Topic: [GUIDE] Want to measure power usage but don't have a Kill-A-Watt or multimeter? (Read 5312 times)

Things like that and the Kill-A-Watt are the best solution.
You can't get an accurate measurement just by measuring the current, because you aren't measuring voltage and calculating power factor.
Also, with inductive ammeters, you still have to separate the wires in the cable and clamp around only one of them.  If you clamp around the all of them, it will read zero.

The listed price is 20 USD or so, so it would be on par with a watt-meter. Since it's discontinued, you can only safely measure your consumption by using a dedicated watt-meter or looking at your electric meter.

Other unsafe methods involve using an amp-meter on your power cable (unsafe and costly) or an induction amp-meter (possibly unsafe and costlier). Personally I have this:

They have devices that read the glass bubble for you and calculate power usage as well.

http://www.mymeterstore.com/p3982/power_cost_monitor.php

According to that page, the Blueline Innovations 28000 is now discontinued though.

You require the following basic technological devices already present in your 21st century home:
- a watch/timer/stopwatch/clock/hourglass
- an electric meter installed at your premises

Follow these instructions:
- walk up within readability range of your electric meter display, which measures the electricity used by your mining rig
- read information about the instant measurement specifications (some meters will display instant/timed consumption, this is easy mode and outside the scope of this guide)
- use the information obtained from the electric meter, along with the time keeping device to measure the current power usage
- turn on/off your mining rig or just the mining activity, depending on it's previous state, or adjust coarse parameters
- measure again the instant power usage, calculate the difference, this is your mining power usage

Examples:

Mechanical meter.
The front plate indicates this meter disc will rotate 250 times for a single kWh. One rotation will be the equivalent of 0.004 Wh. You can measure how many seconds it takes for the disc to make a complete rotation, or a relatively low number of rotations (5, 10) if the speed is rather fast compared to a second. You can tap the start/stop buttons on your watch, or memorize the start and end seconds of the rotations, or count the clicks on your mechanical clock. The hourglass method users will be more familiar already as to how their hipster device operates.

For example, if you are using 1kWh, this counter will rotate 250 times an hour, or 4.15 times a minute, or once every 14.4 seconds.


Digital meter.
The device will have a front-facing LED and an LCD spot that will blip regularly. This device indicates it will blip 1000 times for every kWh. You can measure as above, the time intervals between blips or the number of blips in a given time interval.

For example, if you are using 1kWh, the LED/LCD will blip 1000 times an hour, or 16.66 times a minute, or once every 3.6 seconds.

Notes:
The measurements you make here will indicate exactly how much you will be billed for your power usage, this is what the power distributor will use to measure and invoice you with.
Repeat the measurements for better accuracy, on first measurement you can get a +/-5% error margin, which is good enough to find out your coarse power consumption for your mining activities.
Remember to subtract your "off" wattage from your "on" wattage to obtain the difference used in the actual mining process.
If you have a different design, or difficulties with your measurements, post a picture in this topic for assistance.