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I'm looking for an electricity monitor to see how much my fridge is using. I've got a monitor thing that will show me how much electricity the hole house it's using at a given moment in time. I've seen more advanced versions that will log the usage of the whole house. But I can't find a simple monitor for a single plug socket. But not with any logging. The nearest I've found was a very expensive version by Fluke which is presumably for lab tests.
Has anyone seen a cheap version. I just want to see how much electrify my fridge is using.
I've got a belkin plug in thing that doesn't do logging but will keep a running average, so you can see how much power it uses overall. It can then extrapolate to say how much it will cost you over a whole year. Would that do?
It's a belkin conserve insight. I quite like it as the monitor is on a little lead, so even if the plug is hidden away you can still see it.
If you already have a whole house one you can cheat by just making up an extension socket and running one of the wires out a bit longer (e.g. the Neutral) and putting the current clamp over that. If you are doing it for more that just a quick test you will want to add extra insulation though
If you do find one then you might also need to be careful that it measures 'real' power rather than just VA. A fridge is a funny load as it contains a motor so there is lots of current sloshing around but not so much 'real' power. Cheaper meters just measure peak current and multiply that by the voltage so they will read high. In reality you might not care though if you are only looking for a guestimate