Cheap power meter from aliexpress or amazon?

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casulo

Member
Nov 30, 2022
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My present power meter doesn't measure low wattage like below 9-10W or around that. Can anyone please recommend a cheap power meter? Can be on aliexpress or amazon. I see many on aliexpress, but the reviews don't say anything about low wattages.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
1,035
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You probably want a Belling BL6523B or GX based meter. Or one based on the ADE7953. These are precise enough. 0.1% or so. If you put BL6523 into Youtube you will find a video from some guy who has connected his meter to Tasmota. You can see the model in the video. Of course China being the Wundertüte of electronics it is, you could get a meter looking like that but with totally different and much worse characteristics.

You might say, holy smokes how did I know all this. I didn't. I cheated. All I knew was that Tasmota has drivers for various chips which are energy meters. So I looked through Tasmota's drivers for nicely precise chips. See here: Tasmota/tasmota/tasmota_xnrg_energy at development · arendst/Tasmota Maybe you can find a few more with similar precision.

As per usual, if you get a Shelly 2.5 to reflash it to Tasmota, 110V or 230V are serious hazards. If you touch the wrong wire, you might die or be seriously injured. I have touched 230V inadvertantly a couple of times in my life. Knocked 50 IQ points off easily.
 
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abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
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I just need a simple one. The problem with most, i guess, is reading very low wattages.
You are right, hard to find ready-made low wattage 120V power meters. Very hard to find meters for measuring even ~12 watt load with even 10% or better accuracy (1.2 watt). I think most folks just use multimeter and estimate real power.
 
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fta

Active Member
Feb 19, 2017
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I bought this one:

US $19.48 40% Off | Digital Wattmeter WIFI/Bluetooth 220V AC Power Meter Electricity Consumption Energy Meter Power Wattage Electricity Meter

It measures below 10W, but I don’t know how accurately it is doing so. It shows 4W when my little router box is plugged in but not powered on.
 
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Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
3,545
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I have some Lantronix switched / metered PSU's and they read down to a quarter watt which is what a Supermicro server with dual power supplies pulls when turned off.
 

abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
681
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I have some Lantronix switched / metered PSU's and they read down to a quarter watt which is what a Supermicro server with dual power supplies pulls when turned off.
Sounds promising. Do you happen to have a link to your recommended model?
 

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
3,545
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Lantronix SecureLinx SLP-H8

These are 120v models 8 outlet, perfect for home labs and they are rocks. Never had even the slightest problem with them. I'm currently running 3 and have one as a backup.
 
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abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
681
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Lantronix SecureLinx SLP-H8

These are 120v models 8 outlet, perfect for home labs and they are rocks. Never had even the slightest problem with them. I'm currently running 3 and have one as a backup.
Thank You :)
 
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piranha32

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2023
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My present power meter doesn't measure low wattage like below 9-10W or around that. Can anyone please recommend a cheap power meter? Can be on aliexpress or amazon. I see many on aliexpress, but the reviews don't say anything about low wattages.
Not exactly the bottom of the price barrel, but I use Shelly Plugs for many devices. I haven't tested accuracy, but they seem to be doing reasonably well with loads in the range of 5-6W
Shellies work very well with Homeassistant, and data logging via mqtt.
 
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abq

Active Member
May 23, 2015
681
211
43
Not exactly the bottom of the price barrel, but I use Shelly Plugs for many devices. I haven't tested accuracy, but they seem to be doing reasonably well with loads in the range of 5-6W
Shellies work very well with Homeassistant, and data logging via mqtt.
Thank You !