Is there a tool that can help me find out which room uses the most electricicty?

March 2, 2010 by admin · 7 Comments
Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs 
power tool
E J asked:

he power went down in part of our house, and I suspect that it was coming from one of the rooms downstairs. Is there a tool that would allow me to see which room is the possible cause of that?

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7 Responses to “Is there a tool that can help me find out which room uses the most electricicty?”
  1. Ying says:
    March 2, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    You’re talking about a VOLTAGE METER

    Find it in all your local DIY stores…Home Depot, Menards ETC Ying

  2. Lance says:
    March 2, 2010 at 8:17 pm

    I don’t know if it’s what your saying or the way your saying it but it’s not making sense. There is a device that you can use at the main panel in your house to read the amount of amps being drawn by each individual circuit. It’s called an amp probe and the inductive type amp probe allows you to take readings without disconnecting any wires. You are going to want help if your not trained to be inside the main panel. Lance

  3. greg says:
    March 4, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    Hi, if the rooms are circuited separately, you can use an ammeter to find the higher current draw, or a kilowatt hour meter such as E-MON DEMON, to find usage.
    you should have this work done by a qualified electrician, of course. greg

  4. SexyTrojan says:
    March 7, 2010 at 10:53 am

    Anything that “creates” heat or cold air through an outlet will be your biggest sources of electrical energy:

    Water Heater
    Fridge
    HVAC
    Electric Oven
    Dryer
    etc. SexyTrojan

  5. John * says:
    March 10, 2010 at 12:39 am

    Here is a simpler way of correcting the problem. Make sure that major appliances such as washing machines, dryers, stoves, refrigerators, and any other large power hungry devices are only used on independant circuits. If you have more than one major appliance on a single circuit it will trip the breaker. The other problem you will want to check after that is going to require a simple circuit tester. That can be found in any hardware store that sells electrical appliances. You should take the time to plug it into each electrical socket in the affected area in your home. There are LEDs that light up to tell you if the circuit is good, bad, or if you have a crossed wire. If the circuit is bad or crossed up, you will need to replace the outlet. Please be careful. If you don’t know what to do, get someone to help you that does. John *

  6. tpbthigb says:
    March 10, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    There are actually two answers to your question. First, no there is not a device out there that will allow you to measure one room at a time. Next, there is a device that is called an “AMP METER” which can be used to measure the amp draw on a specific electrical wire but if you are not trained to use it you can be seriously hurt or worse because you have to measure when the power is on and any devices that are on that circuit have to be on, very dangerous.
    There are other ways to find this information without putting yourself in harms way. Look on the back of all the devices in each room there should be a tag that tells you the rating of the device in volts, amps, watts, etc. All you want are the AMPS. Add all of the AMPS in each room (assume all devices are on) this will give you the information you are looking for. If only watts are shown for a device then take the number of watts and divide by the voltage (I’m assuming 120 volts) an example would be: 2300w divided by 120v = 19.1 AMPS after you add all the amps up from each room check the fuse or the breaker that keeps tripping it will be labeld for the number of AMPS it is capable of handling before tripping or blowing. There should also be a lable on the box to tell you which fuse or breaker is responsible for each room. Check the number of amps against the fuse or breaker and you will know where the problem is. I hope this helps. tpbthigb

  7. fourwheeln05 says:
    March 10, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    If you know where your meter is go there and watch with no appliance running. Have someone slowly turn them on and watch it increase. Usually a dryer will spin that dial quickly. fourwheeln05

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