Has an energy monitor really changed your behaviour?

Marcusp

After telling my wife how much money she had used tumble drying the washing instead of hanging it up outside, she has unplugged the monitor and told me I am not getting it back.

Has monitoring my energy consumption changed my behaviour?

Not mine but my wife is no longer speaking to me

loracan1

Yes, it's changed my behaviour. And that of my kids. Was free from my supplier.

I used to leave lights on thinking that they don't use that much electricity but it's a cumulative effect. I've stopped doing that now. It has facility to see your usage so far on that particular day, over the last 7 days and the day before. I can also tell when the kids have left the bathroom light on (that causes a bit of eye-rolling)

Had it since May and still not bored of it...kids are away this week and energy consumption has dropped to average of 55 over the week, including a couple of tumble drier loads.

thaylock

I moved to the EnergySmart tariff to get a free meter - they are very clever & does make you change your attitude towards how much electricity you use - the only thing I will say though is I think it's a long term ploy by British Gas to save money on paying people to read meters because you will have to read your own meters - but I think this is a good thing because your bills will always be accurate - don't tell the socialist unions about this though because they will get British Gas out on strike.

dannymccann

Marcusp wrote: »

After telling my wife how much money she had used tumble drying the washing instead of hanging it up outside, she has unplugged the monitor and told me I am not getting it back.



Not mine but my wife is no longer speaking to me

:rotfl: Same here.

It hasnt really changed my behaviour as such, in that we were already a 6kwh a day electric household, our total fuel bill, gas and electric, for the year is around £500.

It has however allowed me to explain and educate family on their usage and how to save money, and when they say 'ah you're talking crap' i can plug the monitor in and show them. Yes for thermostatic control devices its a little flawed, but when there is 5 TV's all on at once in rooms that arent even occupied, youve got to take notice when thats over 1kwh just on TV's!

Cardew

dannymccann wrote: »

Yes for thermostatic control devices its a little flawed,

'A little flawed? How about useless!;)

It seems remarkable to me that people are suddenly discovering that leaving on lights and TVs uses electricity.

xbrenx

Marcusp wrote: »

After telling my wife how much money she had used tumble drying the washing instead of hanging it up outside, she has unplugged the monitor and told me I am not getting it back.



Not mine but my wife is no longer speaking to me

:rotfl::T:rotfl::T
Too funny, even in your first post I thought how annoying that would be! lol
(thanks for the giggle this morning)

pencekeeper

Cardew wrote: »

Totally agree with the 'sceptics' above.

A 15watt lamp uses - errr - 15watts.

Most appliances that use lots of power have variable consumption as they have thermostatic control.

What is the point of the monitor registering the consumption of Fridge, freezer, Washing machine, dryer, cooker, immersion heater, fan heaters, etc etc. The important issue is for how long they consume power before the thermostat switches off the power.

e.g. Switch on your fridge or freezer and most of the time your monitor will tell you it is using no power at all(so £zero a month) - and it isn't because the compressor isn't running. However when the compressor is running your monitor will indicate it is costing, say, £15 a month.

Even worse is your immersion heater, that will cause the monitor to show £267 a month!!!(or nothing!!)

It's certainly true that many appliances use lots of power at certain times, and almost nothing at others depending on a number of factors/conditions. Seeing your shower is using 8217W at that current point in time obviously shouldn't be extrapolated to that of a month's use as it won't be reflective.

But that's not to say that there aren't benefits for people in certain circumstances:

- Many energy meters will show you how much electricity you've used today, yesterday and last week. These figures (assuming they are accurate enough to be useful) are helpful and for some people are easier to do that checking the meter, recording and calculating results. On many you can set targets to aim for.

- Appliances should be marked with peak power use etc and manuals may state manufacturers figures for annual usage. These may or may not have much bearing on the what appliance actually uses, and whilst an individual socket monitor is best for analysing an individual appliance, when you can see power consumption in real time it might just make you use the tumble dryer less.

- Power meters can get children interested in energy use. They are "fun" gadgets.

- When you put on that device you didn't think used much power and see the current power draw spike you realize the reality. It can change people's mindset about electricity consumption.


Are they a perfect one stop solution for all? No - and speaking as someone who records power consumption of most of the appliances in their home and records in on a spreadsheet (I have no life), and looks at the meter weekly I don't really need mine, but it was free from NPower.

Most people can't be bothered with meters, socket monitors etc though, and energy monitors have proven to be the catalyst needed to reduce usage in many cases.

loracan1

Cardew wrote: »

'A little flawed? How about useless!;)

It seems remarkable to me that people are suddenly discovering that leaving on lights and TVs uses electricity.

It's easy to leave lights on for 'half an hour' that then turns into a couple of hours though, or leave a tv on when you go to another room. I've always been of a mindset that it 'doesn't really matter' I've never had problems paying the bill and it just seems a little sad to wander round the house switching things off.

Much harder to ignore this little gadget that demonstrates exactly how much you're using. I never ever 'got' the low energy lightbulb thing either. The difference in a day is pennies...but over time. One of the first things I did after getting the monitor was get low wattage bulbs for all the lamps, not cheap, but effective. Other effect was turning me into my parents(grumbling to myself as I walk around turning out lights etc)

maria6259

kamzy wrote: »

Basically my British Gas Websaver 3 deal ends this month, and I will revert back to the standard tariff. Been looking on their site at both the Onlinesaver 2 which is 4% off their standard prices for duel fuel and their Websaver 8 which is basically what I have but called Websaver 8 compared to Websaver 3! The Websaver seems to be better as its 6% cheaper than the standard tariff, but I just want to know have people really changed how they use their electricity to warrant going for the online saver with energy smart?

Please share your thoughts

I'm with NPower and I got one of those meter things for free, although it only measures the electric use (my dad has something similar that measures both but he is with E-On).

I have changed how I use my electric, I no longer fill up the kettle every time I want a drink, just boil enough water for 2 mugs now.

Wickedkitten

Weekly meter readings has done well more than 3 weeks with an electricity monitor did, mainly because there is no guesswork involved. The amount of units used is the amount of units used.