mramos1

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/...NEWS/103030094

Anyone have a circuit to tap and read the power main current? I did not see the details on the actual hookup.

dknguyen

You mean the power main to your house? Or the actual main under your house? I imagine you just get a an AC current probe (the ones that use the hall effect), don't you?

EIther that or a current sense transformer is being used.

mramos1

I have seen the amp meter that clamp around a wire and will read the current. Maybe I will research that angle. Be nice to see if I am able to cut power use.

mneary

From the news article, he might be sensing the magnetic field near the meter. Then he would transmit it to the display unit.

Sounds simple, but powering and calibration of the transmitter are interesting problems.

I did a patent search (on the name Littlehales), and didn't find anything relevant.

mramos1

I figure if I can look at the loads and record them, get the power bill and get an idea.

Unless they have rate changes at certain times, and the probably do. But nice to see what really eats the power up.

dknguyen: Have not really thought about were to tap in. I have a meter outside but the wires are in a pipe that goes under the house so sort of sheilded. In the garage, 2 panels, with 2 110VAC sides on each. So that will be another thing to figure out.

picasm

I saw something similar on a recent tv program about saving power here in the UK.
They showed a hand held wireless display of power being used in the house.

I think it is a bit of a gimmick but a quick google search it looks like it was an "Electrisave"
http://www.electrisave.co.uk/pages/about_us/what
- a bit too for expensive for me at £80 just to see how much power is being used.
I bought a much cheaper plug-in monitor for about £5 that shows how much each appliance plugged-into it uses.

Thunderchild

you want to save power ?
don't use uneccesary stuff to start with, only use cheap running bulbs and DO turn them off when not needed. don't have more fridge/frezzer than neccesary, my nan insists on keeping a large freezer that is about 40 yrs old nearly broken down and consumes something like 5-6 KW per day and probably has already cost tens of times in current that which is stored in it,

if you have a CRT monitor change it for a LCD one they use 1/10th the power. if you have a very old computer but do intensive tasks and wait a long time for these to complete then consider a new computer it will consume about the same and do it anything like 3-4 times faster (my old athlon XP 2600+ used a couple of watts more than my new intel C2D E6300 and the 6400 and others use the same as well !).
the list is endless,

if your thinking global warming then don't use elctric heating, most power stations are onle 30-40 % efficient so for every KW of heat another 2-2.5 KW have already been expelled into the atmospere

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mramos1

All bulbs are switched out. 3 kids have 19" CRT monitors. But I can not afford LCD. Looking at your list I am close, I never turn my computer off
because Windoze takes to long to boot, but I have LCD.

Not a global warming thing, I do not believe that is real. But looking to see where the waste is and if I can save some money (for LCDs for the kids )

Thanks for the info.

Thunderchild

well global warming is real I am afraid we under estimate our .... power, to start with remember that for every KW of electricity that reaches your home 2-2.5 KW was wasted as heat as powerstations over all and with the transmission lines are only 30-35 % efficient. turn that pc off and have more patience in the future, do 3 children need a computer each ? cmon what are they business executives ? make that 2 for three teach them to share... a 19" CRT uses 100 odd watts, just remember the CRT monitor will use as much as the computer. I have a total consumption of about 120 W.
I hope you don't beleive computers last longer when left on I knew a jerk that thought that.

__________________
I AM the exeption that disproves the rule in many ways but the rules still apply (unfortunately)

my site:www.simons-photography.com
http://rushdenrotaract.org.uk
see also
http://www.bigstockphoto.com/account...fid=m2URATYch5
http://www.redbubble.com/people/simonsphotography

Hero999

Unfortunately throwing CRT monitors away and replacing them with LCDs isn't good for the environment either. Manufacturing new LCD monitors requires lots of energy, the old monitors contain hazardous substances and recycling can be expensive and consume lots of energy. Also lots of energy is consumed transporting the new monitors to you and the old ones to the dump.

There is some evidence to suggest that CRT monitors last longer if they're not turned on and off all the time; I don't know about LCD monitors though, I imagine that if the contain CCT (Cold Cathode fluorescent Tubes) that might be the case.

As far as power requirements are concerned in my experience LCDs are as efficient as CRTs. My new LCD monitor and old CRT monitors both say 100V-240V 1.5A on the back. Clearly the best thing as far as the environment is concerned is to only replace your CRT monitor with a new TFT monitor when it wares out or gets broken.

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Nigel Goodwin

The power consumption of an LCD and CRT are pretty much the same, bearing in mind that an LCD takes full power all the time, and a CRT depends on beam current (brightness). The 1/10th power consumption is a complete work of fiction - it's nothing like that, and may even actually be higher!.

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mramos1

Thunderchild

My machine is left on because quite often I need to get to files during the day as well I hate the long windows delay. And that is if my wife IS home to turn it on for me. I DO work for executives and they do not like to hear I can not access that file right now or give me 15 minutes.

It "must" stay on all night as it does offsite backups for the company I work for and watches our buildings to make sure all the system are working. The ones that turn the AC (water cooling towers) on and off at night. Hope that is OK??

I do turn off the monitor and printers when I am not here.

Far as the kids with 3 machines, why have two and make them share? They can share one, or better mine.

I am sure, not everyone on the forum here shares their PC with their kids Also, they can not play each other in LAN games like they do now unless they each have one.

Hero999

I don't know about that, the hot cathode fluorescent tube driver board from an old 486 laptop I dismantled had a nice variable brightness PWM inverter in it.

__________________
What's so bad about Microsoft?

Get Opera it's simply a superb browser.

Nigel Goodwin

Yes, you can often turn the backlight down (often called 'power save mode') - but it doesn't change with picture content, it's constant at the level it's set to.

__________________
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Thunderchild

Wrong I never listen to those readings I think they must refer to fuse ratings r the power consumption to consider to be on the safe side in supplying power, example my monitors (separate) power unit produces 3 amps but the monitor uses 1.4 amps I have measure this with my tester, using an ex electric boards meter I measure the consumption of a CRT monitor and it was at least 90 Watts (against about 15-20 watts of the LCD)

__________________
I AM the exeption that disproves the rule in many ways but the rules still apply (unfortunately)

my site:www.simons-photography.com
http://rushdenrotaract.org.uk
see also
http://www.bigstockphoto.com/account...fid=m2URATYch5
http://www.redbubble.com/people/simonsphotography