AC Monitoring

[Robbo]

Should read the same on either live or neutral.

[ditchcrawler]

15 minutes ago, Johny London said:

Just fitted my unit - wasn't sure if putting the inductor round the neutral wire would be ok but it was easier, readings look lower than I expected.

Can you try it with a known load. kettle or something?

15 minutes ago, Johny London said:

Just fitted my unit - wasn't sure if putting the inductor round the neutral wire would be ok but it was easier, readings look lower than I expected.

 

[Johny London]

Well, the fridge clicked in and it went up to 100w, which seems low. (Otherwise only the radio was on, using 3.6w).

[I Spartacus]

If it is AC you are looking at, I have used the SPC mini data logger, it is quite expensive but is very good at recording all the information you need 

http://www.spcloggers.com/product/the-spc-mini/ 

[Johny London]

I think that is in the realms of a different type of thing altogether.

Can anyone advise what a typical under counter fridge (with the little freezer bit at the top) would take when it's actually running. It's supposed to be around 2ah per hour so working on a 1/5th duty cycle I would have thought 10a which should be around 240w, so 100w looks like less than half?

However, the 800w microwave oven took over 1200w so maybe the fridge is just economical. Surprising really cos it's been the ruin of my batteries

[MoominPapa]

6 minutes ago, Johny London said:

 

Can anyone advise what a typical under counter fridge (with the little freezer bit at the top) would take when it's actually running. It's supposed to be around 2ah per hour so working on a 1/5th duty cycle I would have thought 10a which should be around 240w, so 100w looks like less than half?

 

Ours pulls around 8A@12v via the inverter, so 100W looks pretty reasonable.

 

MP.

 

[ditchcrawler]

46 minutes ago, Johny London said:

I think that is in the realms of a different type of thing altogether.

Can anyone advise what a typical under counter fridge (with the little freezer bit at the top) would take when it's actually running. It's supposed to be around 2ah per hour so working on a 1/5th duty cycle I would have thought 10a which should be around 240w, so 100w looks like less than half?

However, the 800w microwave oven took over 1200w so maybe the fridge is just economical. Surprising really cos it's been the ruin of my batteries

Was it the fridge that ruined them or your lack of recharging. What made you think they use 2ah per hour

[Johny London]

I dunno, it was a figure I had in my head from somewhere. Actually, coming at it the other way, I think the fridge is rated at about 0.5kwh in 24hrs so 100w sounds right. (If it used 100w constantly that would be 2.4kwh over 24hrs, but 2.4 divided by 5 (approx duty cycle) equals about the 0.5kwh. No wonder the inverter fan doesn't kick in just for the fridge - which is a good thing.

I've got some other kit that also doesn't use as much as I thought - but I'd added up all the stated/rated power for those so that must be maximums I guess. The microwave seems to prove the meter though.

It's an excellent little meter to have. And now I know what rating of genny I want

[ditchcrawler]

My fridge plus inverter uses about 40ah in 24 hrs.