P4400 Kill A Watt

[Amilkar]

The "Operation Manual" (actually a single sheet, one side) for the Kill-A-Watt Power Meter reads as follows:

"The watt/VA key is a toggle function key...The LCD will display Watts as the active power, where VA is the apparent Power..."

When I try to measure the power consumption of my small freezer and I select, for example, "Watts", the P4400 reads "64". Now, if I select "VA" it reads "90". Which is the right reading? How many watts is the freezer really consuming.
Can anyone tell me the difference between "real watts" and "apparent Power"?

Thanks.

[crewzer]

Amilkar,

Your fridge is drawing 64 W of power, or “real watts”. The “apparent power” is the mathematical product of line voltage and current, and does not take into account “power factor”, or the time delay between the voltage and current cycles.

You can read all about “power factor”, “real power” and “apparent power” in this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor)

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

[Amilkar]

Crewzer:

Thanks.
Once again I am in debt.

[mike95490]

What's the story on the Kill-A-Watt's relating to mod-sine inverters - are they now usable with them, or still strictly "sine wave" only? Which does NAWS stock ?