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Basic question, but I have a doubt!

I have a pool heater that works from 240 volts. In order to calculate the annual operating cost, I installed a device that measures amperage and adds up the total consumption. The device measures by induction amperage and is connected to one of the 2 hot wires.

My question is: unless I'm wrong, the calculated total will only be for one of the two wires, so to know the total consumption of the water heater I will have to multiply by 2?

Say the appliance has calculated a total of 1000 kW/h, that would mean that my water heater actually consumed 2000 kW/h because it is connected to 240 volts?

Am I wrong ?

sylvain
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    What wires and what are kW/h? – Andy aka Aug 23 '19 at 14:42
  • A real power meter measures both current and voltage and multiplies them to get power. If you measure current only, you have to assume that voltage is constant. You should check if the voltage does not change by more than +- 5 % for instance. – Uwe Aug 23 '19 at 16:18
  • Telling us what device you are using and how you arrive at the power figure would be immensely helpful.. But - you DO NOT need to double the reading. – Russell McMahon Aug 23 '19 at 20:16
  • This is the unit in question. Maybe this can help ? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32373505087.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6b301853mHy1bR&algo_pvid=84f3d1c6-054b-4802-a3ed-9f86c2fcf3c9&algo_expid=84f3d1c6-054b-4802-a3ed-9f86c2fcf3c9-3&btsid=30c35e06-2e76-4850-b8e1-173822f80278&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_8,searchweb201603_52 – sylvain Aug 23 '19 at 22:49
  • With the unit you are using (and ANY commercial unit that uses a current transformer or current shunt) yo do NOT have to double the power reading. Doing so will produce an incirrect result - twice as large as it should be. – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 08:28

3 Answers3

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No, your initial estimate is right, you don’t multiply it by 2.

A 2-hot leg connection has equal current in each leg to and from the load (it’s a complete circuit). You can measure consumption by sensing current over time (amp-hours) on one leg and multiplying by 240V to get an estimate of watt-hours.

Also, since it’s a resistance load you will be measuring real power (power factor is unity); you don’t have to consider reactance.

hacktastical
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  • This is an OK answer. Simple and clear. And.but - do you think it says anything better than the body of my existing answer (NOT edited since before your post). I said much the same as you. By now the OP MAY have got the idea but if your answer had been the only answer then they would surely* have asked again just as certainly. || *surely = surely. – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 08:21
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If you have a meter that measures kWh (NOT kW/h) using one wire of a 2 wire circuit for current measurement then the reading is the total energy used.

________________________

Current in an AC mains powered device (and any device powered with wires from an AC or DC circuit) requires a "go" & "return" path. This is usually two wires but may be 1 wire + ground return or in very special cases "something else".

In mains powered equipment, it's two wires.

Measuring the current in one wire tells you the total current used. Usually power is measured ~= the summation of the voltage x current product over the time

If you have a meter that measures kWh (NOT kW/h) using one wire of a 2 wire circuit for current measurement then the reading is the total energy used.


Added:

You are repeatedly asking the same question in different ways and not accepting any answer except the one you want to hear.
You do NOT need to double the reading.
The meter concerned measures the current in one lead - which is the same as the current in the other lead.
It multiplies voltage x current with allowance for relative phase angle to calculate power.
It integrates the power over time to calculate energy used.
If you double the reading the calculated result will be twice as high as it should be.

This is the meter shown on the page that you cited.
If you do what they do it will kill you in due course, and/or damage something. Using clip leads in that manner is extremely unwise. Also dangerous.

enter image description here

You do NOT have to double the power reading.

