It is the Maplin meter which I have got on loan at the moment from a mate of mine. I just wanted to be nosy6 to see how much power things take. since my mate had a meter, I borrowed it.
I have spent a few hours yesterday attempting to confirm the 78 Watts drawn in standby as indicated by my portable meter:
I first turned off all electrical appliances and confirmed that no current was drawn on the main power meter of my house.
Then I plugged in the microwave (standby) and worked out the consumption: If was definetly less than 5 Watt!!!data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
So the Microwave is fine after all and my portable meter can somehow not cope with this device. It was indicating a power factor of 100%, perhaps it can not work out the power factor of the microwave?
Phew!
I shall have to invest in one of they monitors from maplins and get testing data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Mine uses 13w when its microwaving and under 1w when its doing nothing its a 2 knob one without clock //static.avforums.com/styles/avf/smilies/clap.gif
I would get that checked 70w,s cant be right data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I'm sure you don't actually mean 13W when it's cooking food! If your meter actually says 13W - it's broken! It should be more like 500 - 800W - check the label on the back.
Does it cook the food just using the light bulb inside it?
Surely the drive mechanism that spins the turntable inside it should use at least that, and the bulb at least that again before the microwaves are even generated.
I tested my Panasonic microwave (Clock only) at the weekend using a calibrated meter. Came out at 81.6 watts.
It is now turned off until I need it!
That was 81.6 VA not watts. They are normally the same but not with same devices with high inductor circuits.
Turns out its only 3 watts !!!!!
Panic over!