I am looking to get a few tools that are specific to doing RE installations / maintenance / design, and am looking for suggestions. As this is not a business, I am very cost-conscious...

1) a clamp-meter that will read DC amps.

2) non-contact IR thermometer. I'm leaning towards the Extech 42510...
http://www.contacteast.com/product/group.asp?parent_id=10291

3) Irradiance level meter - Daystar makes an inexpensive one.
http://www.zianet.com/daystar/solar_meters.html

Any experience with these? Any comments or suggestions would be welcome!

The best bang for the buck DC clamp meters are Extech. I have the 380947 true RMS meter. It has a 40A DC range that will read with a .01A resolution which is good for measuring single strings of PV. It's other DC range is 400A. DO NOT buy a clamp on meter with only a 400A DC range since you will not have enough resolution for typical solar work. A lot of clamp meters have more sensative AC ranges than the DC ranges so look carefully.

The 380941 has 40A and 200A plus voltage ranges but I prefer a seperate DVM for voltage. Most of my DVMs are Fluke but I also have Beckman, Extech, Tektronix and Radio Shack.

The 380942 clamp meter has 4A and 30A DC ranges so it has .001A resolution but may not have high enough range for multiple parallel strings. (my array is over 35 amps peak)

Here is the data sheet on some of the Extech clamp meters:

http://www.extech.com/instrument/produc ... 42_947.pdf


I think my IR thermometer is a Raytek. It has a LASER pointer that is good for playing with the cats (alternate winter heat sources, also called Kitty Thermal Units)


Here is a solar irradiance sensor that uses an external meter:

http://www.davisnet.com/product_documen ... or_std.pdf

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'll look into the Exeltek models you mentioned... I was going for the most inexpensive DC reading unit I could. I already have a Fluke 87 (with a screwey LCD - need to hold it at a special angle to read it these days), so I don't really need another DMM with good accuracy.

Any idea on the pricing on the external irradiance sensor you linked? Have you used this unit & if so, how did you read the data?

TIA

Hi Glenn,

The sensor lists for $160. I have seen it for $140. You can read it with a DVM and scale the reading for actual output. I have used similar ones with DVMs with rs232 outputs to make automated measurements and graphs.