It's at the point where I really need to get a watt reader. I use the watt guidelines on appliances, but find sometimes they are off, or they are for their maximum pull at high use, and i usually use their lowest use.
Example - setting fans to low, using netbooks only to surf.
In both cases I have to guess at the watts.
I've been looking at the Kill A Watt meters, and also the Belkin Converse Reader. I might be leaning towards the cheapest Kill A Watt reader.
Anyone have a meter like this? I know Burt has a whole house reader, but i am not looking for one of those at this time. I want a cheap plug and play appliance i can carry around and stick in my outlets.
I was wondering if I could just use my multimeter to test for watts. After some research, the answer is yes, but not simply.
Calculate Watts with multimeter All the sources I've looked into, including on eHow above, say you can test first for volts, and then do a test for amps, and then insert Ohm's Law as a formula to get the watts.
"Watts equals volts multiplied by amperes...For instance, if you measured 10 volts and 5 amps, then the wattage in this circuit would be 50 (10 volts multiplied by 5 amps).
It seems laborious to use the probes twice for every measurement and then do math, but that's the frugal way to do it. At this point I don't know how to get my multimeter for amps, or for AC volts. I only know how to find DC volts.
There is no english on this thing or in the directions. There aren't even symbols on this keyboard to show you my options. So it's either a bunch more research or i just get a meter reader.
Also there are some warnings that a higher wattage would melt the probes on my multimeter if I tried it. I think for over 2500 watts. A start up surge for most AC units is easily over that.
Thoughts? Comments from your own experience?
