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

djhworld

I got one of these monitors from British Gas last year, it was good fun to use and very interesting but a few months after I got it BG decided to send me a new plug for the thing "because the previous one wasn't up to the safety standards we'd hoped"

I tried the energy monitor with the new plug and the plug emitted a terrible low buzzing sound which worried me about my house burning down so I put the monitor in the bin and never used it again.

he1enw

I'm looking for an energy monitor - I did try a friend's one, but I couldn't get it to clip round the electric cable. The cable is quite thick and close to the wall in the meter cupboard, so there isn't much room to clip anything round it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

louisekeefe

My boyfriend gave me an electric energy monitor (he is an electrician) for xmas. I love it. It rests on the kitchen windowsill & is more entertaining than TV. I'm on Superdeal (all electric) so have 3 different charges throughout the day & night. Initially i turned on everything to test it then turned stuff off gradually & watched the change. The most expensive items to turn on are a kettle, an elec shower, a tumble dryer & an emersion heater. Only fill a kettle with the amount of water you need. Have a short, sharp shower. Tumble dry only when its raining & hot water can be a luxury! MSE is FAB! Keep up the good work

Avalon_Adam

Can someone tell me how these monitors work? Do I have to connect it to my meter? I can't feasibly think how it can monitor energy use unless its wired into the system, or am I being a bit thick?

he1enw

On the ones I've see you basically have a bit which clips rounds the cable going into the electric meter. This then transmits the information to the monitor.

marklister69

Radionotme wrote: »

Any advice on which meters to go for and where to buy from?

i have just got one of the OWL ones down from £20 to just £10 at ADSA in Hull what a bargain they only had 2 left though and i dont know if all ASDA stores are doing this good luck:)

shopperjpg

I have one which was free from my supplier npower. I was pretty energy consious before so don't know that it'll help me save much. Like Martin, my house uses 2p per hour of elec overnight. My only big surprise from it, is to see how much electricity the vacuum cleaner uses! Maybe that's a good excuse for less cleaning!! I can also tell that the advice from npower about what amount my monthly direct debit should be was way off (I thought so at the time and the monitor indicates it too)

LydiaJ

Avalon_Adam wrote: »

Can someone tell me how these monitors work? Do I have to connect it to my meter? I can't feasibly think how it can monitor energy use unless its wired into the system, or am I being a bit thick?

The clip goes round the live wire next to your meter. It has a ring of magnetic material in it. When a current flows in the live wire, it produces a magnetic field in the ring. The device can then detect how strong the magnetic field is and work out how much current is flowing in the live wire.

Geoff_W

I bought a Maplin 'plug-in' energy monitor several years ago and that has been invaluable in measuring the consumption of individual appliances. It is also very useful for measuring the amount of electricity consumed over a long period of time, so good for fridges, freezers and TV's etc. I too, like an earlier poster, was surprised to discover that my desktop computer consumed around 25W when it was supposedly off. All the wall-warts consuming 2-3W each and the aerial amplifier for the (almost never used) FM tuner at 5W, all added up to rather a lot of wasted power.

However, a plug-in monitor is of no use with with wired-in appliances like the cooker and impossible-to-get-at sockets feeding the washing machine and tumble dryer. But to have to buy a monitor for at least £30 wasn't an economic option. However, our local library was offering a 3wk loan of the Envi monitor, so I gave it a whirl.

The first thing to say is that they are really only of use as a general consumption comparator - they are not very accurate. Over a 10 day period, the device overestimated the actual (meter) reading by about 10kWh. They only show an instantaneous reading of consumption, so are no use for telling you, say, how much the oven has used to cook a casserole for a couple of hours. Also, unlike the Maplin device, they take no account of fluctuating Power Factor (PF) which has a huge effect on the true power consumed. For example, I set up a test load of 500W of incandescent lamps (almost purely resistive, so a PF close to 1). The Maplin monitor read 500W and a timed observation of the meter confirmed this to be accurate. But the Envi display showed 406W throughout. All fuses were pulled during this test with the exception of one lighting circuit. Now you would have thought from this example that the Envi would underestimate consumption over a period of time, but this was not the case. This is explained by further tests using the Maplin monitor which can also display PF. Reactive loads such as switched-mode power supplies (found in most electronic devices) and electric motors (washing machines) may have a PF closer to 0.5. In these cases, the Envi tells you that you are using twice as much power as is being measured by the electricity meter.

Subsequent to trying the Envi, a relative has given me a BG Minim monitor, and although this has a completely different type of display (rather like a digital speedometer) it is no more accurate. In fact this consistently underestimates actual consumption.

alphazulu

How long does the free electricity meter from British Gas' energysmart take to arrive?