Are you wasting over £700 a year on electricity? We were - not any more.

JayMT

You can get the Current Cost monitor from the Eco Gadget shop for £28 here:
https://www.ecogadgetshop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductCode=Current%20Cost%20Device%20(TEST)&Category=1

1carminestocky

As the Daily Mail are in the process of giving away 100,000 rebaged OWL wireless energy monitors (it was a token collect), I'm suspecting the more prudent of you wait a week or so until the inevitable 'ebay influx' starts. Prices should come tumbling down, lol.

Magentasue

simpywimpy wrote: »

Im not with eon, where can I get one of these usage monitors from please? My kids waste loads with leaving lights and tv on all night. AND we have a pc that is on 24/7. It really is time to take control again

I have the Currentcost - advantage is that it stores the data - don't think the Owl does.

There are several: Owl, efergy, eco-eye, Currentcost. Some are compared here

http://www.electricity-monitor.com/energy-monitor-comparison-chart-i-26.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/08/eaenergy108.xml

amcluesent

>leaving a PC on doesn't consume much electricity.<

My tower PC and LCD display take 190W when on, that drops to 6W when sleeping.

A laptop when being charged is about 40W

[Deleted User]

op. your washing machine won`t consume much energy if you can keep the temperature low. It will only cost a few pence per wash.

I have been doing all that and a bit more for months now and my last two bills for a 3 bed townhouse, occupied all day by 2 adults, were both under £96 for a quarter for all our energy based on actual readings

ecocamel is another very good saver, if you can put one on your shower

brysiewysie

Great post mattymoo. I did a similar thing recently using my energymonitor and one of the plug in maplin type devices going around the house. I also found the newish washing machine used around 12 watts even when not on (no display - it all looked off). Similar things for a pod coffee machine, Hi-Fi etc. All of my kids have PC's as well as my own and a media centre pc. I found all of these were taking around 20-30w 24/7 even when fully off (or so it seemed). Overall just turning these items off at the wall has reduced my daily usage by around 25%. I've used a number of radio controlled plugs for the hard to access areas to make it easier for the family to join in the efforts.

mattymoo

Good idea brysiewysie - got some of those plugs lying around so I'll get them programmed. I wonder if they use much power?

Just to clarify something in my original post.
The before figures were based on the item being off at the unit but not at the wall. That is to say they were turned off and not in standby mode. I thought they would only draw a minute amount of power for LED displays but that is not the case it would seem.

The only exception was the office where the PC and laptop together with printers and the like stayed on 24/7 so not surprising the biggest saving.

Oblivion

JayMT wrote: »

You may be pleasantly surprised how little the washing machine actually costs per wash.

I measured mine using a plug-in power meter: a 2 hour wash at 40C used 0.36kWh of energy, so assuming an average cost of 10p a unit, that's 3.6p per wash.

Be careful how you interpret these results. A washing machine that draws pre-heated water from your immersion tank will give a result that at face value seems very much cheaper than a washing machine that draws all its water from the main water supply and has to heat it all up from cold.

But which is really the cheaper ... it all depends on the efficiency of your immersion tank and whether this results in cheaper water heating than your washing machine's heating coils provide.

Dave.

Premier_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Very interesting. Every comment I've seen on the internet (and there's a mistake ) suggests that leaving a PC on doesn't consume much electricity.

As I leave mine on 24/7, that's going to change from NOW!

My pc base unit draws 11W when shut down.

Interestingly my pc monitor (CRT) draws 9w even when it's switched off. Now I realised it would draw a load in standby, but I had assumed when I switched it off using the switch on the front it wouldn't use any electricity.

So that's 20W total or almost 0.5kWh per day when it's not even being used! :eek:

Morn

Grrr, I have just brought one now. Damn me and my addiction to gadgets!! At least I can chalk this one up to ecological concerns.