Southern Electric Energy Monitor Help

Different_Corner

Hi
Received this freebie from Southern Electric yesterday, seem to have set it up okay.
I don't get a lot of it, it's always scrolling through cost per day/month etc, then the Kw or Watts changes then the UP ! or Down ! Watt changes.

I realise it's responding to whats being switched on or off etc but it's all very confusing, can't work out what is eating into the bills and what isn't.

Added to that the price in the settings is set at £9 per KwHr, according to the current readings we use 4 Kw an hour (admittedly thats just in the last 15 hours and that would be heaviest usage).

Just not sure I'm reading it right, or am I just too impatient and should let it average out over a few days ?

Help appreciated

Magentasue

We have this one and take no notice of the costings. We have set it to 12p a kwh - I remember doing that in setup.

We look at the daily figure - when we got it, it ranged from 12-16 units most days. Now we're 10-12 unless it's a heavy laundry or DIY day. Only 8 yesterday but most of us were out for the evening so only one room in use instead of three or four. I also check the weekly units and check this against the weekly meter read - usually about 5kwh out but close enough for me.

The other useful figure on the display is how many watts/kwh we're using now. At the moment, we're on 144watts (just me up with radio and laptop), one son in bed (not sure if he's got anything charging or on up there). This afternoon, when the youngest comes in from school, TV or another laptop on so probably 300ish. Evening all in from work and college so 600ish. Over the evening as they all come in, plug in, switch on, lights on, we'll be at almost a kwh. If it goes over that, I send someone round switching off. When I first got it, there would be several lights left on and the teens+ wandered from room to room. Now they've got fed up with having to do the tour, they're more careful.

I take no notice of the surges when appliances go on - it's the 'normal' that I watch. By replacing lightbulbs, we cut our evening use by more than 300watts. Now, that's only 4p or whatever, but it's 20p per evening, £1.40 a week, etc.

There are six of us - grown up children all in different rooms with loads of gadgets - most people will be using less than us.

Different_Corner

Thank you Sue, that's really helpful.

been rifling through the paperwork think my new price is 13.70p/kW after the 18.75p/KW block of usage -IYSWIM !

Kids have gone to school there's me PC and GMTV on - I'm at 500W that is scary. Fine tuning needed methinks.

Magentasue

I don't put TV on until I sit down in the evening - wish the kids were the same. I do have a radio on all day if I'm here. I work part time, as does OH. Son 1 does shifts, son2 full-time, son 3 college, daughter school so there is nearly always someone at home. For our unit cost, I worked out our annual use, worked out the tier one units, charged the rest at the tier two rate and divided by the total to get 12.5p. But, as I said, the costings aren't much use to me. At the moment, it says £210 a month but that's because the washing machine is on!

ChrisRob300

Hi

My meter is brilliant. Electric 8.65 per K/W hour. About 15KW per day.
Need to reset off peek time to stop the blue light coming on.

One problem- the clock looses 2Minutes a day!!
I though modern clocks were really accurate these days?

Any help appreciated.

Chris

BagOfSpanners

I've got one of the Southern Electric ones too - underneath the badge it's a CurrentCost unit.

The inaccuracy of the clock is a known issue, but I've heard it said that the clock does get more accurate after it has been in use for a few weeks - something about the crystal frequency stablising.

My CurrentCost now drifts by about 1 minute per week, which I think is better than it was several months ago when I bought it.