OWL Wireless Energy Monitor - your findings?

Brian99_2

If the OWL is clipped over a cable, it is measuring ONLY the AMPS, and doing a rough calculation of watts.

Problem is, it doesnt measure the POWER FACTOR ( phase diff between volts and amps) and so the calculation is VERY approximate.

Error is worst for inductive loads, and explains the weird result for the induction hob.

clockworks_2

Hi I am interested in buy an Owl unit. Porblem is my meter is down the communal hall near the lift shaft which is 30 meters away, I live in a flat. The main feed coming into the flat is a big thick cable going into the fusebox. Is there anyway I can connect the owl inside the flat ?


thanks

rogerblack

clockworks wrote: »

Hi I am interested in buy an Owl unit. Porblem is my meter is down the communal hall near the lift shaft which is 30 meters away, I live in a flat. The main feed coming into the flat is a big thick cable going into the fusebox. Is there anyway I can connect the owl inside the flat ?

You'd need to connect it after it splits into live and neutral, otherwise it won't work.

It - may - work for the distance from the meter.

Plug-in energy monitors, that just plug into a socket, and you plug an appliance into them work well, though are not ideal for whole-house monitoring of course.

chris1973

The main feed coming into the flat is a big thick cable going into the fusebox

Sounds like you have SWA (Armoured Cable) covering the distance between the meter and fusebox. Which isn't unusual where it has to travel in communal areas for any distance.

Unfortunately the clamp for the energy monitor will only work properly when connected around a meter 'tail' - these are seperate high current individual wire feeds going into / coming out of the meter.


As far as remotely connecting to the distant meter is concerned - The reliable range of the transmitter / receiver to the extent you mention is debateable, the monitors i've tested exhibit highly variable results just sending from a downstairs cupboard to a bedroom, often with 'lag' caused by dropping of the signal or local interference.

Factors such as RF interference from large loads such as lift motors, any fire blocking material in the lift shaft / between floors will also cut down the signal range, as will other radio devices used by others in a block of accomodation, as these devices use a very common type approved frequency shared by other wireless devices / gadgets.

If the meter is located in a visible communal or public area there is also the risk of theft, vandalism etc to the monitor transmitter and clamp

clockworks_2

Thanks for your replies guys. I think that rules one out for me.

jarthurs

I first purchased one of these a couple of years ago, in an effort to get our horrendous electricity consumption down. The Owl combined with a plug in meter took our consumption down from 30-35KWh/day to around 17-22KWh/day (both myself and my wife work from home and we have a whole array of servers and other kit which run 24/7).

I've just pensioned off the Owl as my main energy monitor as I've invested in the Owl Intuition PV. We had solar panels installed in October and I want to keep an eye on what we're exporting.

I'm planning on using it to log our electricity usage on our hot water tank, we have a two element setup with one element on mains timer, and the second heating the water exclusively using solar electricity. The Owl will be able to keep tabs on the total consumed as well as how much is provided by the sun instead of the grid!

It's not super accurate on low loads but it's made us much more aware of our electricity usage and helped us save around £1300 over the past couple of years.

Regards,
Jason.

MillicentBystander

Agreed. Whether it is entirely accurate or not doesn't really matter; what it does is cause you to really think about electricity usage and that has to be a very good thing. It's unusual to find someone who's actually used on of these monitors who doesn't rate it.