Plug-in Electricity Monitor £7.99 Instore @ Maplin

Woby_Tide

calleyw wrote: »

Seeing as I turn everything off that is not use

appliances in standby use very little, turning them off saves pence over a year. the energy monitors work better over longer periods to establish a usage pattern and teh difference it makes

i.e. it will tell you how much you spend boiling a full kettle over boiling 1 or 2 cups, how much a fridge freezer costs if you increase the lowest temperature by a degree, does your washing machine cost more or less washing at 30/40/60, likewise a dishwasher, a tumble dryer on a lower settings or a full load on a higher setting. All simple things but all hard to work out without a monitor

The Owl whilst not as useful for these settings provides info on more generic use like lights/ovens/immersions which can be hard to quantify for some people but can all add up without people realising

calleyw

Woby_Tide wrote: »

i.e. it will tell you how much you spend boiling a full kettle over boiling 1 or 2 cups, how much a fridge freezer costs if you increase the lowest temperature by a degree, does your washing machine cost more or less washing at 30/40/60, likewise a dishwasher, a tumble dryer on a lower settings or a full load on a higher setting. All simple things but all hard to work out without a monitor

But I am not that anal. I don't use a tumble drier and don't have a dishwasher. If you have a newish washing machine it normally tells you how many Kw's it uses the same for fridge and freezers.

For food safety you might have to turn up a fridge or freezer. But don't know many people who would worry about that over the cost.

For washing somethings needed to be done at a higher temps such as towels etc. So again personally moot points.

I have someone home virtually all day and my last electric bill was £75 for the quarter.

Granted I don't know what per wash costs and always do full loads. And personally I don't need to know. I still need to use my washing machine as and when and keep my fridge freezer and chest freezer on 24 hours a day. They have all been bought with the last 3 years so are at least B rated or above.

I understand that with energy costs rising people need to be careful. But think that companies are making money on the back of it. Because people are not well enough informed about the electric products they have in there own home. And there are plenty of websites that give out energy saving tips.

As I said each to there own.


Yours


Calley

belfastgirl23

I want to try using mine to see whether it might be worth changing to a different tariff - by working out what the background elec usage is vs the controllable uses (eg washing machine, oven etc, things you can switch off after use) I can work out whether it's worth going to a tariff that penalises use between 4-7pm...so the monitor can be useful (if you can figure out how to use it that is )

Woby_Tide

calleyw wrote: »

But I am not that anal. I don't use a tumble drier and don't have a dishwasher.

Thats fair enough, I wasnt actually making a specific argument for why you might use a monitor, it was slightly more 'in general'

calleyw wrote: »

If you have a newish washing machine it normally tells you how many Kw's it uses the same for fridge and freezers.

Thats one of the first reasons why they are useful. Witness the number of posts on the Gas/Elec forum where people say that the instructions for their fridge freezer says it uses 300W per hour and that means they spend over £250 on electric for their fridge freezer. When actually thats just the max it can use when teh compressor runs, the monitor then tells them that they are using a fraction of that.

calleyw wrote: »

For food safety you might have to turn up a fridge or freezer. But don't know many people who would worry about that over the cost. .

Again thats your choice, as can be witnessed on some of teh boards some people do go to the nth degree i.e. switching fridge/freezers off in winter and using it at slightly higher temperatures in summer. These gadgets can help people decide if the saving is worth it or not. It's not compulsory.

calleyw wrote: »

For washing somethings needed to be done at a higher temps such as towels etc. So again personally moot points..

And again, do they need to be washed at higher temperatures? Thats a personal choice to do that. Witness the current big marketing move on washing powders/liquids to be "just as effective at 30 degrees" as at 40 degrees which the majority of clothese suggest to wash out. if the twoels say 60, can they be done at 40? What will someone save by doing loads at 40 rather than 60, they can find out

calleyw wrote: »

I have someone home virtually all day and my last electric bill was £75 for the quarter.

Granted I don't know what per wash costs and always do full loads. And personally I don't need to know. I still need to use my washing machine as and when and keep my fridge freezer and chest freezer on 24 hours a day. They have all been bought with the last 3 years so are at least B rated or above.

