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Forum Index : Windmills : KWH Meter for DC

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Mertz

Newbie

Joined: 03/04/2008
Location: United States
Posts: 15
Posted: 03:04pm 17 Apr 2008
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I would like to track my power output from my wind generators to see if it is worth the effort to go further with trying to tie to the grid. I know my output will not be a lot. I am thinking of adding one more generator to help with output. Does anyone make a KWH meter for dc current or can I use a regular house meter? Kill A Watt only measures but does not record.
Mertz
 
solarwind

Regular Member

Joined: 03/02/2008
Location: South Africa
Posts: 51
Posted: 06:56pm 17 Apr 2008
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A regular house meter will not work on dc (assuming your wind generators produce dc) because it works in a similar fashion as an induction motor which relies on an alternating magnetic field to drive it. What you could use, is an Ampere-hour meter to measure amps put into a storage battery or into a load resistance in a given time.
On the other hand, if you monitor the average current with an ammeter into a known resitance, you could calculate the average power. P=I*I*R in Watts. Multiply this watts with the average hours of output/day and you'll see the watt-hours.(or kWh if your set-up is really big!) Sorry, this is a manual way of doing it. Any other suggestions out there?
You don't have success until you've tried it!
 
GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127
Posted: 11:06pm 17 Apr 2008
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Mertz,

Wattsup do make a digital power meter that records accumulated Ahr and displays Watts and amps and voltage and holds max watts.... Gordon.
become more energy aware
 
Gill

Senior Member

Joined: 11/11/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 669
Posted: 10:09am 18 Apr 2008
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This site has the PicLog that you can make yourself. The site shows pics of the old PicLog program, but the current one logs: Battery Voltage, Amps, Watts, Watt/Hours, RPM, and Wind Speed. What more could a bloke need?



Edited by Gill 2008-04-19
was working fine... til the smoke got out.
Cheers Gill _Cairns, FNQ
 
greendreamin
Newbie

Joined: 02/02/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 20
Posted: 03:53am 19 Apr 2008
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hi there

here in oz there is a regulator that is mad localy plasmatronics pl series these are not KWH meters but record the amp hours and you can calculate the KWH form the amp hours times the voltage.
i think xantrex also make an amp hour meter it is used to help moinitor batterys called an XBM, think also outback may make one.
these arent KWH meters butyou can use these to help work it out

Stu
 
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