Need help wiring my ac power meter

So I've got this power meter that I've been trying to set up (actually was already running it but the way I was running it seemed bad which I'll get to shortly). I drew a picture of the wiring but don't know electronics very well and need help not killing myself or at least not shorting out my setup!

I can run my setup no problem without the meter and even got the meter running and reading correctly but the wiring is suspect.

Referring to the picture now, if I connect the yellow load meter wire to the brown led wire/black ac plug/red meter ac in wire and the light blue to the neutral junction of the meter/ac plug/driver I get power and the meter turns on but the power read out is very low wattage. If I hook up the led driver side ac wires directly to the yellow and light blue load side of the meter everything works correctly, lights power up and meter reads out the correct wattage/amperage. My only concern is that I'm running the led driver's power through the meter, it's not just measuring it. Is this a problem and is there another way to wire this?

The other thing is I have another light running on another driver and I wanted to hook up the meter to be able to read them separately and together with a 3 way switch but with each led driver having its own plug in to the wall. Is this possible?

Sorry for my crude drawing and understanding of electronics, any help would be appreciated.

Do you have the manufacturer model number for the meter/monitor you have? Most of them have an internal current transformer which allows the 120/240/480VAC to run through the meter but not all.

Model number pzem 021.

You have not wired it the way it should be wired.

I would think you would attach your two in the middle to power, then you power your unit off the other two outside ones.

@shimbob has it right.

I'm aware of what the meter ac in and load connectors are and that it is wired that way (If you look at my picture I drew that wiring diagram but I drew it from memory so I reversed the sides left to right). The problem comes in what load is wired to though. If I connect everything (load and ac in) to the ac plug/driver ac side I thought it would measure all power going through but it only measures 40 watts or something, I have to route the driver ac side to the load so that the driver is now pulling ac power through the meter and then I get the full measurement. The problem is that load can't seem to measure the same junction that the meter pulls power from and the driver is pulling ac power through the meter. I'm asking if there's another way to wire it so that I'm not pulling power through the meter to the led driver and not using a separate ac plug in to the wall for the meter (which also works but I don't want because it's the same problem with the driver pulling power through the meter). I'm using 22g wires off the meter and it seems dangerous to run 200 watts through it, not to mention I really want to understand what is going on, maybe it's supposed to work like this?

Halfandhalf said:

I'm aware of what the meter ac in and load connectors are and that it is wired that way (If you look at my picture I drew that wiring diagram but I drew it from memory so I reversed the sides left to right). The problem comes in what load is wired to though. If I connect everything (load and ac in) to the ac plug/driver ac side I thought it would measure all power going through but it only measures 40 watts or something, I have to route the driver ac side to the load so that the driver is now pulling ac power through the meter and then I get the full measurement. The problem is that load can't seem to measure the same junction that the meter pulls power from and the driver is pulling ac power through the meter. I'm asking if there's another way to wire it so that I'm not pulling power through the meter to the led driver and not using a separate ac plug in to the wall for the meter (which also works but I don't want because it's the same problem with the driver pulling power through the meter). I'm using 22g wires off the meter and it seems dangerous to run 200 watts through it, not to mention I really want to understand what is going on, maybe it's supposed to work like this?

Click to expand...

That is only about two amps and that wire can handle almost ten

This 5-part series explains how to wire it that way you can power the LCD seperate and not measure that load. If you watch these in order it explains the circuitry and the 3rd and 4th part of the series get into cutting in an independent power source. I don’t see any issue with adding a 3-way switch to measure 2 circuits separately outside of the fact you then cannot run both loadssimultaneously.

If you don't want the current to flow through the meter (which isn't a bad idea when the quality of the meter is suspect and there's a lot of power involved), then you want to use a meter with the coil, like the PZEM-022.