sorry for the book but i REALLY need others input...
alright so here's the scenario. lately I have been looking into pulling a couple of circuits off my main breaker onto a secondary load center and running those circuits on an inverter. which the battery bank will be charged by solar cells. I have been trying to calculate the total amp draw required to run the circuits. after firing up all the items on the circuit i pull out my handy dandy clamp meter and attach the meter to the wire. set it for 20~ setting and proceed to check the draw. i then go around and check into all the bulbs fans etc on the circuit and check the ratings there estimated at and compare the draw that i am getting from the wire to the estimated draw that should occur given what number i have from the devices. comparing the two its pretty close. the draw is slightly less than the estimated number (.5 - 1amp) difference. which tells me my meter should be working properly.
so far so good....
so then i get a wild hair up and decide for fun i will try and check the load on other circuits so that if later on i want to move things like my fridge over to the inverter i could. so i go and look up online what the average watt rating a fridge should run at (which from what i found is around 700 watt) and then plug the wire clamp up to the circuit and run in and open the doors. check the load. then wait till the freezer / fridge kicks on and test the load during that as well. To my suprise I find the meter telling me my fridge is pulling 1.5 amps which should equate to 165 watts. so now I am puzzled. is there something wrong with my meter or is it just a co-incidence that my fridge (being energy star compliant) runs at a MUCH MUCH lower rate?
to try something larger in an effort to determin if my meter is wrong i test my microwave. i havent the slightest clue what wattage rating my microwave is so i set it to high and kick it on and test the circuit using the meter. the meter jumps to almost 6 amps. which equates to 650-660 watts. seeing as its a cheap-e microwave that sounds about right.
So long story short am I going crazy to think my meter is wrong or could it be possible that things are really drawing that low of a draw (running rate obvisouly I am looking for)? Seeing as usually my fridge and microwave are running on the same circuit if I go off the estimates of usage online the 600 watt microwave (according to online should be 1100 watt real power) and fridge rating 700 watt which would indicate a draw of 16+ amps and the circuit is only a 15amp circuit.
using the online estimates the circuit should go POP....
can someone anyone tell give some input. is things that really low of a draw?
any input would help.
alright so here's the scenario. lately I have been looking into pulling a couple of circuits off my main breaker onto a secondary load center and running those circuits on an inverter. which the battery bank will be charged by solar cells. I have been trying to calculate the total amp draw required to run the circuits. after firing up all the items on the circuit i pull out my handy dandy clamp meter and attach the meter to the wire. set it for 20~ setting and proceed to check the draw. i then go around and check into all the bulbs fans etc on the circuit and check the ratings there estimated at and compare the draw that i am getting from the wire to the estimated draw that should occur given what number i have from the devices. comparing the two its pretty close. the draw is slightly less than the estimated number (.5 - 1amp) difference. which tells me my meter should be working properly.
so far so good....
so then i get a wild hair up and decide for fun i will try and check the load on other circuits so that if later on i want to move things like my fridge over to the inverter i could. so i go and look up online what the average watt rating a fridge should run at (which from what i found is around 700 watt) and then plug the wire clamp up to the circuit and run in and open the doors. check the load. then wait till the freezer / fridge kicks on and test the load during that as well. To my suprise I find the meter telling me my fridge is pulling 1.5 amps which should equate to 165 watts. so now I am puzzled. is there something wrong with my meter or is it just a co-incidence that my fridge (being energy star compliant) runs at a MUCH MUCH lower rate?
to try something larger in an effort to determin if my meter is wrong i test my microwave. i havent the slightest clue what wattage rating my microwave is so i set it to high and kick it on and test the circuit using the meter. the meter jumps to almost 6 amps. which equates to 650-660 watts. seeing as its a cheap-e microwave that sounds about right.
So long story short am I going crazy to think my meter is wrong or could it be possible that things are really drawing that low of a draw (running rate obvisouly I am looking for)? Seeing as usually my fridge and microwave are running on the same circuit if I go off the estimates of usage online the 600 watt microwave (according to online should be 1100 watt real power) and fridge rating 700 watt which would indicate a draw of 16+ amps and the circuit is only a 15amp circuit.
using the online estimates the circuit should go POP....
can someone anyone tell give some input. is things that really low of a draw?
any input would help.