Energy meter total time seems to have gone up the creak.

[ericmark]

Work Zone Essential Electricals Power Meter GT1379 I would zero the readings by pressing the price button for over 3 seconds and it would record and save max watts, max amps, kWh, and time it has been running for, it also shows volts, amps, watts, power factor, time of day, what day it is but it was the kWh and total time which was important to me.

However instead of total time, it now seems to be recording time when there is a load, I am sure it was total time, and the instructions also say it records total time.

I have tried removing and refitting batteries, and the clock keeps good time. Anyone else had this, and could it be caused by pressing wrong buttons and changing some mode?

 

[JohnW2]

... However instead of total time, it now seems to be recording time when there is a load, I am sure it was total time, and the instructions also say it records total time.

Interesting. I've certainly seem some (indeed, I own one) which only records the total amount of time for which there was a load - which I personally find totally useless for most applications.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

I do wonder if it always did that? With a upright freezer there is always a current draw, only with the chest freezer is it zero between motor runs, it states total time and I always thought it was total time when voltage is applied. So I now wonder if I have recorded wrong data in the past?

 

[JohnW2]

I do wonder if it always did that? With a upright freezer there is always a current draw, only with the chest freezer is it zero between motor runs, it states total time and I always thought it was total time when voltage is applied. So I now wonder if I have recorded wrong data in the past?

Indeed - and that is exactly how I came to realise what this one of mine was doing. One of the first things I tried it on was a fairly old chest freezer (which I suspected {correctly!} was using excessive amounts of electricity). After I'd left the monitor connected for some time, it told me the total kWh used and the 'total time' - and, since I thought it meant total actual time, dividing one by the other produced an answer which made me think that it had been running continuously for very many hours.

In reality, what the monitor was telling me was how much electricity it used during the periods when the compressor was running.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

I with a small 32 litre freezer also tested time and power, when I divided one into other it showed the unit was never switching off, three possible faults, one insulation has failed, the thermostat has failed, and three lost some gas so not cooling efficiently, the simple next move was to measure temperature, however my attempts to buy a thermometer to measure -18°C failed, there were non in local shops, however I found brine freezes at -18°C so mixed up some salt and water put it on a tray in freezer and it froze solid.

So sent for two thermostats, one for freezer and one for my beer brewing, the latter arrived first so until the one for freezer arrived I used the one bought for brewing, the freezer was hitting -24°C and once set to -18°C the freezer started to cycle. Looking back on my records it shows I re-tested and it showed motor running approx 60% of the time, so it would seem the total time was being recorded correctly, however it was at my mothers so lefts running for days, and in notes I have day started test with time and day finished with time, so may be I didn't use the total time, but I think I did.

I am about to take that 32 litre out of service, likely fit a STC-1000 or similar as found it uses more power than the 203 litre chest freezer, once a STC-1000 is fitted I can change the temperature with easy from -18°C to +4°C (fridge) or +12°C (wine chiller) likely it will end up in caravan.