Forum Discussion

John___Angela's avatar
Oct 07, 2015

Looking for a "KILL A WATT" meter but for 220 volt 50 amp.

As per the title, we are looking for something like the "kill a watt" meter that plug into a standard 50 amp 220 volt RV plug. This is so we can monitor the amount of charge current our electric car uses. This is more of a curiosity thing. I like this kinda stuff. A simple plug and play with pass through would be nice but can't seem to find anything out there. We have a kill a watt meter that we use when we are just using 110 but getting the 220 3.3 KW EVSE for the car and kinda curious on a couple things.

Thanks in advance.

John and Angela

16 Replies

  • Changed as more information on what the OP wants is now available. An electric meter would certainly give you total power but not amps or volts.
  • DrewE wrote:
    If the car charger is purely a 240V device, or at least has practically no unbalanced (120V) circuitry, then you could build something akin to a Kill-a-watt from one of these and a box, plug, socket, bit of wire, etc. You'd connect the voltage sense lines to the two hots, and the current sense transformer over one of the hots—exactly as though it were a 240V two-wire circuit.

    If the legs are used in an unbalanced fashion, you'd need two—one for each leg, with the voltages each referenced to neutral—and then have to add the energy consumption values together.

    A used utility company electric meter would also do the trick, and old non-remote-read ones are not hard to come by for reasonable prices. Again, an appropriate box and wiring, etc. is needed.


    Thanks for the reply. It uses a standard RV plug with four prongs. I thought about the old meter thing but am looking for something with selectable displays something like the Kill a watt. Great idea though. I'll look into it. Thanks.
  • If the car charger is purely a 240V device, or at least has practically no unbalanced (120V) circuitry, then you could build something akin to a Kill-a-watt from one of these and a box, plug, socket, bit of wire, etc. You'd connect the voltage sense lines to the two hots, and the current sense transformer over one of the hots—exactly as though it were a 240V two-wire circuit.

    If the legs are used in an unbalanced fashion, you'd need two—one for each leg, with the voltages each referenced to neutral—and then have to add the energy consumption values together.

    A used utility company electric meter would also do the trick, and old non-remote-read ones are not hard to come by for reasonable prices. Again, an appropriate box and wiring, etc. is needed.

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