Power Meter Assistence

[TRCDROM]

I am trying to find a low cost small power meter (similar to what the electric company puts on your house) that I can plug a device into and then plug it into an outlet. I would like to measure the amount of energy a device uses over time. There are plenty of devices out there that can look at a point in time (example here)

I am trying to calculate how much energy a computer system (with lots of peripherals) uses over a week or month. It is a litte more difficult then just multiplying a point in time measurement by the amount of time because during the week or month this system can be on or off and when it is on it varies widely how much electricity it can be using.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

 

[PottedMeat]

?

A Kill-A-Watt does that. It gives you instantaneous voltage, current, power factor, wattage, volt-amps. As long as it's plugged in it will give you the total time it's been on as well as the total kilowatt hours used up to that point.

There are devices that will give you that data over a USB port though - I've seen them at Fry's for about $100, forgot what it was called though.

 

[Analog]

Killawatts are about $20 via local harborfreight.

 

[0roo0roo]

$17 at newegg last i checked

 

[frostedflakes]

Grab a Kill-a-Watt, fantastic little device. As PottedMeat mentioned, it will give you the kWh and hours a device has been plugged into it. You can use this to find the average kWh of a device over a certain period of time and use this for monthly, yearly, etc. cost estimates.

I've been using mine for years and have lent it to numerous people as well. Well worth the $25 IMO.