I have a "Kill-A-Watt" power meter and I blew the thermal cutoff fuse because I drew too much current. I'm wondering, why not use a regular fuse? The only thing I can think of is that the manufacturer wanted to guarantee that it would trip if it got too hot inside the meter, even if you didn't exceed the 15A max current rating. However, it's rated at 1875VA, and I can't imagine much more than 125v coming down a standard NEMA5-15 outlet (125v * 15a = 1875) , so it seems to me that just using a 15A current limiting fuse would work just as well. What am I missing? It has the standard 5-15 prongs built in, but maybe they considered that someone might find a way to plug it into 240 and thereby upping the VA and therefore heat dissipation without getting near 15A?
Also, would a thermistor be a suitable or even superior replacement for the thermal fuse?
Also, would a thermistor be a suitable or even superior replacement for the thermal fuse?