Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: Dave M (RIP) on September 17, 2012, 06:50:55 am
Title: Kill A Watt
Post by: Dave M (RIP) on September 17, 2012, 06:50:55 am
Have been reading another forum about this Kill A Watt device, bought one at Home Depot I think for under $30.00 The amazing part, it gives you much info, Volts, Watts, Hertz, PF, AMp, kw cost for daily, monthly and yearly. Am sure there is more to it than I am aware of so far, but a fun toy. Am surprised it shows PF, will not indicate if leading or laging, but still interesting toy. I found the info using Google "Kill A Watt", found the instruction sheet. Enjoy Dave M
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: Dave Head on September 17, 2012, 07:27:52 am
I've yet to see a leading power factor outside a lab environment. Too many inductive devices.
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: Barry Beam on September 17, 2012, 11:35:08 am
Have been reading another forum about this Kill A Watt device, bought one at Home Depot I think for under $30.00 The amazing part, it gives you much info, Volts, Watts, Hertz, PF, AMp, kw cost for daily, monthly and yearly. Am sure there is more to it than I am aware of so far, but a fun toy. Am surprised it shows PF, will not indicate if leading or laging, but still interesting toy. I found the info using Google "Kill A Watt", found the instruction sheet. Enjoy Dave M
Great for measuring Residential Refrigerator power usage. Converting to electric home style refrigerator (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=14142.msg81538#msg81538)
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: Dave M (RIP) on September 17, 2012, 12:35:22 pm
Dave H, Indeed on the PF leading, we get into capactive sometimes, not enough to worry about, just the lagging issues can get interesting, at Cat School they can go from .01 Lead to 1 Unity to .15 Lag. It is a demo worth seeing how the power needed changes etc.... Funny part, Cat sez if you do not understand PF, get away from our generators. some other generator companies will not discuss it at all. Love Cat Schools, just not the product. Dave M
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: wa_desert_rat on September 17, 2012, 01:23:45 pm
A Kill-A-Watt was the first thing I bought after we got the coach. I needed to know just how much power the new LED television set and the BluRay would draw so I could decide whether they would work together on a cheap cigarette lighter inverter. Turns out it's less than 50 watts and they both work fine on a $25 inverter.
It is invaluable if you use the generator or have an inverter. And indispensable if you have solar panels.
No motor home should be without one!
Craig
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: Dave M (RIP) on September 17, 2012, 02:12:20 pm
For folks who would like to See & Learn the Kill A Watt, manual Dave M
Title: Re: Kill A Watt
Post by: Pierce & Gaylie Stewart on September 17, 2012, 03:46:19 pm
I bought a digital volt/watt tool from Harbor Freight. Digital Electricity Usage Tester (http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-electricity-usage-tester-65731.html) . A good tool for adding up all the AC stuff and planning inverter use. Not a bad deal at $28.
You plug it into an outlet and it reads the voltage. Plug the appliance into the back and it reads the wattage the appliance is using as well as the voltage so you can also see any voltage loss.