Energy monitor readouts

Jolaaled

yes..the 'hours' part of the no.7 toggle simply reads out the time elapsed.

thanks to everyone for their help and patience. Now i'm gonna go and log kwh for all my stuff and try to reduce my leccy consumption. Shame there isn't an equivalent gizmo for the gas!

Cardew

As Tom above states, the only really useful reading for the layman is the kWh reading.

Plug in your fridge and leave it 24 hours and it will tell you how many kWh(i.e. units) of electricity you have used.

The majority of appliances(fridge/freezer/washing machine/dryer/dishwasher/iron etc etc) do not have constant power consumption so you need the cumulative power consumption(in kWh) to calculate their costs.

womble649

I think this is the one. There is a decent explanation of the functions:

http://www.homeenergysaving.co.uk/plugin-electricity-consumption-monitor.html

W

Cardew

womble649 wrote: »

I think this is the one. There is a decent explanation of the functions:

http://www.homeenergysaving.co.uk/plugin-electricity-consumption-monitor.html

W

Pretty clear explanation of the functions.

One or 2 minor errors IMO. e.g. I don't believe you will find any plug in power meter for domestic use that only measures volt/amps and you have to find out the power factor!
Some allow you to 'toggle' between volt/amps and kW.

Same machines can be had for £7 from Aldi and have the added facility of allowing you to enter price per kWh.

womble649

Cardew wrote: »

One or 2 minor errors IMO. e.g. I don't believe you will find any plug in power meter for domestic use that only measures volt/amps and you have to find out the power factor!

I actually have one of these. It's the Brennenstuhl PM230. The Instructions manual says:

Mode 3: WATTAGE DISPLAY
In this mode, the power is displayed in watts. To calculate the power consumed by the appliance, mulitply the voltage, current and power factors.

There isn't a PM230 mode that does the calculation for you.

I wonder what the cheepo Lidl one does ?

<grin> I've just noticed the PM230 is in the clearance section on https://www.homeenergysaving.co.uk :-)

Maybe you get what you pay for..

W

Cardew

womble649 wrote: »

I actually have one of these. It's the Brennenstuhl PM230. The Instructions manual says:

Mode 3: WATTAGE DISPLAY
In this mode, the power is displayed in watts. To calculate the power consumed by the appliance, mulitply the voltage, current and power factors

There isn't a PM230 mode that does the calculation for you.

I wonder what the cheepo Lidl one does ?

<grin> I've just noticed the PM230 is in the clearance section on www.homeenergysaving.co.uk :-)

Maybe you get what you pay for..

W

I think you have misunderstood your manual.

Watts are the only thing that the domestic consumer is interested in, as that is all he pays for to the electricity company.

Power consumed is only important to the Electricity supplier or in some industrial applications.

Without getting into electrical theory there is a differance between Volt/amps(kVa) and kWh; but your machine measuring Watts is all you require.

The link posted above said that some only measure kVa.

womble649

Hmmmmm.

Is it not the case that Watts = VA x Power Factor.

If this is the case then the PM230 is really showing VA's in the mode it calls 'Watts' and requires the user to calculate the real Watts value by multiplying what they see by the Power Factor ?!

W

Cardew

womble649 wrote: »

Hmmmmm.

Is it not the case that Watts = VA x Power Factor.

If this is the case then the PM230 is really showing VA's in the mode it calls 'Watts' and requires the user to calculate the real Watts value by multiplying what they see by the Power Factor ?!

W

You are correct if you take that statement literally. However I think that the extract from the handbook is simply badly written; presumably translated from Chinese?

IMO that is also what the review of meters has got wrong.

These are simple domestic meters and the only measurement of interest for most people is Watts and kWh. I am certain that the display is showing Watts(as it states)

It is unfortunate that they use the term "power" twice.