"I love my Energy Monitor – do you have one?" blog discussion

rpb

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Bathroom lights should never be energy saving lights, unless they are in a bathroom where your only activity is to take long luxurious baths. ESL's take ages to warm up, and due to the power required to start and heat them, are not energy saving unless you leave them on for 30-40 mins each time you use them.

This is an urban legend. It is worth switching them off every time if you intend to be away for more than a minute or so. See:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=turn-fluorescent-lights-off-when-you-leave-room

"In other words ... it's almost always beneficial to shut off fluorescents when leaving the room—the start-up energy is offset by the power saved in even the briefest [usages]."

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Constant switching on and off also reduces their life significantly.

This is true to some extent but makes no difference to the argument. It is still worth switching them off because the money saved vastly outweighs any costs due to slightly reduced life from the odd short usage. (Unless you plan on standing there all day every day switching them on and off constantly to try to wear them out!) From the same article:

"Even if you switch on and off a fluorescent light frequently the slight reduction in lamp life is a small effect relative to the energy savings you accomplish."

:cool:

morrig

Premier- you sum up the usefulness of a monitor in that you can work out which appliance is using the right watts or not.I found that my Panasonic dvd player was using 7 watts in stand-bye not less than 1 as stated ,and that my old Pace twin pvr was only using 3 watts.
I bought a Prolectix monitor in a Netto discount trolley last year for £3.50,nearly fainted.But gives great incite in your power usage,especially when my microwave that's 800watts rated users 1600 just on microwave setting.

Idiophreak

woo! just got a text saying mine's been posted by EON - quite excited, actually...

Cardew

morrig wrote: »

Premier- you sum up the usefulness of a monitor in that you can work out which appliance is using the right watts or not.I found that my Panasonic dvd player was using 7 watts in stand-bye not less than 1 as stated ,and that my old Pace twin pvr was only using 3 watts.
I bought a Prolectix monitor in a Netto discount trolley last year for £3.50,nearly fainted.But gives great incite in your power usage,especially when my microwave that's 800watts rated users 1600 just on microwave setting.

An 800watt microwave is not supposed to consume 800watts on microwave. That is the 'transmitted' power of RF energy that cooks your food.

That is used for cooking comparison times e.g. 5 mins on high in a 600 watt microwave.

If your Panasonic DVD was using 7 watts instead of the claimed 'less than 1 watt' then report Panasonic to Trading Standards. However check that it really is on Standby and not has the timer set.

Agree with the post above about the 'Urban Myth' that Energy Saving lights use more electricity during warm up so should be left on. This is a throwback to the days of early fluorescent lamps, and even then it was a tiny amount more electricity.

Miss_J

I really need an energy saving monitor. Have been paying Southern Electricity and Gas, £131 a month to clear my energy bill that amassed over the winter. Got another bill this morning to say that I am still £400 outstanding, last week they asked me to up my direct debit to £180, which I refused, instead I'm trying to make sure the kids think smart. i.e turning lights off when they leave rooms, switching off the TV when not watching it etc. If I had one of these monitors and they could see how much it costs to power all the things they leave on I'm sure i would inspire them to switching to the off button.

vadek

Idiophreak wrote: »

woo! just got a text saying mine's been posted by EON - quite excited, actually...

It's now about 6 weeks since I ordered mine. Not convinced that it will EVER arrive.

vadek

Cardew wrote: »

If your Panasonic DVD was using 7 watts instead of the claimed 'less than 1 watt' then report Panasonic to Trading Standards. However check that it really is on Standby and not has the timer set.

Sometimes these devices have a quick-start setting. My Sony Blu-Ray has this. If I set it to quick-start it uses more power in standby than on the normal start setting.

tigerfeet1703

I received an energy monitor from E.on about 6 weeks ago. It HAS made a difference. I look at it most times I pass it (it's in the lounge near the bottom of the stairs) I was quite careful before but now turn things off as soon as I've used them not 'at the end of the day just incase I need them again'.

In the info with the monitor, it says it only uses 2p per week to run, I'm saving much more than that so I'm happy with it being on 24/7.

marks7389

eBay can be a good source of cheap electricity monitors if you can't get a freebie. I think I paid about £12 for my basic OWL monitor.

rammy007

If anyone is an M&S employee they can apply for a free one of these through their staff extras website apply till 6th august.