DIYbanter - View Single Post - Measuring power consumption of low-power non-sinewave devices

Dave Osborne[_2_]

wrote:
Is there any cheap/easy way to measure the power consumption of mains
powered equipment that consumes a few tens of watts and is almst
certainly non-sinusoidal? In particular I want to measure the power
consumption of a (hopefully) low power PC that should be consuming
around 25 watts.

A cheap plug-in power meter (a Brennendal one) claims it's consuming
about 50 watts but I'm not at all convinced it's telling me the truth.

I know 'proper' power meters are expensive and I don't really want to
spend lots of money, nor do I really want a very accurate answer. If
I can just confirm it's consuming something between 20 and 30 watts
I'll be happy.

Can one buy kwh meters relatively cheaply? I'm quite happy to wire
one up to a plug and socket and use that over several hours to see
what's being consumed.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/RDCRED60.html