of major appliances now days list their normal current/amps draw like my split A/C systems and I'm pretty sure my clothes dryer list the max amps draw also. And even when they do just list watts hopefully the manufacturer has cranked in his power factor for that item to develop that watts rating versus using a Volts-Amps rating.

So, when my 18K BTU A/C whose normal/rated operating amps of 8.6A start pulling significantly more than that I know I got a problem developing (they normally pull around 8A unless it's really a hot day and then they pull around 9A)...a problem causing them to eat more electricity than normal and I don't have to wait until the monthly electric bill to show up to find out something is amiss. Plus, the PIE formula is simple and sounds tasty. And I've already found out that of the two identical 18K BTU A/Cs (i.e., same inside and outside units) I have that one draws around 10% less amps than the other one, but even the one that draws more amps is operating within its rated/nominal amps draws.

I'm not really after knowing exactly how many "watts" my devices pull if I also knew the power factor for each device and wanted to crank in that calculation; I really just want the amps reading to give me a good indication of how much power/how many amps items are drawing in comparison to their spec'ed amps rating, is an item beginning to fail like an A/C or shower heater starting to draw a lot more amps than normal, and just a whole variety of other electrical observations. Even doing a diagnostic measurement of turning off my main breaker (panel meter still has power) to kill power to the house to ensure there is no current draw still occurring in the house which would indicate a ground fault somewhere...of course I could walk outside and then look at the electric meter to see if the wheel is still turning just a little...but it's just easier to throw the breaker and then look at the panel meter...and then flip the breaker back on. PIE=Simple...more than good enough for what I looking for.

[Pib]

this is exactly the question I want to ask - appliance meter. thanks OP.

appliance meter is just plug-and-play, and you may need couple of them ( provided they are not so expensive ). problem is, it cannot measure 'installed' big appliances those have no plug, like fridge, oven, A/C . . .

PIB's panel meter is a more sophisticated option. I am not able to handle the complete installation as such, yet I doubt if a Thai electric contractor could do it neither.

I did ask Bticino ( my system supplier ) for similar monitoring system 5 years ago, it was just too many zero on the quote, can't afford one.

It's really simple to install. If you can find a sparky that uses a clamp-on ammeter then he should be able to install it. Heck, 90% of my installation/make-it time was actually cutting out the hole in the plastic box to snap in the panel meter (couple of drill holes and then use of a hacksaw blade) and to extend the meters hook-up wires about 12 inches (i.e, make the hookup wires a little longer because of where I wanted to mount it on the main panel box).

It was simple and cheap. But a person can get hurt, or even killed, doing simple things...so don't try installing yourself unless you are sure you can and comfortable in working with electricity.

P.S. I just turned to glance at my blue LED lighted panel meter voltage reading...it's 8:30pm and it's down to 224V and I'm pulling 4.7A with one large TV, lights, one fan, 3 frigs running, etc....the A/C is also on with the inside unit running, but at this minute in time the outside unit compressor is not engaged....whoops, I just heard the compressor kick-in and the amps draw is now 12.2A...that means the A/C is drawing 7.5A...if it was daytime with the sun beating down on it and the house it would be working harder and pulling around 8.5A...just an example of some of my observations that I can do easily and quickly now.

[Longtooth]

Just buy a VERY cheap electric meter down at your local home supply shop (like they install outside the door of room rentals), and wire on a male and female cord (big enough to handle the load your are measuring), screw it to a piece of board, plug it inline with your refridgerator or whatever, and BING. Keep it out of reach of children and such, as this is will have accessable powered screws. You could even put it into a lockable plastic electric box, also available at home supply shops, Drill two holes for the cords to come out of. If your device needs a ground, that must be carried through also. (Not through the meter, just somehow from device to ground.) Any actual Thai electrician can do it.

[attrayant]

I bought one of these (called "kill a watt" in the USA) up in the Rangist area very close to Zeer. It has a maximum load of 3KW. I don't remember the exact address of the place but I will research my notes and post if I can locate it.

[attrayant]

Here's a map of their shop:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=13.961816,100.625989&spn=0.004123,0.006191&t=m&z=18

It's one of the dots in the northeastern part of the map, right behind Zeer shopping center, but it's written in Thai so you'll have to click on them all until you find the one that says "MechaShop". Here's their web site: http://www.mechashop.com/store/home/en.html

It's this exact meter, so you can check out the specs:

http://www.ebay.in/itm/ENERGY-METER-ELECTRICTY-CONSUMPTION-METER-VOLT-WATTS-KWH-/190772664843#ht_3373wt_902

You might be able to dig up more by searching for "ZL2006200165630" (the patent number, according to the box mine came in).

