The gadget that measures electricity

moanymoany

I've read about this gadget, I would be grateful if anyone can tell me how they have used it and how they have changed the way they use electrical equipment because of it.

Thanks,
moany

Pink.

Hi moanymoany,

You should get more help with this on the gas and electric board so I'll move your thread across.

Pink

Edit, just had a look on that board and found these threads that may help:

Saving electricity with an OWL

Power Measuring Meter on sale

anyone got a efergy monitor?

What appliance uses most electricity

Cardew

There are 2 types of power measuring meter discussed on this Board.

One measures the total power being consumed by the property and displays it remotely - search for OWL Electrisave, EON meter.

The other measures the consumption of individual appliances and tells you what they cost to run - search for Aldi, Lidl or Maplins power meter.

Both devices have their fans, and detractors on this Board.

Personally I think the cheaper Aldi(£6.99) meter is far more useful to determine costs of appliances; others think the Owl device is better, and others think both are a waste of money.

jd87

If you mean the "electrisave" wireless meter thing that tells you how much you are using at any point, it's not that great in my opinion. We only got one because E.ON gave us it for free, and I wouldn't say it has caused us to change our usage habits at all. I think the problem is that things like turning standby buttons off and switching a light off are too small to be registered by the device. The only time you see a big difference is when you turn the iron/oven/shower/etc, on, and we all already know not to leave things like that on.

Magentasue

I disagree with jd. We had a plug in monitor and it was useful comparing different wash programmes and working out how much the fridge cost over a week. However, I still found lights and TVs left on and any complaints were met by, "It's not like using the tumble drier ..." because they were seen as insiginifcant.

And I suppose they are in isolation. But our Currentcost had changed things. Once everybody saw the reading jump as all the lights upsatirs/two TVs, Xbox and everything went on and how it dropped just be turning off the lights in unused rooms, there has been an acceptance that it does matter.

Because some of our light fittings have three bulbs, just turning a couple of lights off brings the reading down half a kwh. Half a kwh may only be 6p or so, but multiply that to give you four hours ... over a year... what's that? Couple of bottles of cheap wine a month?

My kids now look at the display and say "Who's being carbon-naughty? There must be something left on somewhere ...". They'd never have even thought about it before we got the gadget. My OH used to leave lights on 'because I'm going back there' but no longer does so.

It hasn't taught me much but has really driven the point home to everyone else and our usage has dropped about 15-20kwh a week. At this rate, it'll have paid for itself in three or four months.

1carminestocky

jd87 wrote: »

If you mean the "electrisave" wireless meter thing that tells you how much you are using at any point, it's not that great in my opinion. We only got one because E.ON gave us it for free, and I wouldn't say it has caused us to change our usage habits at all. I think the problem is that things like turning standby buttons off and switching a light off are too small to be registered by the device. The only time you see a big difference is when you turn the iron/oven/shower/etc, on, and we all already know not to leave things like that on.

To be fair, I'm assuming you would think the same about the plug in monitor, then? Let's be honest, BOTH plug in and wireless monitors are useless and a waste of money for people who are happy in the knowledge that they are consuming no more electricity than they wish to and/or have no wish to compromise on their electricity appliance usage. I have both and prefer the Owl wireless because, for one, I have kids and they can actually SEE what's being consumed at all times (try getting kids to peer at a poor LCD screen the size of a matchbox and see what that one appliance in their room is costing :rolleyes:, they really aren't interested.).

They actually find the Owl interesting (and infuriating when I tell them I'm timing their shower! ) and it has definitely saved us on our leccy bill (at the moment, we are looking at almost 25% less compared to last year's usage). When you consider we used 6500 units last year that's a saving worth having. But, the only reason we are saving as a result of using the Owl is because we GENUINELY WANTED to cut usage. Buying one without wanting to use less leccy is like buying nicotine patches when you ahve no intention of quitting smoking....a waste of money.

PS As the Daily Mail has been running a special promotion where they are giving away 100,000 re-badged OWLs to their readers (token collect) expect to see a glut of these on ebay and expect to be able to pick one up very cheaply.

BagOfSpanners

I've got a CurrentCost, and it has made a difference to my electricity usage. I've cut my usage by about 30% in the 2 months since I got it, by doing various things:
- Reducing the number of computers I leave on constantly. (They act as servers, so they do need to be always-on).
- Completely switching off things with standby modes or "soft" power switches when they're not in use, including washing machines, computer speakers, PCs and televisions.
- Being more careful to switch off LCD computer monitors when not in use. They may use less power than CRTs, but they still use a lot.
- Replacing the last few incandescent bulbs with CFLs. Incandescent bulbs really use a lot of power compared to CFLs, and the heat they generate is just a nuisance to me for at least half of the year.

I've attached my CurrentCost to a computer, and can plot graphs. See
http://www.sgurr.co.uk/lundycam/energy_monitor_interface.html

The advantage of collecting data over a period of several hours is that short term fluctuations can be averaged out, allowing quite small long-term changes in consumption to be detected.

I have now reached the stage where I would need to purchase more efficient appliances or change my lifestyle to reduce consumption any further.

ubamother

I've recently got an owl - which shows you on a wireless monitor how many kilowatts or pence per minute you are using - I find this really useful, not so much to collect data overall, but as I know what our 'background' use is, so just be looking at it I can see if something has been left on standby. It's very educational too - who would have thought an electric shower was soooo heavy on leccy!