I understand that with energy costs rising people need to be careful. But think that companies are making money on the back of it. Because people are not well enough informed about the electric products they have in there own home. And there are plenty of websites that give out energy saving tips.

Again thats entriely your decision, others may want to actually see such things. The majority of consumers are completely unaware of what uses their electric up and what they can do to help. In terms of responsibility and 'money saving' the monitors/owls make sense if it makes people more aware of what they are doing then it can only be a good thing.

if someone can thus buy the monitor for £8 rather than £15/20 then it's moneysaving, if they can make changes to their habits and they save £10 a year by modifying behaviour they didn't know caused an impact they win, the environment win to an extent. the power companies lose. Then they can pass the monitor on to friends/family or ebay it thus reduce the cost even more.

because something doesn't make personal sense for you, it doesn't mean that someone else won't find the value in it

Princess_Coupon

I know we are all encouraged to turn off all items fully rather than leave it on standby.
This could actually cost more longterm, the standby is there for a reason it is to increase the lifespan of the product, by switching a TV off fully it will then go "cold" and you are starting it "cold".It is designed to be started "warm" ie from standby, by switching off your appliance it will not last as long so you will buy a new one quicker so cost more and worse for environment.

1carminestocky

Woby_Tide wrote: »

they aren't mentioning you in every post they make though......

What a silly post. :rolleyes: Do your research before stating things as fact. Here's my full posting history. Percentage of posts that mention the posters in question? Maybe 99% less than your allegation?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.html?searchid=33659283

1carminestocky

Woby_Tide wrote: »

appliances in standby use very little, turning them off saves pence over a year. the energy monitors work better over longer periods to establish a usage pattern and teh difference it makes

i.e. it will tell you how much you spend boiling a full kettle over boiling 1 or 2 cups, how much a fridge freezer costs if you increase the lowest temperature by a degree, does your washing machine cost more or less washing at 30/40/60, likewise a dishwasher, a tumble dryer on a lower settings or a full load on a higher setting. All simple things but all hard to work out without a monitor

The Owl whilst not as useful for these settings provides info on more generic use like lights/ovens/immersions which can be hard to quantify for some people but can all add up without people realising

Agreed, although I would also say the Owl is (FOR SOME PEOPLE) very effective due to its constantly 'in yer face' readout. The plug-in monitor, whilst I am sure it is much more accurate, is not a constant visual reminder of usage. For someone living on their own who is extremely dilligent about switching things off I'm not convinced either the plug-in or Owl is any use.

When you, for instance, have kids in the house the 'I switch everything off' theory is not what usually happens in practice.;) I have now detected on several occasions that one of my sons has left his TV on at night just by observing the readout on the Owl. This would have been on for maybe 8 hours if I hadn't been 'informed'. Very useful (to me).

espresso

Woby_Tide wrote: »

they aren't mentioning you in every post they make though......

Agreed we know how to ignore the boring mentally challenged posters!

:rotfl:

mdolan

Woby_Tide wrote: »

appliances in standby use very little, turning them off saves pence over a year.

Hmm - depends on the appliance. By using a plugin monitor I discovered that the DAB radio in our spare bedroom draws 20w standby, 25w on.

Given that a draw of 1w roughly equates to £1 per year, by simply switching this unit off at the wall I now save nearly £20 a year.

On a slight tangent I have an electrisave/owl and a plugin monitor. After I bought them I discovered I was using approx 18 units per day. By using both items to find the "high" draw appliances, I'm now down to approx 11 units per day - thats a massive saving...!

Cheers,
Mike

Woby_Tide

mdolan wrote: »

Hmm - depends on the appliance. By using a plugin monitor I discovered that the DAB radio in our spare bedroom draws 20w standby, 25w on.

Given that a draw of 1w roughly equates to £1 per year, by simply switching this unit off at the wall I now save nearly £20 a year.

On a slight tangent I have an electrisave/owl and a plugin monitor. After I bought them I discovered I was using approx 18 units per day. By using both items to find the "high" draw appliances, I'm now down to approx 11 units per day - thats a massive saving...!

Fair points, I think you must be wrong though, these monitors are useless.....;)