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Old 01-24-14, 11:08 PM   #51
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Well, I finally took a bite out of the TED cookie and bought the one $20.49 shipped from one of the sellers ebay.

Put it in today and it took about 45 minutes because my main breaker has two main lines that appear to be 1/0 size and they were not one bit flexible from how they were mounted. The service hole in the box is about 3 inches from the main breaker and the line I had to work with was 4 inches long.

I had to remove the breaker above it to get the top clamp on and it was a matter of jamming the plastic clamp in place and I heard some creaking sounds from the plastic as I forced it into submission but it seems to be in tact. I didn't expect it to be this hard to get them in place but I suppose that's what I get for trying to install it in a very tight and full 100 amp service panel. I also didn't think ahead about how I was going to power the transmitter with 120v but I got lucky with a 2 conductor breaker but I still had to wire nut it to a short piece of 14 gauge because it says to match conductor sizes and only use conductors from 14# to 10# and the TED uses 16 gauge wire. I'm not too happy using my service panel as a junction box but apparently it is up to code in most places to use a wire nut.

Either way, it seems to work great and my LED and CFLs don't seem to disrupt it. I played around with turning on the clothes dryer, switching the hair dryer on and off, etc. It seems to average a few readings over a period of about 3 updates with each update being 1 second. When I turn on a heavy load like a hair dryer I watch the numbers climb rather than jump to the higher figure. So basically, don't use it as a way to determine startup loads, which is also something that the Kill-a-watt can't do either because it has a slow update rate too. I use a clamp ammeter for that purpose but sometimes its hard to isolate one conductor to measure it(had to pull the hot wire out of the switch box for the furnace, for example).

I'm happy so far.

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Old 02-02-14, 08:50 PM   #52
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I also bought one of these after seeing this thread, and was surprised how quickly it shipped. I installed it onto the heatpump lines in the main panel, and went through the setup routine.

It seemed to work at first, but later I noticed the LED wasn't blinking and it wasn't reporting power consumption despite the heat pump running. I moved it to another receptacle where it seemed to be working better. It ran for the past 12 hours or so without a hitch but now it is again reporting no usage despite the heat pump running.

Did I get a dud?
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Old 02-02-14, 09:19 PM   #53
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Mine didn't like it when we turned on CFL lights and then it seemed to be effected
by the new LED blubs! It was exasperating! Even the kitchen microwave
would stop updating instantly..

I was ready to toss Mr. TED in the trash. But, I took one more shot at it.
It took some work and creating a dedicated filter protected TED outlet,
to get reliable updating.

Now, I'm running two TEDs off that special outlet and they are doing fine.
Once in a great while, they will sync up/lockup for a while.
But the accuracy of the January readings were almost dead on.
The small amount of error was likely due to the amount of
time I ran TED #2 before calibrating it correctly.
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Old 02-02-14, 09:50 PM   #54
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It seems for me that the only thing in the house that stops my TED(yes, same cheap ebay one) is the microwave. My CFLs, LEDs, computers, electric dryer etc don't impact the TED operation. The only problem I'm getting with mine is that one leg seems to be showing half output right now. I think its because I've got a tiny little piece of wire to clamp to in the panel and the hall effect sensors are touching eachother but I'm certain that the clamps are closed completely. I'm happy that I'm getting the full reading on my housemate's bedroom but mine is on the other side of the split-phase. The electric dryer reads 3/4 what my B&D power monitor did before it failed so I assume in the summer I'll be dividing by .75 to get its output. Maybe I'll jump back in there when the weather isn't super cold and shake the offending hall sensor.
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Old 02-03-14, 08:25 AM   #55
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I'm thinking about buying a spare back-up TED, before the supply dries up..
At $20, these things aren't going to last forever.
I can't think of anything that fills this niche for $20.

For $20, these might be good for sticking on your hotwater heater..
Stand-alone-230vac logging meter?

I wonder if a resourceful DIYer could use these things for 120vac?
Maybe just multiply the displayed KW x two?
Or, put the clamps on the 120 lines, using a loop? (on each sensor clamp).

(Example of single loop).

That should double the amount of current read.. Transformer step-up effect.

I used 5 turns to boost sensitivity in my Sanyo current limiter (135A) sensors.
Those 5 turns, make 10A look like about 50A. Making it easier to adjust the setpoint to 10A..

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Last edited by Xringer; 02-03-14 at 10:28 AM..
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