Getting your electric bill down to the bare minimum

moonrakerz

penrhyn wrote: »

The accuracy of an Owl or Electrisave monitor is not specified below 1 amp, this equates to 230 watts. So below this it will give erroneous results.
The Kw display is only to two decimal paces so the smallest increment you will see is + or - 10 watts.
To accurately measure the consumption of small appliances you need a plug in wattmeter.

A similar unit to the Owl has a power consumption of less than 2W - why should a hob or microwave clock use 30 or 50 times this amount ?

ic

I'd agree that the figures are ridiculous and somewhat unbelievable - but I double checked the microwave and dishwasher with a plug-in monitor I'd just never bothered to use. The hob obviously is wired on its own circuit and can't be checked. I looked up the instruction manuals of both the hob and microwave and no claim is made as to their standby usage.

Since switching the hob, microwave and the paper shredder off, my owl now consistently reads 0.177 kWh, previously it read 0.350 kWh.

These numbers may be +/- as much as 70%, but even so I think at that level its worth me switching something off I may only use once every few days!

moonrakerz

ic wrote: »

Since switching the hob, microwave and the paper shredder off, my owl now consistently reads 0.177 kWh, previously it read 0.350 kWh.

These numbers may be +/- as much as 70%, but even so I think at that level its worth me switching something off I may only use once every few days!

Sorry - but you seem to be determined to ignore what is being said about these monitors - why ? At low currents they are NOT accurate.

You say: "These numbers may be +/- as much as 70%" - you have just plucked this figure out of thin air - an equally valid statement would be "These numbers may be +/- as much as 7000%"

Penrhyn says, quite correctly:

"The accuracy of an Owl or Electrisave monitor is not specified below 1 amp, this equates to 230 watts. So below this it will give erroneous results.
The Kw display is only to two decimal paces so the smallest increment you will see is + or - 10 watts.
To accurately measure the consumption of small appliances you need a plug in wattmeter."

Kittikins

With the phone charger, to me (being the only adult in the house) it makes perfect sense - I don't make/receive a huge amount of phone calls, so I can leave one handset in the charger in the sitting room and the other 2 s-l-o-w-l-y running down in the kitchen/my room, then swap them over when I notice that they're low on juice

I don't know anything about science, but I just know that seeing numbers go up makes me want to switch things off! I have never seen the point in leaving a microwave or cooker powered up just so you can tell what time it is. Ditto washing machine/dishwasher. If it's not in use, switch it off - it seems to make sense to me......

ashleyhinton

We've also got one of those OWL meters, I recall BG sent us one free after we queried a bill about a year back.

"idle" house, it shows around 418w which seems rather high, but then its accuracy at the lower levels seems to be in question. We also have one of those plug-in meters, which I will be using to take more accurate readings from the stuff which stays on like the internet connection.

We did deliberately move to a newer internet router a while back - these seem to have slimmed down a bit in the size of power supply used. Over a year ago we were using a PC as a router, the bills came down after we ditched it for something more conventional. We still have 1xPC on 24/7 though, as it handles some security cameras - seems to idle around 70w - will confirm though.

Gradually we are getting it down - or at least, trying to. TV's OFF not in standby, Virgin V+ box in standby whenever its not being viewed (needs to stay on because it records..), pre-amp off, power amp off again when not being used. Mobile phone chargers unplugged when not being used.

We have a big mains strip with about 8 sockets & a master switch for things like chargers, although these days we tend to just plug in/remove the chargers we actually need at the time.

Heating & HW is gas (central heating) - programmed so its not on 24/7!

I don't know if this is accurate, particularly the "average" of 13p per kilowatt-hour - please feel free to pick apart the numbers & and any bad maths/calculator working!

These figures are from the latest OWL readings & the costs are taken from the electricity bill.

First 252 kWh costs 17.769 pence
Next 1032 kWh costs 9.073 pence

So an average between the two is about 13 pence.

kWh is kilowatt hours, thus 418w divided by 1000 = 0.418kWh
In other words, 0.418 kilowatt-hours.

0.418 x 24 hours = 10.32 kWh per day
10.32 x 13p = £1.34 per day
times that by 7 = £9.39 per week
times £1.34 by 31 days = £41.54 per month
times £1.34 by 91 days = £121.94 per quarter :eek:
times £1.34 by 365 days = £489.10 per year :eek:

If we got down to 250w idle then:

0.250kwh x 24 hours = 6kWh per day
Assuming 13 pence per kWh again its £0.78p per day
£5.46 week
£24.18 month (aprox £20 saved)
£70.98 quarter (£51 saved)
£284.70 year (£205 saved)

Regards,

Ashley

devon_guy

They are good to get an idea but take yesterday for example. My owl said I had used 1kw in 24 hrs, I go and check the meter and have actually used 3. Probably the fact most times is says I'm using around 160w has something to do with it.

1carminestocky

I genuinely can't see an Owl being that inaccurate over a 24hr period. Are you sure its' set up correctly? IIRC we have had posters who have checked the Owl out over a much longer period and it was at most 10% out.

marc3

Excuse my ignorance-but i am assuming that this owl thing is an energy consumption meter.

Are they good ?

Where can i get one from at a reasonable price-or are any electricity companies giving them away-or any other offers anywhere ?

have they got a web site where i can read up on it.

Can anyone recommend any other energy consumption meter /device ?

Thanks for help.

uncommonadvice

The owl is one of the best thing's i've ever got. It really helps you save. I got mine in a promo in the Sunday Mirror!!!

atlantis187

uncommonadvice wrote: »

The owl is one of the best thing's i've ever got. It really helps you save. I got mine in a promo in the Sunday Mirror!!!

Was this offer in this last sunday paper whats gone?

Is there anyway I can get hold of this paper now to get this offer as this energy owl sounds like a pretty nifty tool.

Thanks