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Topic: Kill A Watt (Read 873 times) previous topic - next topic

Kill A Watt

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

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #1 –
I've yet to see a leading power factor outside a lab environment. Too many inductive devices.
The selected media item is not currently available. Dave Head & Megan Westbrook
Titusville, FL - The Great Outdoors
'98 270 buying this month
Toad is a 2018 F150 XLT

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Dave M –
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

Residential fridge

The selected media item is not currently available.Barry BEAM #16014
2003 U320 40' AGDS
Beamalarm, Foretravel technical help and specifications
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve"

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #3 –
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

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #4 –
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
1993 U225 36' Unihome GV with PACBRAKE exhaust retarder, Banks Stinger and Solar Panels.
Toad: 1999 Jeep Wrangler 2-door soft-top.

"No one has ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke."

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #5 –
For folks who would like to See & Learn the Kill A Watt,  manual
Dave M

Re: Kill A Watt

Reply #6 –
I bought a digital volt/watt tool from Harbor Freight. Digital Electricity Usage Tester . 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.

Pierce
Pierce and Gaylie Stewart
'93 U300/36 WTBI
Detroit 6V-92TA Jake
1140 watts on the roof
SBFD (ret)