Edited July 29, 2013 by attrayant

[Crossy]

It's one of the dots in the northeastern part of the map, right behind Zeer shopping center, but it's written in Thai so you'll have to click on them all until you find the one that says "MechaShop". Here's their web site: http://www.mechashop.com/store/home/en.html

Good find attrayant

They seem to have a lot of toys on their website, shame there's no prices

I will be checking them out when I get back from India.

[Pib]

It's one of the dots in the northeastern part of the map, right behind Zeer shopping center, but it's written in Thai so you'll have to click on them all until you find the one that says "MechaShop". Here's their web site: http://www.mechashop.com/store/home/en.html

Good find attrayant

They seem to have a lot of toys on their website, shame there's no prices

I will be checking them out when I get back from India.

Found it on there site...see this webpage...the meter costs Bt990.

[Crossy]

It's one of the dots in the northeastern part of the map, right behind Zeer shopping center, but it's written in Thai so you'll have to click on them all until you find the one that says "MechaShop". Here's their web site: http://www.mechashop.com/store/home/en.html

Good find attrayant

They seem to have a lot of toys on their website, shame there's no prices

I will be checking them out when I get back from India.

Found it on there site...see this webpage...the meter costs Bt990.

Prices don't appear on the English language page

[Pib]

Prices don't appear on the English language page

Yea, I see what you mean. I didn't even notice it had a English & Thai language selection in the top corner....I just mushed along on the Thai language pages and let Google Translate do its magic. So typical of many Thai websites...go into their English language pages and its can be skimpy on info; but go into their Thai language pages and there is plenty of info but all in the Thai language and all too often it's "graphics" based and even Google Translate can help. Preaching to the choir leader I know.

Lots of neat stuff on their web site....I just may have to pay them a visit soon or just order something from their web site. Looks like the typical ordering process...register on their website as a member....place your order...then transfer the payment to them...then notify them of the payment...and hopefully your order arrives your home in a few days....the site says if you don't get your order within 4 days of making payment then give them a call.

Just as FYI, when you click on the part number for each item it does pull up detailed info on the item--but only if surfing in the Thai language pages and let Google Translate do it's magic. For example, here the detailed page on the item we are talking about: Link

[attrayant]

Just a note of caution to anyone thinking of dropping by to do a little window shopping at this place: it's not a normal storefront at all. It looked like a townhouse or residence being used as a warehouse. There was a clerk in the front room and I had to wait near the front door as he rummaged around the place trying to locate the things I had on my list (the power meter being one). There were boxes and packing material everywhere. So you definitely won't be doing any casual browsing at this place. In fact, I'd recommend giving them a call before you go to make sure they actually have on hand what you're looking for. Then you can swing by and hopefully they'll have it ready for you when you arrive.

[Pib]

Thanks..I guess I'll just look at their website instead and maybe place an order if I find something I like. Thanks again.

Sent from my Samsung S4 (GT-I9500)

[Mike45]

Here's something you might want to consider to measure voltage/amps/power for your entire house if you are a DIYer electrical-wise...and since you can measure the whole house this means you can measure the amps/power of any individual item in the house.

It's a 300VAC/100A panel meter (1% FS accuracy) which comes with a paired Current Transformer (CT) to slip over a wire up to 15mm in diameter to measure current/amps and another connection to measure voltage. It's basically does the measurements of an AC voltmeter and a clamp-on ammeter.

OK, it reads voltage and amps...so how do I figure out watts. Well, Power (watts) = I (current/amps) times E (voltage)....or just remember PIE like you eat. Ex: if the meter reads 220V and 1.5A...then 220 times 1.5 = 330 watts.

Anyway, the Ebay link to the one I bought for less than $10 including free shipping from Hong Kong to Bangkok is listed below. I received it in less than two weeks. Many other Ebay sellers selling the same meter for around $10-$14 including free shipping but watch out as some of the meters are paired with a different CT which can only handle a wire diameter of around 10mm (i.e, the CT hole is smaller)

And believe it on not I ordered some $20 LED lights for my SUV from a Hong Kong Ebay seller very recently and received the lights in 6 days just via the standard air mail free shipping the seller used. No customs or VAT applied to any of my China/Hong Kong Ebay buys...but all buys have been small baht buys of less than 1,000 baht per item and have been arriving in approx. two weeks or less. Can't say the same for shipment from mainland China as they seem to take 3-4 weeks but I haven't had any customs/VAT charges on mainland China Ebay buys either. All items shipped through the regular postal systems...not UPS/FedEx/DHL

