Volt & Hour meter for a generator?
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Soundguy
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Pull start so no 12v battery on board.
Guess you could get a 120v driven mour meter / clock and run it to one o fthe 120v outputs.. or a hobbs 12v meter and do the same with a simple circuit with a resistor, diode bridge and regulator to get down to 12v dc.
Another thought is a small watch battery powered tachometer that uses a inductive wire pickup on the spark plug wire.. Many units have a hour meter.
Volt meter is easy.. find an analog meter or digital voltage display and wire up to the circuit...
There may be a comercial unit add on that already does theis.. I dunno?
Soundguy
Guess you could get a 120v driven mour meter / clock and run it to one o fthe 120v outputs.. or a hobbs 12v meter and do the same with a simple circuit with a resistor, diode bridge and regulator to get down to 12v dc.
Another thought is a small watch battery powered tachometer that uses a inductive wire pickup on the spark plug wire.. Many units have a hour meter.
Volt meter is easy.. find an analog meter or digital voltage display and wire up to the circuit...
There may be a comercial unit add on that already does theis.. I dunno?
Soundguy
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MrJimi
Elite Member, Rest in Peace
I've seen some higher dollar generators with a digital read out of volts, I am using a hand held VOM now and it's ok for now. I looked at RS ( radio shack ) and all they had was analog up to 15 volts?
Jim
Jim
sandman2234
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Do a search for "Kill a watt" on ebay. Some of them are more, but there are ones for less than 20 dollars. They also tell you the cycles, which is probably just as important as the voltage. I bought one for my Steiner, to keep the output as clean as possible.
David from jax
David from jax
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MrJimi
Elite Member, Rest in Peace
Looks like a nice gadget to own, is this something that could stay plugged in all the time ?
patrick_g
Elite Member
The Kill-A-Watt is selectable to read out freq or volts and even will give you the accumulated watt hours you produced if you want.
Otherwise you can try Digikey, Mouser and the like (G O O G L E )for a volt meter and an hour meter. There are several surplus outfits selling good stuff for your purpose really cheap.
Don't bother filtering the supply to run the old style Hobbs meters as they are just a solenoid wound escapement driven timer and are not sensitive to waveform. If there are solid state components then filter it.
Pat
Otherwise you can try Digikey, Mouser and the like (G O O G L E )for a volt meter and an hour meter. There are several surplus outfits selling good stuff for your purpose really cheap.
Don't bother filtering the supply to run the old style Hobbs meters as they are just a solenoid wound escapement driven timer and are not sensitive to waveform. If there are solid state components then filter it.
Pat
RonMar
Elite Member
Second the Kill-a-Watt.
It will just plug in to any outlet and give you volt and freq info. You can also plug an apliance or power cord into it and it will tell you the electrical load being drawn thru it in amps or watts up to it's 18A/2KW maximum. It will also give you the power factor for inductive loads. It will totalize an electrical load, so you can plug in the freezer for a month and see exactly how much power it is consuming short and long term in KW hours. Pretty handy for doing an electrical load study of your plug in appliances and seeing how large a generator you actually need. The older model will unfortunatly loose all it's stored information when it is unplugged but mine is handy. I guess they have a newer model out now that has a memory battery in it so it retains the recorded data when it looses power. I assembled a slow speed diesel generator this past summer and that is my only generator instrunment. I use it to set and monitor the RPM/frequency. Harbor freight recently started selling them in their stores, I am not sure if they are on their website or not.
As for an hour meter, you can get one from surplus center for around $24. You will need a small 12VDC or larger plug in power supply to power it. They run on 10-80V and consume about 6 watts if I recall the label on the one I just bought. The battery operated/inductive pickup models used on many lawn and garden tractors are pretty expensive, but would make a more compact installation on the pictured generator.