Russell McMahon
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  • Russell, thanks for your comment. What do you think about the Peter's comment ? Do i need to double the kwh or not – sylvain Aug 23 '19 at 15:33
  • As I said - you DO NOT have to double the reading. The reading is for the whole circuit. – Russell McMahon Aug 23 '19 at 20:15
  • @sylvain I assumed in my answer you had a meter that was outputting a kWh reading based on the current multiplied by a sensed or fixed 120 V reference. If you have an instrument that actually outputs the integral of the current, then yes, you just multiply that by 240 V and you have your approximate amount of energy consumed (in J-s). You can do the math to convert to kWh. It'd be helpful if you edited your original post with a link to the meter you are using. – Synchrondyne Aug 23 '19 at 20:40
  • @Peter, this is the unit in question: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32373505087.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6b301853mHy1bR&algo_pvid=84f3d1c6-054b-4802-a3ed-9f86c2fcf3c9&algo_expid=84f3d1c6-054b-4802-a3ed-9f86c2fcf3c9-3&btsid=30c35e06-2e76-4850-b8e1-173822f80278&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_8,searchweb201603_52 – sylvain Aug 23 '19 at 22:51
  • Great Caeser's underwear! Those guys must really **hate** their customers. – JRE Aug 24 '19 at 08:32
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    @JRE He may not have had any. | A lot of small business in China is based on the one time customer sales model. Sell and forget. No concern about quality or reputation or .... - This is simply carrying the one tome customer model to its logical extreme. – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 11:10
  • @RussellMcMahon, First of all thank you for your answer, but I still want to clarify that I do not repeat CONTINUOUSLY, as you like to say, my question and yes I accept your answer. I just made a clarification indicating which unit I used to measure, which could have given a different answer. So, you insinuation of repeated and wanting to hear what I want to hear is misplaced. – sylvain Aug 24 '19 at 16:59
  • @sylvain Current in an AC mains powered device ... requires a "go" & "return" path. ... In mains powered equipment, it's two wires. Measuring the current in one wire tells you the total current used. Usually power is measured ~= the summation of the voltage x current product over the time. If you have a meter that measures kWh using one wire of a 2 wire circuit for current measurement then the reading is the total energy used. – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 19:40
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There are a couple of things to note here.

First, you need to be careful about measuring just the current and using that as a proxy for power consumption. This is a valid assumption for a purely resistive load, but not for any significantly inductive or capacitive load (motors tend to be quite inductive).

Reactive loads (ie: inductive or capactive loads) store energy throughout part of the waveform and release it at other times. This manifests as a circulating current and a phase shift between the voltage and current at the load terminals. This means that the actual power consumed (and billed for) will be less than what is measured if you just reckon the consumption based on the current. For further details, see the Wikipedia entry on apparent and real power.

In your case, your pool heater should look like an almost perfectly resistive load, so your apparent power should be basically equal to your real power (or close enough for your purposes). Just keep in mind that if you wanted to use the same sort of sensor to meter the power on something like a circulating pump, you wouldn't get accurate results.

In terms of your calculation, you are correct. Assuming that your inductive current sensor integrates and computes energy consumption assuming 120 V delivered to the load (you should check this), it will read half the true value on a 240 V system. To put it mathematically:

$$ P_{meas}=V_{rms}I_{rms}=120I $$

But if \$V_{rms}\$ is actually 240 V:

$$ P_{actual}=V_{rms}I_{rms}=240I $$

Then we can say:

$$ \frac{P_{meas}}{P_{actual}} = \frac{120I}{240I} = \frac{1}{2}$$

Energy consumed is just the integral of power:

$$ E(t) = \int_{0}^{t}P(t)\,dt $$

And since \$P_{actual} = 2P_{meas}\$, and since integration is linear operation, we can state:

$$ E_{act}(t) = \int_{0}^{t}P_{actual}(t)\,dt = \int_{0}^{t}2P_{meas}(t)\,dt = 2\int_{0}^{t}P_{meas}(t)\,dt $$

$$ E_{meas}(t) = \int_{0}^{t}P_{meas}(t)\,d $$

Thus:

$$ E_{act}(t) = 2E_{meas}(t) $$

So, you can get your actual consumed power by doubling your measured power.

One final note - 120V and 240V are the nominal voltages for single and split-phase in North America, but depending on where you live, the values can vary by up to 10%. If your meter does not measure the line voltage, you can expect a 10% tolerance on your measured energy. Probably fine for your application, but something to keep in mind.

Synchrondyne
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  • This is way more complicated than it needs to be... – hacktastical Aug 23 '19 at 16:22
  • @hacktastical - yOU ARE RIGHT/WRONG :-). Answers serve a number of purposes. He has already been told "No!" (and still needed telling again.) Others who wonder may find Peter's answer useful. The body of answers together forms a resource. This attracts web engine searches. This helps make the site work. This is the eal "meaning" of the site. We are but pawns/cogs / matrixites/ ... . :-) – Russell McMahon Aug 23 '19 at 20:20
  • A good answer will ‘meet the user where they are’. I leave it up to you to decide if this answer was successful in doing that. – hacktastical Aug 23 '19 at 20:48
  • @hacktastical Trite aphorisms and one line wisdom-bites sometimes work well. Sometimes not. Sometimes they miss by several country miles. I suggest you read his ongoing comments, repeated refusuals to accept the simple one sentence, or one word answer. ie NO!. Or - No! you do NOT have to double the power reading. NO answer permitted on this site (or which I would post regardless) will meet this user where they are at. And, fwiw, the aim of the site is not to 'meet the user where they are at'. It IS my aim. Most people think I usually manage this quite well. Sometimes ... – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 08:18
  • ... other approaches feel apposite :-). – Russell McMahon Aug 24 '19 at 08:18