How do you measure power output during electrical generation?

March 2, 2010 by admin · 5 Comments
Filed under: Engineering 
power tool
ez_porsche asked:

I’m measuring the amount of power produced by different types of electrical generation for my science fair project, and I need a tool to measure it. What should I use?

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5 Responses to “How do you measure power output during electrical generation?”
  1. pilgrimman007 says:
    March 4, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    A multimeter? pilgrimman007

  2. Ronald B says:
    March 5, 2010 at 6:42 pm

    Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a device that can do that. I couuuuullldddd be wrong, but I’m pretty sure.

    Usually for power, you have to do some simple calculations. P= VI
    Power (watts) =Total Voltage (volts) x Total Current (amps)

    You can us a Digital Multimeter to get your voltage and current values. Ronald B

  3. jamus d woespuss says:
    March 8, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    you need 2 multimeters

    1 to measure voltage and 1 to measure current ammeter

    power = voltage * current

    or a wattmeter (more expensive and not common)

    if all your generators have the same voltage an ammeter would demonstrate relative power jamus d woespuss

  4. EJ says:
    March 11, 2010 at 7:42 am

    You really need a wattmeter. Even two multimeters measuring both the voltage and current will only give you the ‘apparent power’. See the Wikipedia article for more information on ‘power factor’. If your load is a resistor then the two multimeter solution is sufficient. You might find that the value of your resistor changes the power measurements that you get. For more information on this you need to understand that the source impedance must match the load impedance for maximum power transfer. (Maximum power theorem)

    If you are measuring 120V AC then you can use the Kill-A-Watt product. EJ

  5. Bishu says:
    March 13, 2010 at 7:53 am

    You will need at least two wattmeters to measure the power generated by a 3 phase generator. See any textbook for the connection. You can also use three wattmeters in 3 phases to measure the power output. Wattmeter will only indicate the power generated at any instant.

    And if you want to measure the energy generated you will need watt-hour meters or energy meters. Bishu

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