Electrical Usage

[CADman_KS]

Originally Posted by chenevb

to add a factual bit of humor here, ...this was a reminder that over time, everything eventually attains ambient temperature, so the refrigerator part can become a freezer too...

lol.

[OldVol]

Great to know. I will definitely get one. Thanks

[OldVol]

Originally Posted by jrsemrad

There exists a handy dandy item called Kill A Watt. It can be plugged into a 120v outlet and you can determine the amps, and watts being drawn by anything plugged into it. It also has a recording feature to determine kilowatts over a period of time. I have used adapters on my shore power cable to determine current draw of electrical items in the RV. Some things like the fireplace have a small current draw all the time unless the breaker is off. Try it, you will like it. I used the Kill A Watt to figure out that an old refrigerator of mine was an electrical hog.

Would you share the product and adapter names and possible source? Sounds like a great idea. Thanks

[DebNJim B]

Originally Posted by OldVol

Would you share the product and adapter names and possible source? Sounds like a great idea. Thanks

Just search Kill A Watt in Amazon and you'll find a bunch of similar products.

On a side note we left our camper in the south to come north for the holidays and Dr. appt's. Didn't want to leave the heat on since we would have to hire someone to fill the propane tanks each week. We winterized it and left it plugged into shore power and all the stuff in the fridge so we wouldn't have to clean that all out. Hoping to get back there in a week or so and hopefully find the rig all stocked with food and ready for use.

[Jamesb]

Originally Posted by OldVol

Not electrically savvy. There is an app called MY Usage that will give me the total usage by day but doesn't identify how it is used. Many thanks for the info. I will check inside the fridge.

If your utility is offering MyUsage, then they have more data to share. Bare minimum, utilities that read your electric meter remotely, have hourly interval data logged. On most utilities websites it is offered, but is hard to find. Best thing to do is call and ask them for the hourly data from your meter. It will be in Watts, and will show you when it comes on and off, and how many Watts. They can email it to you. Good luck.

[jrsemrad]

I see others have responded and as they said it is Kill A Watt. It is available on Amazon. The unit uses a 120 volt input and output so if you want to monitor a 30 or50 amp chord you will need the proper adapter available from Amazon, Camping World and any camping supply store. Even Walmart and Ace Hardware. Have fun with it, you can check how much energy is used by an appliance when it is off.