SPCR

I've seen numerous posts recently mentioning the Kill A Watt power meter. Seems like a useful tool to have, and at around $40 I'm quite interested. Unfortunately, this particular device is no use in the UK. Anyone know of something similar that is suitable for UK use, preferably around the same £30 mark?

Someone else here aimed me at the Brennenstuhl PM230 electricity meter, that is around £25 at Maplin. (And also mentioned they got theirs around half price during some Maplin special.) I googled their website when I got mine - probably www.brennenstuhl.de ?

I got one: main observation is it gives a reading of cos(theta) for power factor. Now some purists argue this is not 100% valid way to measure power factor. No matter, cause my meter reads 0.99 on my Seasonic APFC psu, and 1.0 on my no-name, no-PFC psu. Bottom line, if you want real PF values you may want to look for something else. Otherwise all other readings seem fine.

Cheers.
Just ordered this from Maplins (I can't be bothered to walk to the store ). Bargain price too.

Cool bargain!!

Got this one from Maplin, does the job, but the LCD display has gone really faint and flickery. Can only read it from certain angles. Might just pop down Aldi Sunday and check this one out.

I bought one from amazon.co.uk a while back.

If you missed Aldi, Lidl has them for £6.99 from Thursday.

Maplin are doing a "Nikkai N67FU" currently for £9.99
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=223573

B&Q are selling a power monitor (with battery backup) for under a tenner at the moment.

Was suprised to find my psu draws 30w when pc powered off and still draws 9w when it's switched off at the rocker

Ian_Stanley wrote:B&Q are selling a power monitor (with battery backup) for under a tenner at the moment.

Was suprised to find my psu draws 30w when pc powered off and still draws 9w when it's switched off at the rocker

Wouldn't that indicate your power monitor is not functioning very well?

peerke wrote: Wouldn't that indicate your power monitor is not functioning very well?

Maybe I didn't explain it too well

When the pc is powered off - there's a 30w draw still occurring.
When the psu rocker is switched off - there is a 9w power draw shown
When the socket is switched off (or the psu cable is removed) - there is 0w

The power monitor itself appears to work ok, it shows Volts available at the socket ok, wattage moves around dependant on load from device.

Hifi amp/printer/scanner/table lamp/battery chargers/DAB radio all show 0w when switched off but socket still on, so think that shows I've either bought naff psu's in the past or thats how they work.

I have 2 Channel Well Tech 450w psu bought a while back (x years)

Does it show power factor as well? Maybe it'd be tricked by that, otherwise?

If there is a mains filter before the switch then there will be some purely imaginary current flowing all the time. 9W seems very high for this, but if a filter is the cause then the power factor (if you can measure it) will be close to 0.

dukla2000 wrote:Someone else here aimed me at the Brennenstuhl PM230 electricity meter, that is around �25 at Maplin.

PM230 isn't a good design for UK because the power cord ends up blocking the display. They have a newer model
EM230, which is better suited for UK.

Ian_Stanley wrote:...The power monitor itself appears to work ok..

I would not call that OK. It is OK with resistive load only.
I don't understand why such things are even produced. A "real" thing should cost about the same.
I bought Unitec EIM-812, the same, about 5W filter only (PSU switched off), measures my computer's (PSU without PFC) draw 40% more than it really is. Returned to the store, got the money back. The specification is interesting also: energy +/-5% +/-0.1kWh, power +/-5% +/-10W, interference voltage/current <15%.
Bought EL-EPM02HQ (for the same price), measures real power. Seems good.

Mr Evil wrote:...imaginary current ...

The current is real. It does waste some power in the wiring.