How To Use An Energy Monitor

odollybird

HI THERE,
I HAVE BROUGHT A PLUG IN MAINS POWER &ENERGY MONITOR SAME AS THIS ONE
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343
COULD SOME BODY PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO USE THIS PLEASE , ONLY I HAVE TRIED TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT CAME WITH IT AND THEY ARE ALL GOBULDY GOOK TO ME PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME

penrhyn

The intstruction sheet can be found here

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Media/PDFs/L61AQ.pdf

If you want to find out what the consumption of one of your appliances is over time then its just a case of plugging it in between the appliance and the mains.
You can then read the instantaneous current in Amps, the instantaneous power in Watts, and if you leave it plugged in for an hour or more the power consumption over time Kilowatt hours.
If you know what you are paying for your electricity its a simple matter then to calculate how much the appliance is costing you to run.
Then its a matter of doing the same thing for the rest of your appliances.
Its not possible to monitor the consumption of hard-wired appliances such as electric cookers, immersion heaters, central heating pump,your fixed lighting and the like.
To do this you would need a clamp on meter of something like an Owl Energy monitor. These are good in getting you to change your habits of leaving things on unnecessarily, but once you have done that its usefulness is largely over, good talking point though, to show off your Eco credentials to your friends and family.
A common complaint with Owl type of device is that its not sensitive enough to measure small changes in power consumption, standby current of TVs, phone chargers and low energy lamps.

Hope this helps a bit.

kwikbreaks

That unit just moitors the power consumption of whatever is plugged into it. Pressing the buttons on the front changes what is displayed between watts amps and volts It will also show kilowatt hours used over a period of time.

Normally these units are on special at Maplins and sell between £9.99 and £12.99. A good moneysaving tip is to never buy anything from Maplins unless it is on promotion and even then check you can't get it cheaper elsewhere.

Now as you are describing the instructions as gobeldygook my betting is that you don't understand what the units are so that means you've doubly wasted your money. The beauty of Maplins is that they don't give you any grief on returns so my advice would be to take it back and get a refund because you've paid over the odds for something you don't understand.

odollybird

HI PENRHYN,
SO MORE OR LESS IF I PLUG IT IN AND PLUG SAY MY LAPTOP IN AND THEN LEAVE IT FOR AN HOUR THEN PRESSED THE KWH IT SAY'S 3 SO THEN I TIMES THAT BY 32.52p THAT IS HOW MUCH I PAY FOR MY ELECTRIC IN THE DAY TIME THEN THAT GIVES ME MORE OR LESS THE COST OF RUNNING THAT ITEM (ROUGHLY 98p)

penrhyn

Yes that is how much it is costing you to run your laptop for the period of time you monitored it for.

nomoneytoday

odollybird wrote: »

HI PENRHYN,
SO MORE OR LESS IF I PLUG IT IN AND PLUG SAY MY LAPTOP IN AND THEN LEAVE IT FOR AN HOUR THEN PRESSED THE KWH IT SAY'S 3 SO THEN I TIMES THAT BY 32.52p THAT IS HOW MUCH I PAY FOR MY ELECTRIC IN THE DAY TIME THEN THAT GIVES ME MORE OR LESS THE COST OF RUNNING THAT ITEM (ROUGHLY 98p)

Right idea, but I doubt a laptop would use that much power. Have you set it up with the correct price per KwH and unit amount?

Every 1000 watts used for one hour will cost around 10-15p depending on your tariff.