Ebay Link for the 300VAC/100A Panel Meter with CT: Link

And below is a picture of it hooked to my main circuit box I bought a plastic electrical box at a hardware store for about 25 baht, cut-out a hole for panel meter to snap into, extended the hookup wires a little, hooked the meter voltage wires to input of the main breaker in my main circuit panel and also dropped the CT over the incoming Live wire (a 35 sqmm wire for my 100A service) to the main breaker. Note: I could have also placed the CT on the incoming Neutral wire as current flow should match the Live wire unless you might have a ground fault somewhere...like maybe there was some small current flow occurring between my TT Ground System to the Live wire...with the CT on the Live wire I'm pretty much assured of being able to measure any current flow path leading to the Live/Hot/Line/220V wire. Here the picture of the installed panel meter...with around 8 amps of the total 11.3amps being shown on the meter being the amps pull of one 18K BTU split air con running....he rest is just lights, fans, TVs, frigs, etc., around the house

Picture of Panel Meter Installed:

20130727_161654_LLS.jpg

I've been turning stuff off and on around the house to see what current/amps change occurs which tells me the amount of amps/power it draws. Like my clothes dryer pulls 12A when set to Medium Heat and 22A when set to Regular Heat. Each of my 6000W shower heaters pulls 25A. And I'm able to easily/quickly measure the amps draw of all/any of my split A/C's which are the big power users in any residence. Since I know what the normal operating amps draw is for each A/C from a specifications panel on each A/C when the amps is significantly higher than the rated current draw that is telling me that the outdoor/condenser unit is probably dirty/needs cleaning like in this Apr 13 ThaiVisa thread on High Power Usage By Split A/C which includes talk on current draw. This incident I had with one of my split A/C's motivated me to install the panel meter so I can easily monitor/measure amps draw of any device in my house, especially the A/Cs. And I now know my voltage slowly varies from 225 to 231V during the day and night. Like right now it's reading 228V...but when I took above picture about 30 minutes ago it was at 230V. I know, in comparison to some others in Thailand I'm lucky to have steady and adequate voltage.

In closing, I'm even going to do an upgrade of my panel meter box. Yesterday I ordered a panel frequency meter (0.1 Hz accuracy) shown at this Ebay Link for less than $9 (including shipping). And today I picked up a plastic electrical box for Bt59 which is just large enough to hold the above Volts/Amps panel meter and the Frequency panel meter I just ordered. So hopefully in a few weeks I have my little panel meter control box installed that will show Volts, Amps, and Frequency at a glance. Total cost for all of this around $20.

Pig

I noticed in your post that you mentioned that you have 6000W water heaters. I'm currently building a house and I've been thinking a great deal about how I am going to supply hot water to my sinks and showers.

I'm hoping you can answer some questions for me.

Are you satisfied with your heaters?

Are you supplying hot water to both the sink and shower in each bathroom from the same heater?

What kind of piping are you using to carry hot water?

Are you able to get a good flow of water in your shower and still have a hot shower experience?

What models are you using and where are they mounted?

If you were building new what would you install?

Thanks for offering me your opinion and real life knowledge

Mike

[Pib]

Pib

I noticed in your post that you mentioned that you have 6000W water heaters. I'm currently building a house and I've been thinking a great deal about how I am going to supply hot water to my sinks and showers.

I'm hoping you can answer some questions for me.

Are you satisfied with your heaters?

Are you supplying hot water to both the sink and shower in each bathroom from the same heater?

What kind of piping are you using to carry hot water?

Are you able to get a good flow of water in your shower and still have a hot shower experience?

What models are you using and where are they mounted?

If you were building new what would you install?

Thanks for offering me your opinion and real life knowledge

Mike

-Yes, I'm satisfied.

- Only supplying my showers.

- I can't say for sure what type of piping is in the wall for the shower heater hookup...I bought the house new/already built...pipes in the shower wall could be metal or PVC...but the shower connectors are metal.

- Good shower flow will primarily be determined by your water pump pressure. All/most shower heaters use internal piping/heating coils around 1/4 inch in size...so, they automatically present a water flow restriction by taking water from probable 1/2 inch wall piping feeding them, heating it through 1/4 inch coils, and then out the shower hose/head. With that fact in mind, I think a person really needs a pump that has an average water pressure of approx. 2.5bar/35psi. I say average water pressure because many types of pumps cycle as they are running...kickoff when reaching a certain upper pressure and then kick-on again when reaching a certain lower pressure. I use a Mitsubishi WP255 pump which has cycle pressure setting of 2.1bar/30psi and 2.8bar/40psi, for an average 35psi. It gives good pressure to my 2nd story bathrooms/throughout the house and plenty of shower pressure....the shower experience is fine.

