How to measure DC current

bukzin,

keep in mind, you cannot measure amperage across a double cord (i.e; black and white inside casing) with a clamp meter. That's where the kill-a-watt comes in handy. The clamp meter is for checking current thru single battery cables and such.

Do pay attention to specs if getting a clamp-on meter. Some only work with AC (depending primarily on how they detect current).

A traditional ammeter is often constructed of a millivoltmeter and a shunt resistance. If your multimeter can measure millivolts and you get an appropriate shunt, you can measure the voltage drop and find the current using math. A shunt is really just a low-ohm, reasonably high power resistor, with the resistance expressed as mV at some maximum current. A 50A 75mV shunt would have a 75 mV drop across it when 50A is going through it, which works out to a resistance of .0015? (1.5 m?) and a power rating of at least 3.75W.

I think most multimeters had at least some current measurement capabilities built in, though perhaps not the ranges that are useful for what you want to measure. Certainly both my Fluke 73 (a nice workhorse) and the super cheap generic analog meter (the one that stays in the RV) do: the former going up to 10A but no low-current ranges, the latter with only milliamp ranges.

For example, MA120 for $75.00

Clamp on AC/DC Ammeter (only, no Volts) measures 0.1 to 199.9 AC or DC Amps

UNI-T UT203 Clamp Meter

P3 (P4400) Kill-a-watt

Bought mine on Ebay.

A clamp on ammeter is very handy. However there are existing charts that will give you a very close assessment. What are you interested in measuring?

Price is not the driving issue.

Want something reliable. Would be great if it
could also be used on my grid-tied solar system at home.

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