[geeks] Got the CurrentCost meter installed

[Patrick Finnegan]

On Saturday, January 15, 2011, Bill Bradford wrote:
> Without electrocuting myself.. 8-)
> 
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/5357836479/
> 
> I'm using this script:
> 
> http://graham.auld.me.uk/projects/g-power/

Hmm.  It looks like it only include ammeters, and doesn't have any way 
to measure the voltage on the wires - which means it's not as accurate, 
and it's really measuring Volt-Amps not Watts (you're billed by Watts, 
not Volt-Amps).  Still cool, but to an crazy pedant engineer like me, 
not quite what want. ;)

I've got a couple of APC metered PDUs (AP7840 - though rated at "208V", 
they work on 120V or 240V just fine) for monitoring computer loads, but 
they have the same problem - they meter amps, and don't give me watts 
(or even volt-amps for that matter),  Some stuff has a really bad power 
factor which will make the volt-amp load much higher than the actual 
wattage used (especially switching power supplies which don't have much 
load on them).

For when I just "gotta know" the power usage, I have a real (analog) 
power meter that I can wire in-line with circuit temporarily.  That was 
handy to figure out how my Altix 4700 was going to affect my power bill 
for the month.  I'd like to spend some time and set up a real monitoring 
solution, preferably with SNMP access. :)

Pat
-- 
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