What percentage of US residences own a digital multimeter (handheld
device for measuring electrical voltage, resistance, current flow and
so forth) or an older style volt/ohm meter?

Please document sources for number of residences and number of
multimeters if possible.

Is residential multimeter ownership increasing or decreasing?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Jun 2004 18:49 PDT

Actual residential ownership numbers may be pretty difficult -- or
even impossible -- to come by, but it may be possible to come up with
US sales numbers for multimeters, along with some trends as to whether
sales are increasing, and by what rate.

Would sales data of multimeters serve as a useful proxy, or do you
only want direct residential ownership data?

Let us know your preferences.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by sparkytoo-ga on 20 Jun 2004 07:28 PDT

For multimeter sales data to be useful, I will need US sales history
in units shipped for several years, e.g. 1998-2003, and hopefully an
estimate for 2004. Some methodology for eliminating units shipped for
commercial purposes must be proposed, e.g. all units with a retail
value over $75, so that sales to residential customers can be
estimated.

US Sales data must include import volumes since these now represent
the bulk of units sold.