Clamp meter with max hold

[Jimmyb]

hello, Is there a good clamp meter with max data hold function, i want to measure demand on a installation over a day or so and thought this might do the job but didnt know which to buy and was wondered if they will give a good indication of load or would it just measure the peak eg what was pull for a split second when a big load was turn on then drop to normal load so the results i get wouldnt help me at all.

thanks

jimmy

 

[Engineer54]

hello, Is there a good clamp meter with max data hold function, i want to measure demand on a installation over a day or so and thought this might do the job but didnt know which to buy and was wondered if they will give a good indication of load or would it just measure the peak eg what was pull for a split second when a big load was turn on then drop to normal load so the results i get wouldnt help me at all.



thanks

jimmy

With clamp meters, it's best to test at known periods of high demand!! Problem is most of those periods will be outside working hours. The type of clamp meter your talking about, that logs the data can be expensive for a one off job. Better to go for hiring a single or 3 phase power analyser for a few days. They will log data over long periods of time and give you far more than just Max current demand, all of which is down-loadable onto a PC to give you printouts etc... These bit's of kit are precision meters and more than adequatly accurate for your needs and more!!

 

[MarkieSparkie]

I would echo E54's good advice, hire a power analyser, it's the tool for this type of job. A Max hold clamp meter, is unsuitable, it will just record the maximum peak demand during any period of use therefore any inrush or start-up events will swamp any meaningful data it might have recorded. You can get data logging clamp meters. The good quality, state-of-the-art units are very expensive to purchase and in my experience awkward to use, particularly to interpret the data stored. If it's a recently introduced unit with a download capability this is less of an issue.

 

[Rockingit]

Agree with posts above, and another practical problem with trying to use a conventional clamp meter is that it will turn itself off after a few minutes as a battery saving feature!!