On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:13:56 -0800 (PST), ransley wrote:


Get a clamp on amp meter that goes to 0,01 amp, not found a stores but
electric supply houses, a 35$ Greenlee is good. Clamp on each circut
on your panel to check consumption and compare it to what is plugged
in by their watt ratings, then check with everything off, then
unplugged. You might find a direct short to ground. When you are done
you will know what everything uses in power and standby and know what
to change. Dec is maybe the darkest month so you of course use more
electricty to light you home turning lights on earlier and off later.
Your boiler or furnace runs more consuming more electricity. Try CFLs
and unlugging things not used, most everything takes standby power
and wastes electricity not even being used, even you garage door can
be put on a switch. I found my sprinkler system timer was costing me
1$ a month over the winter being left plugged in. 680 kwh is alot, im
down to 200-275 or so

This does NOT work unless all the loads are purely resistive and with a power factor
of 1. Most non-resistive loads, and especially sneak loads aren't. That little
sprinkler timer is a perfect example. Those typically have a very low power factor
and draw twice as many VA as watts. Since you only pay for watts, you fool yourself
by measuring volts and amps separately.

There ARE inexpensive clamp-on wattmeters that work nicely. I think that Sears sells
one. I use this one and have found it to be quite accurate in comparison with my lab
standard wattmeter.
http://www.powermeterstore.com/p4457...ower_meter.php

This instrument CAN be used for what you describe and in fact, is what I use mine
for, mainly.

An example of how using a clamp-on meter can fool you, here are the measurements I
just made from a similar timer:

Volts: 115
Amps: 0.012
VA: 1.4
Watts: 0.8
PF: .57

Measuring amps and volts separately and multiplying produces volt-amps instead of
watts. Using volt-amps instead of watts to compute usage would result in almost a
50% error.

The Kill-A-Watt is probably the least expensive tool with adequate accuracy there is
for measuring actual consumption. It can be used to measure branch circuits and is
what I used before I bought my clamp-on wattmeter.

The procedure involves a Jesus cord (male convenience plug on one end of the cord and
alligator clips on the other.

Plug the KAW into an outlet or extension cord. Remove the breaker panel cover. Flip
the breaker of the branch of interest off. Connect the black alligator clip of the
Jesus cord to the breaker output screw. (optional) clip the white alligator clip to
the neutral bus. Plug the Jesus cord into the KAW. The branch is now powered
through the KAW and the KAW displays the vital info.

This does not work for 240 volt branches, of course. You'd need a 240 volt KAW or
better, the clamp-on wattmeter.

John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com -- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources -Albert Einstein