Many departments and agencies are subject to soaring power bills but can't work out why. Power-Mate helps you take back control by accurately measuring many characteristics of the power requirements of mains-operated equipment.

The Power-Mate accurately covers the range of loads from 100mW to 2.4kW, or currents from 1mA to 10 Amps. With the units Max and Min feature, start up and surge currents of electrical items are automatically captured for display.

How it works

The Power-Mate has several main menu modes; instantaneous volts, current, power, energy, cost, greenhouse gas and elapsed time. In these main modes extra information is available from three other colour-coded buttons. In volts, current and power modes the maximum and minimum values can be displayed. In cost, energy and greenhouse gas modes the hourly, quarterly and yearly amounts can be displayed.

Some of the terms used when discussing energy are volts, amps and power. Volts are a measure of the potential difference (PD) between two electric wires. This PD gives rise to the ability for current to flow if a load is connected between the two wires. The load impedance determines the amount of current that flows. Power is a direct result of the current that flows through the load and the PD that caused the current to flow.

Energy is the amount of power that flows during a given time. Power-Mate displays energy as kilo-Watt-hours, the same units used by electricity utility companies. The PD for Australian households is 230V AC, although it is commonly referred to using the older term of 240V.

When a power utility produces energy, a side effect is the production of greenhouse gases (G-Gas) which is mainly Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The ratio of energy produced to the amount of CO2 gas created varies between different generator fuel sources, such as coal, diesel or natural gas. If the ratio of energy to G-Gas is entered into the Power-Mate, it can display the amount of G-Gas that is created by the energy use of an appliance. The accepted value of greenhouse gas liberated per kilo-Watt-hour for a fossil-fuelled electricity generator is 1.2kg per 1kWh.