[loupi01]

Is there and inexpensive device to monitor electrical usage (KWH) at the main panel or sub panel? Also is there a device to monitor eletrical usage at a circuit breaker (single circuit)?

Thank you...

[tkrussell]

Others here have found this plug in device:

P4460 - Kill A Watt EZ kWh Energy Monitor - Home and Office Power Consumption and Usage Monitoring

Beyond that all I know is the permanently installed electronic submetering units, such as:

E-Mon Home Page

A standard unit is about $400.00

Or there are test instruments that can do it well, such as this $15,000.00 we do recordings for $1200.00 per week:

http://us.fluke.com/usen/products/PM...keUnitedStates

Of course it does a lot more than KWH

And lesser expensive units:

Power Cost Monitors - PowerCostMonitor.com


Why may I ask? What are you up to, Lou?

[loupi01]

Home owner thinks his eletrical bill is high. He lives in a rual area. Has his own well and water tank and at least 4 additional refrigerators and freezers. He wanted to monitor the power from a couple of sub panals to see if it was the power for the house or the power for all outside equipment that was consuming much of the power. Today the local utility company came out to check his power. Found the connections from the transfomer were corroded especially the neutral connection. The home owner also were having a lot of lights bulbs burning out in the recess lights. Could this be attributed to the bad neutral connection?

[tkrussell]

The bad neutral connection is exactly the problem causing the lights to burn out. There may be damage done to other devices, such as the refrierators, and their lives may have been shortened if no damage is apparent now.

Seems the Power Cost Monitor kits will work best to determine the amount of power used in different panels.