Professional electricians use a variety of electrical tester tools to evaluate electrical functions in residential and commercial wiring. Although these devices are commonly used by professional electricians, common homeowners can also benefit from learning about the basic functionalities of these tools. You can easily find both multifunction testers that can do most of the basic electrical testing and single-function devices like the wire earth resistance tester for specific activities.
Moreover, many electrical testers can check voltage levels in both AC and DC circuits, short circuits, open circuits, polarity, and more. Some of these devices include clamp meters, multimeters, ohmmeters, high voltage insulation tester, etc. Most of these terms are unfamiliar for most homeowners. But, if you are planning to work on home wiring, you must know basic things about these devices.
In this article, we have enlisted some different types of electrical testers.
Insulation Tester
The high voltage insulation tester is usually used in industrial plants and buildings to evaluate wires and cables for proper insulation tolerance. The main purpose of these devices is to prevent the user from hazards like an electric shock and short circuits by controlling the flow of electricity.
In general, these devices are portable and are used for testing things like insulation resistance, continuous current, alternating current, etc. In addition, they are also used for testing supply lines to ensure the proper functioning of the system and protect the users from any electrical hazards.
Multimeters
Also known as the Volt-ohm meter, a multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument that performs several measurement functions in one unit. It’s an electronic measuring device that combines multiple measurement operations into a single device. It can measure voltage, current, resistance, and other characteristics. It is most commonly used by technicians in the electrical industry.
It’s a small device that’s used to detect basic defects in the field with a great degree of precision. The current is measured with an analog multimeter. Except for analog, it can do all functions from AC to DC. It’s utilized for things like production testing, diode testing, capacitance testing, and voltage reference, among other things.
Ohmmeters
Ohmmeters is another electrical instrument that can measure electrical resistance. There are mainly two types of ohmmeter- micro and macro. As the name suggests, the micrometer measures low resistance, and the macro meter measures large values of resistance. These devices consist of a needle and 2 test leads. While the needle deflection is controlled by using the battery current, 2 test leads are shorted together to measure resistance in an electric circuit.
Power and Energy Meters
This device is used for measuring energy utilized by the electric load. Energy is the amount of power consumed by electric appliances in a certain amount of time. You can use this device to measure the power consumption in both domestic and industrial circuits. This device acts on the principle of conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy.
Clamp Meters
The clamp meter is a device mainly used by professional electricians. It serves as a combination of a digital multimeter and a current sensor. This device is mainly used to measure high levels of current in the circuit without disconnecting it. In addition, it is also used for service: installation and maintenance. In practice, it offers a similar function as a multimeter, but the main difference is that this tool features clamping jaws that grip wire conductors.
The Bottom Line
Electrical testing tools are necessary for capturing responses from electrical devices that are under the testing phase. They help to ensure the proper functioning of the system and identify the existing defects. Some devices like the wire earth resistance tester do not contribute directly to the task but help to ensure safety. In this article, we have enlisted electrical devices that are mainly used in engineering and assembly tasks during testing or troubleshooting units in fields.
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