- I use identical Fagor models in my two upstairs bathrooms. They are 6000W models, got them at HomePro almost 5 years ago, no front panel controls (simple), come with 2 year warranty, and did have to have a flow switch replaced on one right after the warranty period (of course) but this only cost Bt500. Below is a picture of one in my shower...the cold water comes in the right pipe...goes through the heater and gets heated...comes back out the left hose and goes back into the wall for a few feet and then connects to the hot and cold water faucets control down the wall where the cold and hot water is mixed and this is where the shower head hose is connected...just like how you would use your shower in a typical western home/hotel. To get a better idea of the heater size the green tiles shown are 6 inch tiles...the heater itself is really not very big since its exterior shell does not consist of lights, controls, and pretty stuff...it simply heats the water...when it on it's little red LED comes on...it comes when it sense water flow and this flow is controlled by your hot water faucet. The model I'm using does have internal circuit breakers to prevent the heating coil from overheating, but no ground-fault protection to the best of my knowledge...but both are on their own dedicated circuits where I have 32A 10ma RCBOs installed.

- If I was building new I would probably get a very similar/identical model and have a hot water piping fed to my bathroom sinks also, but I've got use to only having cold water in the sinks so it's not really an issue any more. Plus with my stainless steel water storage tank getting shined on my the sun all day long the water comes out warm anyway. And yes, my 6000W heaters would put third degree burns on your body if you could stand under one with only the hot water turned on.

[Mike45]

Pib

I noticed in your post that you mentioned that you have 6000W water heaters. I'm currently building a house and I've been thinking a great deal about how I am going to supply hot water to my sinks and showers.

I'm hoping you can answer some questions for me.

Are you satisfied with your heaters?

Are you supplying hot water to both the sink and shower in each bathroom from the same heater?

What kind of piping are you using to carry hot water?

Are you able to get a good flow of water in your shower and still have a hot shower experience?

What models are you using and where are they mounted?

If you were building new what would you install?

Thanks for offering me your opinion and real life knowledge

Mike

-Yes, I'm satisfied.

- Only supplying my showers.

- I can't say for sure what type of piping is in the wall for the shower heater hookup...I bought the house new/already built...pipes in the shower wall could be metal or PVC...but the shower connectors are metal.

- Good shower flow will primarily be determined by your water pump pressure. All/most shower heaters use internal piping/heating coils around 1/4 inch in size...so, they automatically present a water flow restriction by taking water from probable 1/2 inch wall piping feeding them, heating it through 1/4 inch coils, and then out the shower hose/head. With that fact in mind, I think a person really needs a pump that has an average water pressure of approx. 2.5bar/35psi. I say average water pressure because many types of pumps cycle as they are running...kickoff when reaching a certain upper pressure and then kick-on again when reaching a certain lower pressure. I use a Mitsubishi WP255 pump which has cycle pressure setting of 2.1bar/30psi and 2.8bar/40psi, for an average 35psi. It gives good pressure to my 2nd story bathrooms/throughout the house and plenty of shower pressure....the shower experience is fine.

- I use identical Fagor models in my two upstairs bathrooms. They are 6000W models, got them at HomePro almost 5 years ago, no front panel controls (simple), come with 2 year warranty, and did have to have a flow switch replaced on one right after the warranty period (of course) but this only cost Bt500. Below is a picture of one in my shower...the cold water comes in the right pipe...goes through the heater and gets heated...comes back out the left hose and goes back into the wall for a few feet and then connects to the hot and cold water faucets control down the wall where the cold and hot water is mixed and this is where the shower head hose is connected...just like how you would use your shower in a typical western home/hotel. To get a better idea of the heater size the green tiles shown are 6 inch tiles...the heater itself is really not very big since its exterior shell does not consist of lights, controls, and pretty stuff...it simply heats the water...when it on it's little red LED comes on...it comes when it sense water flow and this flow is controlled by your hot water faucet. The model I'm using does have internal circuit breakers to prevent the heating coil from overheating, but no ground-fault protection to the best of my knowledge...but both are on their own dedicated circuits where I have 32A 10ma RCBOs installed.

