Free & Cheap Energy Monitors Article Discussion

jnjsmum

Wish I knew about the ones in asda earlier, ordered a micro owl 1 from owl the other day for 19.95! Typical - LOL

gjpountain

This is a follow on from my previous posting about OWL being at ASDA for £10.
I have an old EFERGY meter and now a new OWL meter. When I put them side by side I noticed there was sometimes a big difference and sometimes hardly any. For instance last night when almost all the appliances were off the reading were almost identical and sometimes the efergy meter even had a slightly lower reading.
Now as I'm sat here the efergy reads 1.21 KW and the OWL .88KW.
However last night (30/08/2010) at 8.15pm I took a meter reading from our electric meter which read 73982.0 and I also reset the efergy and the owl.
This morning at 7.05am the electric meter read 73985.6
So the results are.
Electric meter says I have used 3.6Kw over night
OWL says 4.9Kw
Effergy says 5.9Kw.
Just thought that anyone buying a meter should be aware of the inaccuracy. I wonder what excuses the manufacturers would make as to why there meters were so inaccurate - that would be interesting. Hope you all found this info useful.

P.S. Even though they are inaccurate they are still useful to see what each appliances is using and whether you have left something on before going to bed. (e.g. the heater in the conservatory!)
Tried to post a picture but as I'm a new user it wouldn't let me.

All the best.
Graham

Swipe

Have you checked that the voltage is set the same on both devices?

liquidity_2

Without getting too technical a major contributor to the inaccuracy of these inexpensive meters has to do with the power factor of the loads. (See Wikipedia for a better summary than I can ever articulate.) The meters simply measure the current passing through the large cable going to the consumer unit and make fixed assumptions on how much of that current is being used as opposed to being returned. They get more accurate as the total consumption rises.

gjpountain

The voltage are both set to 230volts

euanwozere

jobeyjoe wrote: »

Just spotted that Owl have a discounted 'Dad Pack' available which bundles up the CM119 with their USB receiver product for £39.95 discounted from £52.95 if bought separately (just under 25% discount).

Ignore this offer it's duff.
buy separate with owl20 discount code and it costs £37.94.

liquidity_2

OK, just checked my old Efergy Meter (model HM01, purchased for perhaps £30 3 or 4 years ago) against the meter. Meter says 56 kWh over 6 days and Efergy says 56.9. Pretty good in my eyes!

Dustykitten

After borrowing a friend's efergy meter (she got it free with EDF a good time back) I would really like one. I want to switch suppliers - any one know of a tariff I could compare where you get one for free? many thanks.

stevwarn

I just paid £20.38 for an Owl CM119 at B&Q in Hedge End, they have been reduced by £6.00 + I used the 15% printable discount voucher which is valid from 1st to 7th Oct! Additionally, I could have used quidco for an extra discount. Hope this helps someone.

Busybody

Anyone give me advice on setting up my efergy monitor edf say I pay 16.91 pencefor the first 225 kwh per quarter and10.25 thereafter !! what do I put into my monitor?