It will just plug in to any outlet and give you volt and freq info. You can also plug an apliance or power cord into it and it will tell you the electrical load being drawn thru it in amps or watts up to it's 18A/2KW maximum. It will also give you the power factor for inductive loads. It will totalize an electrical load, so you can plug in the freezer for a month and see exactly how much power it is consuming short and long term in KW hours. Pretty handy for doing an electrical load study of your plug in appliances and seeing how large a generator you actually need. The older model will unfortunatly loose all it's stored information when it is unplugged but mine is handy. I guess they have a newer model out now that has a memory battery in it so it retains the recorded data when it looses power. I assembled a slow speed diesel generator this past summer and that is my only generator instrunment. I use it to set and monitor the RPM/frequency. Harbor freight recently started selling them in their stores, I am not sure if they are on their website or not.
As for an hour meter, you can get one from surplus center for around $24. You will need a small 12VDC or larger plug in power supply to power it. They run on 10-80V and consume about 6 watts if I recall the label on the one I just bought. The battery operated/inductive pickup models used on many lawn and garden tractors are pretty expensive, but would make a more compact installation on the pictured generator.
Wayne County Hose
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Baileynet.com: Main Page has an hour meter on page 81 that is activated from vibration. Internal battery, just attach it and forget it.
SnowRidge
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The newer model is the P4400. It has a battery to monitor cumlative KWh, but as far as I can tell, it won't log plain old hours. The manufacturer's web site has a link to a manual, but it is really just a brochure, which doesn't provide much useful information.RonMar said:
RonMar
Elite Member
Wayne County Hose said:
Now why couldn't I find one at that price when I was looking for it
Most all the ones I found were 50+ dollars. Snowridge, I don't know about the one in the Bailys catalog that Wayne County hose pointed to, but the ones in your link have a non-replaceable battery. They say the lithium batt should be good for 8+ years, but that might be a factor.
Wayne County Hose
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RonMar said:Now why couldn't I find one at that price when I was looking for it
Snowridge, I don't know about the one in the Bailys catalog that Wayne County hose pointed to, but the ones in your link have a non-replaceable battery. They say the lithium batt should be good for 8+ years, but that might be a factor.
The one in the Bailey's catalog is the EXACT same one, only without the emblem. Oh, the other difference is price, Bailey's is half price.
By the way, nothing better than ordering the catalogs you guys post links to. It's like Christmas morning when they arrive!
patrick_g
Elite Member
My cheapie Kill-a-watt I bought at HF has time on it I believe (or am I having yet another "senior moment") but if you use your generator for 220/240 VAC power the Kill-a-watt is essentially useless. I think the max current/power rating is a bit anemic for any "MANLY" sized generators even on 120VAC.
Just how cheap are you? There are lots of DIY approaches for getting an hour meter and or a volt meter. Current meters (to measure the amps being drawn from the generator) are also handy and pretty simple to cobble up cheaply.
Stuff like Digital Hour Meter and Tachometer | Small Engine Accessories | Northern Tool + Equipment is nice but maybe more than you want to spend or you might not need the tach.
Panel Meter 0-15VDC
Model: 22-410 | Catalog #: 22-410
This panel meter is ideal for monitoring a power supply, battery charging system or car electrical s...
It is $12 from Radio Shack. A little fussing and SHAZAM the 0-15VDC meter becomes a 0150vac meter or 0-300 volt for 220-240 monitoring can be switch selected from 0-300 to 0-150 AC pretty easily.
Any of the electronics types hanging out here should be able to whip up a schematic diagram to make the mod(s) and I estimate the cost of additional parts to be under $5.
If you can find a cheap voltmeter (approx 0-15 VDC or so) suitable for automotive use monitoring the 12 volt battery it can be used to monitor 0-150VAC pretty easily or 0-300 to cover 220-240VAC.
I personally recommend the automotive type meter as it may be more rugged as regards surviving vibration. Not all meter movements will live a long life mounted on a vibrating generator.
Pat
Just how cheap are you? There are lots of DIY approaches for getting an hour meter and or a volt meter. Current meters (to measure the amps being drawn from the generator) are also handy and pretty simple to cobble up cheaply.
Stuff like Digital Hour Meter and Tachometer | Small Engine Accessories | Northern Tool + Equipment is nice but maybe more than you want to spend or you might not need the tach.
Panel Meter 0-15VDC
Model: 22-410 | Catalog #: 22-410
This panel meter is ideal for monitoring a power supply, battery charging system or car electrical s...
