BALDR Eco Power Socket Energy Meter

An Inexpensive Power Meter That Works

Found and used this power meter to determine how much phantom power was used by a new washing machine whose plug sparked every time it was plugged into the dedicated outlet, which was replaced by a new combination arc fault and ground fault circuit interrupting outlet. My concern was leaving an appliance plugged in to power while not being used, over concern the machine could develop an electrical short circuit and start a fire. I always unplug similar electrical appliances when not in use to minimize that chance. I found the power meter showed the washing machine was drawing approximately 7 watts of energy when plugged in, but not operating. Besides wasting this energy continuously, I was concerned over the unnecessary waste of electricity when the washing machine was not running, and the increased potential for an electrical malfunction. I transferred the startup load to a heavy-duty grounded power cord which was operated by an illuminated On-off switch, which has a higher current carrying capacity than the dedicated hard-wired circuit which feeds the outlet. I realize the switch is expendable, but am hoping the duration of it's use will be detected while the washing machine is running, instead of having the wiring or hard-wired circuit fail when we are not home. I am looking forward to using the power meter to measure power consumption of other appliances to determine the amount of electrical load and the true cost of operating them.