I've used my Kill A Watt to monitor power usage in my shop for 6 or 7 years. Never a problem until today. I came into the shop and smelled something burning. It was the Kill A Watt. I had a heater plugged into it, rated well below, the 15 amps of the KAW. It felt hot and there were signs of melting on the front and back. Inside, no obvious signs of a failure, no damage to the plug that was plugged into it, but a scorched area around the plugs tells me it could have caught fire if I hadn't found it when I did. My love affair with it is over for long term use, anyway.

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That kind of damage is typically due to loose fitting plugs/poor connection. The loose connection causes a lot of heat damage.

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C(-)ris
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C(-)ris
That kind of damage is typically due to loose fitting plugs/poor connection. The loose connection causes a lot of heat damage.

Agreed. Lots of resistance in a poor connection. The tines on the plug from the load is chrome plated. The socket in the KAW is cheap brass. The plugs feel snug when plugged into the KAW, but the actual socket inside told a different story, too thin to maintain good contact.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2022 04:52PM by lost in space.

I use mine only intermitenly to check power consumption, never for long term power monitoring.

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gadje
I use mine only intermitenly to check power consumption, never for long term power monitoring.

I use mine only intermitenly to check power consumption, never for long term power monitoring.


The constant plugging and unplugging of devices burnish contacts, whereas cheap contacts that don't get unplugged can allow rust to build, reducing conductivity, etc., etc.

Maybe this is a product of galvanic corrosion, but that's an uneducated guess.

A lot of appliances drawing higher current stay connected for very long periods of time without any signs of corrosion.

That's likely down to the quality of components.

In problem environments, dielectric grease might be of help.

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An electric space heater uses a lot of electricity.

A lamp with an LED bulb uses very little electricity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2022 06:39AM by freeradical.

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freeradical
An electric space heater uses a lot of electricity.

A lamp with an LED bulb uses very little electricity.

Genius!

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SDGuy

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gadje
I use mine only intermitenly to check power consumption, never for long term power monitoring.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2022 09:17AM by M A V I C.

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gadje

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freeradical
An electric space heater uses a lot of electricity.

A lamp with an LED bulb uses very little electricity.

Genius!

But that doesn't give you any info on total power consumed over time based on usage. I'll bet that in the summer that LED bulb is using more than the space heater.

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GGD

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gadje

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freeradical
An electric space heater uses a lot of electricity.

A lamp with an LED bulb uses very little electricity.

Genius!

But that doesn't give you any info on total power consumed over time based on usage. I'll bet that in the summer that LED bulb is using more than the space heater.

So if you leave it plugged in for a year and discover that either the bulb or the heater uses more power than the other annually, what are you going to do with that info?

I use a kill a watt to explore. Eg, I had a Mac that used more power when powered off than when asleep. With that, I used sleep rather than power down

I had a phone charger that drew 15w when no phone was plugged in. I tossed that and got another like one I tested that drew 1w.

I might compare one space heater to another, but knowing how much power a space heater used over a year isn't going to tell me anything useful. It wouldn't even tell me how much it cost to power it.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2022 06:26PM by M A V I C.

Eg, I had a Mac that used more power when powered off than when asleep. With that, I used sleep rather than power down

Interesting. Did you figure out what caused this unexpected behavior?