Energy Wizard

cybergibbons

keith969 wrote: »

These devices don't benefit the home consumer.

Your electricity meter measures real power in watts. Messing with the power factor doesn't change what the meter reads.

Domestic meters only tend to read real power when the power factor is close to 1. They do compensate when you move away from this. But if you really push them (current completely out of phase with voltage), you will get it to misread. Digital meters are much better than the old induction ones. I kept our old induction meter when it was swapped out and spent a while playing with it to work out how it could misread...

It is desirable for power factor to be close to 1, but the reason that homes aren't charged like commercial is that nearly every house does have a power factor of almost 1 anyway.

Anyway, such a small device would have no hope of correcting the power factor. Well, possibly for a single fluorescent with a magnetic ballast, but that's about as far as it goes.

cybergibbons

keith969 wrote: »

The same company makes something called Standby Saver which is basically an extension lead that can be used to turn off devices on standby. It was this that was on Dragon's Den.

If you really want to save electricity, get an Owl wireless electricity monitor, then you can find out just how much electricity you are using at any moment, and see the effect of turning on or off different appliances.

I contemplated getting one of these. Then I realised it's a gimmick. I know how much power everything uses from the nameplate. If it is on, it's uses electricity. To save electricity, I just don't turn things on as much. If I buy an Owl, I need to save another £30 in electricity before I break even as well.

keith969

cybergibbons wrote: »

I contemplated getting one of these. Then I realised it's a gimmick. I know how much power everything uses from the nameplate. If it is on, it's uses electricity. To save electricity, I just don't turn things on as much. If I buy an Owl, I need to save another £30 in electricity before I break even as well.

They're not a gimmick, at least IMHO. You get a real time display of the actual usage of what's on, so you can see e.g. the fridge kicking in (and how often) etc.

In my new place I noticed the electricity usage shot up for a while every time I used some hot water. Turned out the immersion heater was on (as well as the heating); I'd not located the switch up till then.

It also showed me that the two TVs on standby consumed negligible power so I don't bother to turn them off!

paulpud

If you are an Npower customer and sign up to paperless billing you can get one of their wireless energy monitors free.

Mine arrived yesterday and I was quite impressed with it. They're not essential items by any means but it shows how much electricity you're using at any one time and I'm pretty sure it keeps a history of usage so you have a rough idea of how much your next bill is going to be.

tbourner

keith969 wrote: »

They're not a gimmick, at least IMHO. You get a real time display of the actual usage of what's on, so you can see e.g. the fridge kicking in (and how often) etc.

It also showed me that the two TVs on standby consumed negligible power so I don't bother to turn them off!

Ditto. We got our free NPower meter through recently and it's really useful. I'm not sure I trust the accuracy that much but for relative comparisons it's pretty useful.
I also tried leaving everything on standby for a while and then turning everything off, the difference was about 0.05KW/h! :think: That's a TV, DVD player, VHS, cable box, PC, monitor and cable modem. So the saving is far outweighed by having to reset all my clocks twice a day! :doh:

uzmo

After reading some of these messages here re: Energy Wizard, I thought I'd share my experience with this device.

I purchased the EcoTek Energy Wizard 3 weeks ago. Today my current cost electricity monitor finally arrived; I connected it up and and to my dismay I found that the energy wizard is using approx 100watts when its plugged in. When I disconnect it the power usage displayed on the monitor drops by the same amount.

To make sure I wasn't hallucinating, I disconnected all electrical items in the house to get a better reading and behold, when I plug the energy wizard into a free electrical socket, the usage jumps by approx 100watts.

keith969

Interesting. Does the unit get hot? I suspect not much - your electricity monitor is probably measuring reactive, or apparent, power not real power.

100W of reactive power by my calculations means about 6uF capacitance in the unit.

uzmo

Today, I woke to find my energy usage hovering around 190watts. Not a single device electrical device was on with the exception being the fridge freezer and the Ecotek Energy Wizard.

When I unplugged the ecotek Energy Wizard, the energy consumption displayed by the monitor dropped drastically, to around 70watts. I left the ecotek turned off for 10minutes just to make sure.... I then plugged it back in and voila, the reading jumped to 180-190watts.

Now, Just to be sure, I have tested this multiple times throughout the day and have also tested it at my brothers house and I get exactly the same results.

Without the ecotek, When the fridge freezer is idle, the energy consumption displayed by the current cost monitor is around 70watts. When its ticking over / cooling, its about 130watts.

NOTE: the ecotek energy wizard doesn't seem to have any effect on the meter reading when the the fridge freezer is ticking over / cooling.

I did the same tests at my brothers and exactly the same... With the wizard plugged in and the Fridge freezer idle, the wattage increases by around 100..

hh13

Today, I woke to find my energy usage hovering around 190watts. Not a single device electrical device was on with the exception being the fridge freezer and the Ecotek Energy Wizard.

Funnily enough I've just read about this effect in their FAQ, although they say 130W max. I mailed them ages ago with some general queries about the Energy Wizard and forgot about it. I finally got a reply today hence ending up at their FAQ again.

Apparently I'm not allowed to post links so if you want to read it you'll have to go to this site (without the spaces)

standby-saver . co . uk / faqs

Can't comment on whether it really works or not

uzmo

Extract from the energy Wizard FAQ:

"The net effect is that although Energy Wizard does not consume any significant real power at all, it may be shown as adding to the consumption of your house. This apparent increased consumption can be as high as 130W."

Does this mean that eventhough my monitor is showing an increase, it in reality isn't.. Until I get an IAM for my fridge freezer, I can't check whether this is true or not.


So far I haven't had any reason to complain as my bills are in line with the monitor reading... If this extra 130w is indeed correct in any 24hr period I will pay approximately an extra £0.30 (My electricity rate is 11.342pence). This works out as £9.30 a month, £109.50 a year.... Considering my average monthly electricity bill is around £30.00 that would take it up to £39.30 an increase of 31%... Where's my 10% saving.....