Saving electricity with an OWL

Cardew

markbloke wrote: »

Energy monitors like the owl also provide total kWH used since a given point in time. This actually makes them great for monitoring the effect of using washing machines and other large but variable loads. You can look at the total kWh used that day before switching it on, and then again after the wash has finished. You've already got a rough idea of the background energy use in your home, and it's simple subtraction to find out if cleaning your clothes is cheaper than buying new ones made by slave-labour. If you're really worried about switching on an electric fire by mistake and ruining the figures, go out while your wash is on, or go to sleep.

Or buy a £6 plug in monitor and it will tell you exactly what it uses for the different cycles! 30C/40C/60C wash - easy care etc.

Then use the same monitor for your dishwasher, dryer, fridge, freezer, iron, heater, microwave, Hoover, PC, printer, modems, TV, DVD, PVR, MP3 all phone chargers and equipment, electric fires, bread maker, kettle, toaster, etc etc.

When you know the consumption of your appliances, lend the monitor to your family and friends.

markbloke

Maybe time for a new charger? Could be an intermittent short. You'll know if it starts getting very bright and noisy and takes up smoking (all in fairly rapid succession).

Further to my comment on total kWh use and anticipating a response, yes you could look at your meter in the cupboard, but my cupboard is rather boring, badly lit and I don't spend as much time there as I do in the living room.
The efergy also acted as a constant reminder to re-think energy use over the last few months, and I've slowly introduced Intelliplugs (get the cheaper eon version off ebay for about £6-7) and timers where it's economically viable (estimated payback within a year's warantee). I think I'm pretty much down to the bone on energy saving now and it's been an interesting experiment to say the least. I'd like to see some posts from people who bought one and then found it useless (other than those who bought one and found it DOA or got it as an unwanted gift). So far owners are overwhelmingly (and it seems sickeningly for some) positive.

markbloke

Cardew wrote: »

Or buy a £6 plug in monitor and it will tell you exactly what it uses for the different cycles! 30C/40C/60C wash - easy care etc.

Then use the same monitor for your dishwasher, dryer, fridge, freezer, iron, heater, microwave, Hoover, PC, printer, modems, TV, DVD, PVR, MP3 all phone chargers and equipment, electric fires, bread maker, kettle, toaster, etc etc.

When you know the consumption of your appliances, lend the monitor to your family and friends.

Damn this poor timing of posts! I'm loath to modify the last one though.
Yes you could do that, and it'd be very accurate but it's not very convenient and most people won't do it. Devices like the owl provide fairly accurate ballpark figures people can understand and it's in their faces all the time, which is better than people not knowing at all. Knowing light from dark is better than being blind.

amcluesent

>varying electricity use as the washing machine goes through it's cycle<

IMHO, for such devices you need to state the energy use in KWhs for a given cycle, the wattage being drawn at any moment isn't very helpful unlike for standing load such a PC where the wattage while 'on' is steady.

>This time I have not seen any change at all in the OWL reading<

Discounting user error it could be that devices like the OWL have quite coarse, discrete steps in their measurement range, so a small additional load may make no difference or cause the device to 'jump' up to the next reported value.

Woby_Tide

markbloke wrote: »

Devices like the owl provide fairly accurate ballpark figures people can understand

doesn't post 31 prove that isn't the case at all. AdrianHi has gone from his first post convinced of what certain appliances were using to now trying to fathom out what was actually happening. The Owl has a use in educating people but it seems far from ideal at putting it's point across bar in very specific situations i.e. night time wieth little actvity. likewise energy monitor plug ins again have a very specific but accurate use but are limited in what they can tell a consumer about. Potentially the two devices combined could be a useful tool. If you can get all appliance 'average' useage from a plug in, you are then left with having to factor in lights(easy to do manually), then the heating/oven/shower are at the mercy of the owl, but in those cases the load should be fairly constant to get an idea of an average useage

In the kingdom of the blind etc.

Cardew

markbloke wrote: »

I'd like to see some posts from people who bought one and then found it useless (other than those who bought one and found it DOA or got it as an unwanted gift). So far owners are overwhelmingly (and it seems sickeningly for some) positive.

This is a money saving site and surely we can point out the limitations of a device when used as a method of calculating costs.


Having spent good money on a device is often a sure fire recipe to get an unobjective appraisal.

Look at the number of people who install solar panels, or magnets for their fuel lines(car or oil CH - doesn't matter works on both) and swear blind it saves them huge sums.

I speak as someone who, after careful consideration and research, bought a Betamax VCR and an HD DVD player!! I will accept no criticism of my selection!!

AdrianHi

Cardew wrote: »

This is a money saving site and surely we can point out the limitations of a device when used as a method of calculating costs.

I view it as a means to help making sure I have not got something switched on needlessly rather than calculating costs.
However since I don't now appear to be able to rely on the OWL to tell me if I've got a phone charger or two switched on I'm seeing it as a bit less accurate than I'd really like. Not entirely useless though.

[Deleted User]

lol espresso :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: , who are you trying to impress. I also know my ohms from my amps, having a degree in physics.

djohn2002uk

Cardew wrote: »

I speak as someone who, after careful consideration and research, bought a Betamax VCR and an HD DVD player!! I will accept no criticism of my selection!!

Ha Ha Cardew, not even the Betamax?? I would have had treatment by now to have that removed permanently from my memory. :-))

markbloke

Honestly, if I didn't think it was any good I'd flog it on eBay for about as much as I paid for it and that was about £35 (save 35w background and it's paid for in a year!). I probably will too in about a month because I'm a "fix and forget" sort of person. I've modified the way the house uses energy a bit, it cost very little and now it's done. Maybe in a few years it'll need doing again but by then maybe we'll have proper fully smart meters (or no electricity at all).
The Betamax and the HD-DVD player are an investment, they'll be worth something one day.

To answer the post before, yes I'd agree that a plug-in meter would give more specific information in tandem with a smart meter (of any kind) but again, will people go for it? Manufacturer energy ratings for all devices, like that on fridges might make sense (if they could be trusted....). Again, the owl-like devices give people something to work with.