So I wanted to get myself a Kill-a-watt. Being who I am, I wanted information regarding its accuracy, especially at low power draws. I found a comparison with a industry grade equipment (Fluke is about the best out there in handheld electrical meters). It’s not encouraging, so I thought about a more proper meter, but it’s not easy to find an actual power meter that is accurate at low loads, isn’t a hassle to install and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
What do you use? Am I overthinking it?
Slight nitpick: Brymen handheld meters often have better specs in the handheld market, in particular when you are looking at a fixed price point.
You see a lot of Fluke meters around due to service agreement, as well as government and military contracts.
Don’t get me wrong, meters are fine, but there is no reason to spend that kinda money at home, unless the service manual of your washing machine explicitly states all measurements are to be done by a Fluke meter.
There was a youtube vid, testing multimeters, & there was a specific condition that produced wrong results in all the meters except Fluke, who had engineered to prevent that wrongness.
That was what decided me on trusting Fluke, in the future.
been years, no idea what channel it was on, sorry, but it should be findable for someone with patience, knowing that only the Fluke got it right, of the ones tested.
Do pay attention to the calibration-certificates, though:
Anybody paying for Fluke who ignores that their handhelds have no more than 2.5-digits of actual-accuracy, is foolish/incompetent.
( the cheap ones are sooo much worse… )
No way I’m spending over 2 grand to measure power. That was just a comparison to see how bad the killawatt is.