I'd love to be able to find something like
http://www.powerwerx.com/digital-meters/dc-inline-watt-meter-power-analyzer=
-powerpoles.html
but
for smaller currents.

I currently have several products which are used in solar power
environments and one of the most common questions is actual power
consumption.   I can (somewhat) measure instantaneous power consumption but
telling what a reasonable long term average is for a device which consumes
less than 1/10th of a watt and is powered by 24V (aka 4mA of current) is a
real challenge when all the devices you find have a resolution of ~10mA and
are designed for amps of current and dozens or hundreds of watts.

I'm tempted to simply use a logging voltmeter of some sort with a current
shunt resistor, but that leads to an entirely different set of problems
related to using most of the logging voltmeters that I've had - that is,
the sample rate is completely atrocious when you want to be able to capture
what may be small spikes in the current load.

What does everyone else do when they need to measure low-current
consumption over a long-term average?

-forrest
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