anyone got a efergy monitor?

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

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

Exactly how much juice does your plug-in meter tell you your shower, immersion heater and oven is burning during a set period? :rolleyes:

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Exactly how much juice does your plug-in meter tell you your shower, immersion heater and oven is burning during a set period? :rolleyes:

Pray please tell me where have I claimed it can measure those items? To use your expression, perhaps you should read my posts more carefully.

As I have said repeatedly, the Lidl/Aldi/Maplin meter only can check appliances that plug in, so can't tell the consumption of hard wired items, and neither can the Owl/energy meter.

However it can tell the exact consumption of a fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, etc etc and the Owl/efergy meter can't.

espresso

Cardew don't feed the troll. He has already admitted that he is obsessed with the OWL device in this post here. When you try to have a sensible discussion with him, he then puts you on his ignore list! Therefore he won't see this post.

:rotfl:

Cardew

espresso wrote: »

Cardew don't feed the troll. He has already admitted that he is obsessed with the OWL device in this post here. When you try to have a sensible discussion with him, he then puts you on his ignore list! Therefore he won't see this post.

:rotfl:

Unless I am also on his ignore list(we live in hope!) he will see this.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

Pray please tell me where have I claimed it can measure those items? To use your expression, perhaps you should read my posts more carefully.

As I have said repeatedly, the Lidl/Aldi/Maplin meter only can check appliances that plug in, so can't tell the consumption of hard wired items, and neither can the Owl/energy meter.

However it can tell the exact consumption of a fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, iron, microwave, computer equipment, electric heaters, etc etc and the Owl/efergy meter can't.

So, by your reckoning, the OWL is useless because it can't tell you the exact usage of an individual appliance (and it can at least make an attempt at this by the simple process of elimination), although it does tell you the OVERALL usage of all the appliances currently being used whereas the plug in monitor is useful even though it couldn't begin to attempt to tell you the usage of HIGH CONSUMPTION items like a leccy oven, shower and immersion heater, leaving you exposed to mere guesswork. Hmmm...

PS Now that's an annoying quirk in the ignore list, if the post is quoted it can be seen. Espresso, call me a troll once more and I will report you for personal abuse. And do try and be more respectful. Or witty if you must resort to personal abuse.

Cardew

You think it is great - so be it.

espresso's advice taken on board.

1carminestocky

I suppose it's too much to ask for an answer to my earlier question regarding what your plug-in monitor tells you about how much your immersion heater, shower and oven is costing?

espresso

Did you see that Cardew? No me neither.

:cool:

philng

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this. If you want a direct measure of a particular plug in appliance you would go down the plug in route.

However, if you want an overview of your total Electric usage for the time/day/week then the Efergy/Owl monitor is a better bet as my records show that this does relay a reliable figure for your total electric usage including non plug in appliances over a given period and allows you on the Efergy to compare usage week by week.

On the basis of this you can take action through the day/week to change your habits.