Checking power usage on electrical circuits

Because of my location, I am able to do all of my electrical work without having to pull any permits.  Being that DIY kind of guy, I dove right in.  Truth be told I never pulled a permit to do any of the electrical work in any of my shops.  Oh, did I mention my father has been in general construction the majority of his adult life?  A lot of those skills transferred over as I worked with him when I was a lot younger, which really helps a lot!

I just added another server to a circuit yesterday which now brings the total boxes running on this particular 20A 240V circuit to four.  It’s time to add another box as I have more cards to get running and I desperately need to finish learning doing GPU mining under Linux.  All attempts so far have been stymied for various unknown issues (Yet I have Windows running on the same box with zero issues).  Since I wasn’t sure what my power draw on that circuit was, I grabbed a very handy testing tool.  Honestly, it’s more expensive than a $20 killawatt but it sure can do a bunch more.  Data is power.  Gather it.

Here is a video of me checking my main panel and the circuit in question.  Yes the panel is still a bit of a mess.  I’m still adding circuits and will tidy everything up once I’ve finished.  I have learned something new though that I haven’t yet implemented.  If you want to meter at the panel with a device like I have, having a loop in the wiring near the breaker would make it EZPZ to get a reading.  Currently I have to push wires this way or that way to get the clamp over the wire I’m trying to meter.  I’ll start implementing on the remaining circuits so I’ll have that method perfected for Cointainer 2.0.

Enjoy my crappy video.  I promise I’ll spend more money and get a better camera / gimbal.

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