anyone got a efergy monitor?

jinx_uk_98

bought one today but having real problems in link the display unit to the transmitter.

both units have brand new batteries. I'm pressing the < button and the word link flashes on the display for 30 seconds or so but thats it.

if press the green button on the transmitter the green led flashes but thats all

any ideas?

Kev

Ch4rlieB

No...

I have one of those OWL ones...

and it is without a doubt the best thing I've ever bought my elec bill has dropped at least 30% if not more!!

I'm forever wandering off to see why the usage is so hi, always turn everything off at night now.

Its amazing how much a micowave uses just on standby!!! Just about got my house down to 0.6p per hour during the night and day when I'm not there. Which amounts to Fridge and sky.....

katherinef1974

I have just signed up for one of the Eon price capping deals and you get a free energy monitor as part of the deal. I havent received it yet and don't know very much about them but its good to know they can help you save on usage.

Cardew

katherinef1974 wrote: »

I have just signed up for one of the Eon price capping deals and you get a free energy monitor as part of the deal. I havent received it yet and don't know very much about them but its good to know they can help you save on usage.

They can't save anything on usage.

What they do is show the overall consumption in your property and thus make you aware of what it is costing.

However for all the major items of electrical consumption they are useless - i.e. for fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, immersion heater, oven, cooker, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, you simply don't know what they cost to run.

Its amazing how much a micowave uses just on standby!!!

Please amaze us then!

What do you calculate it costs?

JackSnap

Hiya,

Yea these energy monitors sound good to me, im gonna get one soon.
I realise it wont measure an individual appliance, but to show me what im using overall at each times of day will be interesting.
I've been looking at he Eco-Eye, which looks like a good one as it will allow you to comunicate with the PC and log reading every few minutes that way, then u can do what you like with the information (ie. graph it in excel)
Ive also got one of the monitor plugs to monitor the usage of an individual appliance. Whilst they can't save you money directly, I think the awareness they provide will help you to use the electricity a little more wiseley.

My bill has shot up in the last quarter from using about 1200KWH to 3147KWH and I have no idea why, if anything ive been REALLY trying over the last few months to cut down! So hopefully these gadgets will help me get to the bottom of it.

I should perhaps start another thread for this, but heres a graph of the usage..

so it seems its gone up significantly in both night and day and i cant think what it is..

philng

Ok they don't directly save you anything on your electric. BUT what they do is make you more aware through the day what your total spend/use is and on the back of this you can make decisions to switch things off which you may not have done if you were not directly aware.

They also make you directly aware of the high cost appliances and you could say that you should already know this but the monitor just makes you that more directly aware.

The monitor has certainly worked for us in that our weekly electric use has fallen from 100 per week to 75 per week from May to now. Ok some of this will be due to it now being mid summer but I would guess we are saving 15-20%.

ariba10

jinx_uk_98 wrote: »

bought one today but having real problems in link the display unit to the transmitter.

both units have brand new batteries. I'm pressing the < button and the word link flashes on the display for 30 seconds or so but thats it.

if press the green button on the transmitter the green led flashes but thats all

any ideas?

Kev

With the one that we have the transmitter is clamped to the live supply coming from the meter and the receiver is in the living room and to enable the two to connect we had to put them very close together at first, but once connected there was no problem.

The flashing light indicates that it is looking for the receiver.

1carminestocky

I just find the negativity from some on here to these units baffling. It seems like the people (like me) who have actually used one of these devices (I have the Owl) sing its praises and recognise its propensity to help get usage down and hence reduce expenditure. You really cannot justify slagging this device until you've used one IMO.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

They can't save anything on usage.

What they do is show the overall consumption in your property and thus make you aware of what it is costing.

However for all the major items of electrical consumption they are useless - i.e. for fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, immersion heater, oven, cooker, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, you simply don't know what they cost to run.



Please amaze us then!

What do you calculate it costs?

The lady didn't actually say they 'can save on usage', read her post again! :rolleyes:

they can help you save on usage

jinx_uk_98

Cardew wrote: »

They can't save anything on usage.

What they do is show the overall consumption in your property and thus make you aware of what it is costing.

However for all the major items of electrical consumption they are useless - i.e. for fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, immersion heater, oven, cooker, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, you simply don't know what they cost to run.



Please amaze us then!

What do you calculate it costs?

please explain this? how can they not show you the consumption of these items

Cardew

jinx_uk_98 wrote: »

please explain this? how can they not show you the consumption of these items

Nearly every electrical appliance has a thermostat, or variable power.

A thermostat switches the power on and of when it reaches a set temperature.

So let us take a fridge or freezer as an example. The power is consumed by a compressor, however the compressor only runs for a short time and then is off for a long period.

A compressor might(for illustrative purposes) use 200 watts. Now if you switch on the fridge freezer and the compressor happens to be running when you are monitoring your owl/electrisave/efergy meter, this will show that it costs 2p an hour to run(set for 10p a kWh)

If the compressor is not running it will read zero(0.00p)

So how much does your fridge freezer cost to run? £175.20 a year or nothing? The critical issue is how long the compressor is running for and how long it is off. £30 to £40 might be typical annual running costs.

Another example is that my washing machine has a 3kW heater and the cycle takes 90mins. The monitor will show 30p an hour if the heater is on. However it doesn't cost 45p for a cycle, but normally 6p or 9p.

So that statement on fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, immersion heater, oven, cooker, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, is true; you don't know what they cost to run.

The £6 Lidl/Aldi meter will tell you exactly what your fridge freezer or washing machine uses and IMO is of far more use than the OWL type.

Ironically this thread demonstrates the point perfectly:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1041139