Re: Basic AC wattage question: am I doing my math right?

On Jan 3, 11:49 pm, The Phantom <phan...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 17:01:46 -0800 (PST), HC <hboo...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Thank you all for your replies. There have been a variety of useful
responses that have helped me. I found the link to Wikipedia about
Power Factor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor) provided by
The Phantom to be quite helpful. I am going to check my equipment to
see what it states/claims it can do for AC readings of both voltage
and current (see if it does RMS) and go from there. Thank you,
Phantom, that helped a bunch.

It might be well worth your while to spend $20 and get a Kill-a-watt. It
can measure true watts, volt-amperes, power factor, amps, volts--the whole
menu! The only problem it will have is that it won't have much resolution
at very low power levels (below 1 or 2 watts), but at least it can give you
an estimate even there.

You can beat the 1W resolution by doing a kWh measurement. At 2W,
you'd need to wait about a day with the Kill A Watt to get to 0.05
kWh, from which you'd calculate the power to +/-20% accuracy
(resolution of the Kill A Watt is 0.01 kWh).

Of course, the OP must be willing to go one day without turning on the
TV.

Mark

And, if it says 1 or 2 watts, then you can figure
you're not paying much per month for that load.



Again, thanks everybody.

Happy New Year.

--HC

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: whats everyone building these days?
    ... :> When I see a transient involving a peak signal power of 3,000 watts, ... Better bring a power hacksaw and a lot of time. ... Tube amps do give a softer clip. ... :>> WE didn't use their own tubes for strictly technical reasons. ...
    (rec.audio.tubes)
  • Re: Heatsink fin area for given temp rise.
    ... The Quad is a Class B amplifier. ... Watts of Class A power. ... Which means having 32 watts in the heatsink at idle. ... I was merely correctly your misconception about fans. ...
    (rec.audio.tubes)
  • Re: Heatsink fin area for given temp rise.
    ... The Quad is a Class B amplifier. ... Watts of Class A power. ... Which means having 32 watts in the heatsink at idle. ...
    (rec.audio.tubes)
  • Re: Collins 32V-3 HF Transmitter NICE!!!
    ... I think Gary Schafer's analysis is basically correct but I have minor comments to add (in addition to my earlier post, also quoted below, claiming the 400+ peak output just could not be possible, but I think I was wrong about that). ... 60 watts of audio on that final tube will at best, double the _instantaneous_ input voltage, therefore power to 240 watts which you could only attempt to measure ... amplitude, the power at this instant is four times the unmodulated, or 400 ...
    (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors)
  • Re: Solar powered lasers in space
    ... question to me is why not have solar power in the desrt and be done ... each 1000 watts solar put in. ... The laser energy is converted by the silicon ...
    (sci.space.policy)