- If I was building new I would probably get a very similar/identical model and have a hot water piping fed to my bathroom sinks also, but I've got use to only having cold water in the sinks so it's not really an issue any more. Plus with my stainless steel water storage tank getting shined on my the sun all day long the water comes out warm anyway. And yes, my 6000W heaters would put third degree burns on your body if you could stand under one with only the hot water turned on.

20130729_201241_LLS.jpg

Thanks for your response.

[Pib]

Here's something you might want to consider to measure voltage/amps/power for your entire house if you are a DIYer electrical-wise...and since you can measure the whole house this means you can measure the amps/power of any individual item in the house.

It's a 300VAC/100A panel meter (1% FS accuracy) which comes with a paired Current Transformer (CT) to slip over a wire up to 15mm in diameter to measure current/amps and another connection to measure voltage. It's basically does the measurements of an AC voltmeter and a clamp-on ammeter.

OK, it reads voltage and amps...so how do I figure out watts. Well, Power (watts) = I (current/amps) times E (voltage)....or just remember PIE like you eat. Ex: if the meter reads 220V and 1.5A...then 220 times 1.5 = 330 watts.

Anyway, the Ebay link to the one I bought for less than $10 including free shipping from Hong Kong to Bangkok is listed below. I received it in less than two weeks. Many other Ebay sellers selling the same meter for around $10-$14 including free shipping but watch out as some of the meters are paired with a different CT which can only handle a wire diameter of around 10mm (i.e, the CT hole is smaller)

And believe it on not I ordered some $20 LED lights for my SUV from a Hong Kong Ebay seller very recently and received the lights in 6 days just via the standard air mail free shipping the seller used. No customs or VAT applied to any of my China/Hong Kong Ebay buys...but all buys have been small baht buys of less than 1,000 baht per item and have been arriving in approx. two weeks or less. Can't say the same for shipment from mainland China as they seem to take 3-4 weeks but I haven't had any customs/VAT charges on mainland China Ebay buys either. All items shipped through the regular postal systems...not UPS/FedEx/DHL

Ebay Link for the 300VAC/100A Panel Meter with CT: Link

And below is a picture of it hooked to my main circuit box I bought a plastic electrical box at a hardware store for about 25 baht, cut-out a hole for panel meter to snap into, extended the hookup wires a little, hooked the meter voltage wires to input of the main breaker in my main circuit panel and also dropped the CT over the incoming Live wire (a 35 sqmm wire for my 100A service) to the main breaker. Note: I could have also placed the CT on the incoming Neutral wire as current flow should match the Live wire unless you might have a ground fault somewhere...like maybe there was some small current flow occurring between my TT Ground System to the Live wire...with the CT on the Live wire I'm pretty much assured of being able to measure any current flow path leading to the Live/Hot/Line/220V wire. Here the picture of the installed panel meter...with around 8 amps of the total 11.3amps being shown on the meter being the amps pull of one 18K BTU split air con running....he rest is just lights, fans, TVs, frigs, etc., around the house

Picture of Panel Meter Installed:

20130727_161654_LLS.jpg

I've been turning stuff off and on around the house to see what current/amps change occurs which tells me the amount of amps/power it draws. Like my clothes dryer pulls 12A when set to Medium Heat and 22A when set to Regular Heat. Each of my 6000W shower heaters pulls 25A. And I'm able to easily/quickly measure the amps draw of all/any of my split A/C's which are the big power users in any residence. Since I know what the normal operating amps draw is for each A/C from a specifications panel on each A/C when the amps is significantly higher than the rated current draw that is telling me that the outdoor/condenser unit is probably dirty/needs cleaning like in this Apr 13 ThaiVisa thread on High Power Usage By Split A/C which includes talk on current draw. This incident I had with one of my split A/C's motivated me to install the panel meter so I can easily monitor/measure amps draw of any device in my house, especially the A/Cs. And I now know my voltage slowly varies from 225 to 231V during the day and night. Like right now it's reading 228V...but when I took above picture about 30 minutes ago it was at 230V. I know, in comparison to some others in Thailand I'm lucky to have steady and adequate voltage.

In closing, I'm even going to do an upgrade of my panel meter box. Yesterday I ordered a panel frequency meter (0.1 Hz accuracy) shown at this Ebay Link for less than $9 (including shipping). And today I picked up a plastic electrical box for Bt59 which is just large enough to hold the above Volts/Amps panel meter and the Frequency panel meter I just ordered. So hopefully in a few weeks I have my little panel meter control box installed that will show Volts, Amps, and Frequency at a glance. Total cost for all of this around $20.

