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Measuring 240V Electric Consumption

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012.

  1. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    Does anyone know of an electric consumption meter like Kill-a-Watt or Watts Up that works for 240V?

    I tried looking for 240V versions of these two popular electric consumption meters, but it seems like they are limited to 120V. I did find a reference to 240V Watts Up, but it was for Europe.
     
    #1 ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012
  2. JamesBurke

    JamesBurke Senior Member

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    #2 JamesBurke, Mar 7, 2012
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  3. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    Well, I hoping for something a little less expensive than $2K. :)

    Also, how does it work? I know the current can be measured by the magnetic field generated, but how is the voltage measured to calculate power?
     
    #3 ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012
  4. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    #4 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 7, 2012
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  5. Fluker

    Fluker Junior Member

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    #5 Fluker, Mar 7, 2012
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  6. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    During the brief period that I was driving the electric Porsche I tried to find a 240-v meter. I could not find anything affordable. Fortunately, the Tesla tells me how much electricity I use to charge it, including total cost for the charge, since it lets me input my cost per kWh.

    Don't the Leaf, PiP, and Volt tell you how much electricity was drawn during charging?
     
    #6 daniel, Mar 7, 2012
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  7. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    -
     
    #7 ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012
  8. drees

    drees Senior Member

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    #8 drees, Mar 7, 2012
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  9. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    There's a good chance I will get an L2 EVSE installed on a separate time-of-use meter eventually, but when that happens depends on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. So eventually, I'll probably have that sort of setup. In the meantime, I'm looking for a simple, inexpensive plug-n-play solution until I get the separate TOU meter installed.

    I guess I can always resort to recording each charge from the Multi-Information Display for a few weeks.
     
    #9 ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012
  10. drees

    drees Senior Member

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    Not sure what kind of plug your EVSE has, but it shouldn't be difficult to build a "plug-in" version of the meter I described if you're somewhat handy. Just wire up the meter box with a receptacle on one and and a plug on the other and stick it in between your EVSE and plug.

    No one has measured how accurate the MID is yet...
     
    #10 drees, Mar 7, 2012
  11. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    I'm pretty sure I could build it, but it's just not worth the time, effort, and money to me for a few weeks of temporary use.
     
    #11 ryogajyc, Mar 7, 2012
  12. ukr2

    ukr2 Senior Member

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    Joseph, I'd just call Kill-a-Watt. They could have it and are looking for a market.
     
    #12 ukr2, Mar 7, 2012
  13. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    I never received a response from P3 International, which makes the Kill-a-Watt. Some googling resulted in finding a reasonably inexpensive 240V basic $90 power meter mentioned on an EV forum:
    Basic kWh Meter 100A 120/240-volt, 3-wire, 60Hz EKM-25IDS

    TED is overkill for me and more expensive at $200. The utility electric meter is cost-effective, but is a lot larger in size.
     
    #13 ryogajyc, May 11, 2012
  14. planeflyer

    planeflyer Junior Member

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    #14 planeflyer, May 12, 2012
  15. fjpod

    fjpod Member

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    You could rig up a device where you use two Kill-o-Watts. Make a line splitter from the 240 volt socket, plug the two killowatt devices into it, then make a reverse splitter to go back to the EVSE...or I just had a better idea...just use a single 120Volt killowatt through one lead of the line leading to the EVSE and multiply by two.
     
    #15 fjpod, May 12, 2012
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  16. JamesBurke

    JamesBurke Senior Member

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    #16 JamesBurke, May 12, 2012
  17. pfile

    pfile Member

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    where is this information shown? whenever i finish charging, unplug and then start up the car, i just see a screen that says "CHARGE RESULT: FINISHED NORMALLY" or something to that effect. there does not seem to be a number associated with that. i have the base model; maybe the advanced tells you?

    if i turn on the car while it's charging, it reports what the charger power is, but that's not energy, it's power...
     
    #17 pfile, May 12, 2012
  18. ryogajyc

    ryogajyc Active Member

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    It isn't. I misread the power display.
     
    #18 ryogajyc, May 13, 2012
  19. pfile

    pfile Member

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    actually, i think this is my #1 pet peeve with the prius (and for that matter, the leaf too...) it would be very easy for them to remember how much power was put into the car from the wall.

    as far as i can tell, the HV/EV split displays only show you how many KWh were consumed while the car was in EV mode and the ICE was off.

    i have an L2 charger for my leaf and i also use the L1 charger that came with the prius, so even if i had put a kill-a-watt on my L1 charger i'd still have to go into the stats for the L2 EVSE and fish out all the times that the prius was charging...
     
    #19 pfile, May 14, 2012
  20. echodelta

    echodelta New Member

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    For the 120V I happily use the Kill-A-Watt
    I mentioned somewhere I have a TED5000 as well, but haven't gone around adding a secondary CT & MTU. You may also find the following items useful for 240 V:
    http://www.ekmmetering.com/
    If anyone has successfully done the 'split' of the 240 V and added the Kill-A-Watt on one of the 'live' wires please post your experience. I would then recommend doubling (or setting to $2.00) the electricity rate price to get accurate pricing or kWh usage straight off the display.
    Not sure if anyone has measured the power function of the battery charging, I assume it must be quite close to 1.
     
    #20 echodelta, Jul 16, 2012
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