"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message ...
On 12/13/2013 5:40 AM, micky wrote:
An electrician might pull the front off the breaker
box. Put ammeter on the wire, and see for real. In
real time. Or use a splitter where the plug goes
into the wall.

Splitter?

You remind me that I had bought a Kill-o-watt, or whatever to measure
wattage. Haven't used it. Only bought it then to put myself over 25
dollars for free amazon shipping. (Now you have to spend 35 dollars
for that) He's supposed to call this morning. I'll suggest it.
Except we'll have to stare at it for 5 minutes to see if it's high
when the breaker trips. Iwonder if it remembers a max value. .

AC clamp on ammeter only goes around one of the
power wires (power or neutral). As such, we use
a splitter, so you can clamp one of the wires
but not the other. If you clamp the entire
microwave cord, you read zero amps of current.

--

Example of a line splitter.

http://www.extech.com/instruments/pr...=30&prodid=114