I have rec'd that panel frequency meter, been using it hooked up as standalone, but haven't installed it yet to do my upgrade to the Volts and Amps panel meter setup shown in above picture.

But the reason I'm providing this update is to mention I found a Energy Meter similar to what the OP was looking for...found and bought it today while walking around the Bangkhae Mall HomePro in western Bangkok. Cost was Bt765 (approx. $24). Nice little device....below are a few pictures of the item and one side of the box it came in...comes with instructions in English and Thai.

It measures Voltage, Amps, Watts, Power Factor, & KWH...it also has a run time meter that keeps tab of how long an item was on over a certain time period....like a simple refrigerator which is only using electricity when the compressor kicks on or you open the door and the light comes on. It also gives various "cost" readings like KWH used money-wise and KgCO2 equivalent your energy usage is causing. And of course you enter the cost of your electricity per KWH in order to the readout how much device XYZ is costing you to run. It's max power/current capacity is 3680 watts/16amps. It's specs also say it will operate from 175-276VAC with accuracies of 1.5% for voltage, 2% for current/amps, and 2% for power/watts. Although the outlet is U.S. style it also comes with an adapter so you can plug in round prong plugs.

I've been playing with it since around 2pm on a small, simple table top high refrigirator I have for my Chang beer and I took some readings after the frig had been plugged into the energy meter for 4.5 hours. Now over those 4.5 hrs the frig used electricity for 2 hr 41 min (I.e., compressor turned on or the door was opened causing the light to come on), it has used 0.148KWH at a total cost of Bt0.68 (68 stang). I also know from the readouts the compressor draws approx. 52W/0.28A when running and whit the light on also it draws approx. 66W/0.33A....that tells me it got a 15W bulb in it. And the Power Factor readout is approx. 0.83. I say "approx." because the readouts will vary just a little with the compressor motor running and the light heating up the longer its on. The energy meter gives some pretty good readings IMHO.

I had entered my electricity cost per KWH of Bt4.6 based on my last electric bill by dividing the total KWH used into the total monthly cost, which included the Ft energy fee and 7%VAT. Your electric cost per KWH will probably vary a little from mine depending on how much you use per month since for residential use each KWH used from 1 to 150KWH, 151 to 400KWH and 401 and above KWH is charged at a little different basic rate before the Ft and VAT is applied to get your total monthly cost.

Anyway based on that 4.5hs or use and the associated KWH and cost reflected already on the energy meter, I extrapolated that to an every 24hrs and every 30 days costs. If I did my math right it works out to: Every 24hrs: 0.7893KWH and Bt3.6. Every 30 days: 23.7KWH and Bt109. So it costs me Bt109/month to keep my Chang beer cold....money well spent. I will retake my readings after 24hrs to get a more accurate KWH usage and cost....if I take the readings right at 2pm tomorrow my math will simply be multiply that 24 hr cost by 30 to get my monthly cost.

Pretty neat little device. Over the coming week I'm going to hook it up to other devices to see how much power they are using and costing me. I'm particularly interested in some of my cabinets where I have devices like a TV, DVD, TrueVisions cable TV box, C/KU band satellite box, internet router, cordless phone, stereo, etc. The devices per cabinet in each room vary a little but it will be interesting to see how much is used per day/month, especially for those devices that spend a lot of time in "standby" mode which I may not turn on to often. At least I will be able to find out how much letting them run in Standby mode versus just completely turning them off is costing me per month....the cost may be enough to change my habits....we'll see.

[Pib]

Anyway based on that 4.5hs or use and the associated KWH and cost reflected already on the energy meter, I extrapolated that to an every 24hrs and every 30 days costs. If I did my math right it works out to: Every 24hrs: 0.7893KWH and Bt3.6. Every 30 days: 23.7KWH and Bt109. So it costs me Bt109/month to keep my Chang beer cold....money well spent. I will retake my readings after 24hrs to get a more accurate KWH usage and cost....if I take the readings right at 2pm tomorrow my math will simply be multiply that 24 hr cost by 30 to get my monthly cost.

OK, I took that reading at 2pm today. Over the 24 hrs period the frig compressor/door light was on for 13hrs 42 mins and the cost readout was 3.46 baht...or every 30 days Bt103.8 to keep my Chang beer cold. My next measurement will be the master bedroom cabinet which has a TV, a cable TV box, a satellite TV box, DVD, cable modem, VOIP adapter, and cordless phone. Yeap, neat little device