On Apr 10, 11:24*am, "Robert Green"
wrote:
"Doug" wrote in message
Can I use a voltmeter with probes to measure what the refrig uses? Do
I just measure the 2 sides of the refrig's electrical plug? *Or how do
you do this measurement?

No. *You need a "tong" meter and a special cord that isolates the hot from
the neutral to measure only instantaneous current.

It's a damn good thing the hot is seperated from the
neutral. If they were connected you'd have a short.
As to measuring only the instantaneous current, why
would you want to do that? To figure out the
electricity cost of the refrigerator you need to measure
it over a reasonable period, ie a few days. That
way you'll see defrost cycles, start-ups, etc. And the obvious
problem with any current measurement using an
amp meter is that it doesn't take into account power factor.


*Or a special cord that
lets you put an ammeter in series with the unit. *Most pocket meters can't
handle that sort of current, anyway. *Look on your meter, if it reads amps,
it should say 10 or 20A max on the jacks.
*That's why the Kill-a-watt is so
useful. *None of that is required. *Plus, even the cheapest ones can read
power use over time in kWh which no common multimeter I know does. *The more
expensive units have memories and cost computers built in, but unless you
have lots of power blinks or outages, that's overkill, IMHO.

--
Bobby G.