It is $12 from Radio Shack. A little fussing and SHAZAM the 0-15VDC meter becomes a 0150vac meter or 0-300 volt for 220-240 monitoring can be switch selected from 0-300 to 0-150 AC pretty easily.
Any of the electronics types hanging out here should be able to whip up a schematic diagram to make the mod(s) and I estimate the cost of additional parts to be under $5.
If you can find a cheap voltmeter (approx 0-15 VDC or so) suitable for automotive use monitoring the 12 volt battery it can be used to monitor 0-150VAC pretty easily or 0-300 to cover 220-240VAC.
I personally recommend the automotive type meter as it may be more rugged as regards surviving vibration. Not all meter movements will live a long life mounted on a vibrating generator.
Pat
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RonMar
Elite Member
patrick_g said:
Senior moment Pat
It does log hours and KWH used, but all that info is lost as soon as you unplug it. You are right, it is small as far as monitored thruput, but then again, my generator can only sustain 3KW anyway... The good thing about it for a portable generator/emergency power application, is that you can plug it into an outlet in the house to see how the generator voltage and frequency are without leaving the house...
George2615
Super Member
Another source is alliedelec.com
They have an assortment of hour meters that run on DC 6-28V and AC 115 and 230V priced from $17 and up. Just hook up to your 115 or 230V plug and they will start counting hours whenever you run the generator. Radio Shack has Volt meters. I did a brief search and found you could get an hour meter and a digital volt meter both for under $50 and easily install them. My generator has an hour meter but I'm thinking of adding a digital volt and frequency meters to read the 115 and 230V plugs.
They have an assortment of hour meters that run on DC 6-28V and AC 115 and 230V priced from $17 and up. Just hook up to your 115 or 230V plug and they will start counting hours whenever you run the generator. Radio Shack has Volt meters. I did a brief search and found you could get an hour meter and a digital volt meter both for under $50 and easily install them. My generator has an hour meter but I'm thinking of adding a digital volt and frequency meters to read the 115 and 230V plugs.
ctpres
Gold Member
Try ebay search for "hour meter". two brands availe that run on self contained battery and two wires, one to ground and the other wraps around spark plug wire. Install easy, cheap and could be moved around on seaso0nal eq. I'm getting one for ztr and one for generator, might even get one for push mower. Believe one also serves as tach. Typically $25.00 ea shipping included
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patrick_g
Elite Member
RonMar said:Senior moment Pat
Plugging the monitor into the wall in the house will only tell you voltage and frequency and the consumption of any loads plugged into the device. You will have no clue about other loads on the generator (can be important.) There are really simple and cheap meters made for plugging into an outlet to show voltage and you can get the resonant reed type of freq meter that way too.
HF sells digital multimeters so cheap that for in-house use I'd probably wire the leads to a plug to make it convenient to monitor the voltage. for that matter the HF cheapie is sooooo cheap I'd recommend it for monitoring the generator output at the generator. Teh little digital multimeter has an off/on switch to conserve power when not running the generator.
Pat
RonMar
Elite Member
I agree there are a lot of ways to skin this. Most of these small simple generators are harmonically excited so there is a relationship between output voltage and load. As you load the engine down to it's maximum, the RPM and voltage will droop. With a little experience with the particular configuration, you will be able to tell the generator load by the output voltage/freq. I set my little 3KW for 62HZ no load and it droops to just above 58HZ at it's full load of 3KW. I have an electrical outlet that is half way up the wall in my living room that the pellet stove is plugged into. I place the kill-a-watt into that outlet and at a glance can gauge the generator load.
patrick_g
Elite Member
RonMar said:
That is a clever and convenient solution for your particular situation.
I have a 6KW (5.5 KW cont) and 12.5 (8 Kw or so continuous) and use them for 240VAC a good part of the time (plasma cutter, stick welder especially the larger one) so I don't use a Kill-A-Watt for those but I may start plugging one in (I have a couple) just to monitor freq, based on your comments.
Thanks for the good idea. Hopefully mine will react similar to yours.
Pat
