e.on monitor brilliant

freddi_2

I got an e.on monitor and with the software I can tell how much energy is being used during the night and when I am not even at home.

I have been studying my usage and during the night between 2am when I normally go to my bed, and 8am, I used on average 189 watts per hour. Then at 8am the usage jumped to 220 watts.

Not a lot, but I wondered why, as I don't get up till after 9am.

Then it increases as I switch things on.

So I decided to investigate, took all of 2 minutes to figure it out, my heating is timed to come on at 8am, but since I turn the thermostat of my heating down when I go to my bed and turn it up when I get up, heat is not being produced, radiators do not get warm, water is not being heated but electricity is being used by my heating system somewhere.

I then changed the time my heating came on to 9am just to check and yes the usage did not jump to 220 watts until 9am.

So when my heating switches on via the timer it is using electricity even although it is not producing any heat.

I bet no one thought their heating used electricity when it is not heating, I would never have found that out without the monitor and the software from e.on.

In fact, I wonder if it is meant to do that, I will have to investigate.

Pity the software did not give a graph plotting usage every second:D

So, one up for the energy monitor.

cookie1003

anyone out there knows the cheapest place for a non e-on customer to buy one (they are just under £30 for scottish power customers).

Flibertigibit

I want to bump this to see what any of our "brains" on here think re the meter recording usage when it gets to the timed period even if the heaters are turned down thermostatically and don't actually start to heat. I have just this situation, but never worried about it as I thought no electricity would be used until the heater thermostats turned them on.

boliston

How does the monitor work? Is it fitted in such a way that all electricity to the property flows through the meter?

moonrakerz

At low readings, which a couple of hundred Watts certainly is, these monitors are notoriously inaccurate.
The readings you are getting are little more than "noise" in the circuits. To say that your usage "averages" 189 W overnight then "leaps" to 220 W, is meaningless and illusory, I am afraid.

To save money, read the rating plates on your appliances AND your main meter - and certainly DON'T spend £30 on one of these pointless gizmos !

boliston

I think I might wait for "smart" meters to be introduced, as I'm pretty sure they take a very accurate reading every 30 minutes.

margin

moonrakerz wrote: »

At low readings, which a couple of hundred Watts certainly is, these monitors are notoriously inaccurate.
The readings you are getting are little more than "noise" in the circuits. To say that your usage "averages" 189 W overnight then "leaps" to 220 W, is meaningless and illusory, I am afraid.

To save money, read the rating plates on your appliances AND your main meter - and certainly DON'T spend £30 on one of these pointless gizmos !

My experience is that the E.ON monitors are extremely accurate. You can test this by simply turning on a light of which you know the wattage. Now I've got my monitor I find that I wouldn't want to be without it.

powerone

Can you tell us what sort of heathing you have.

Do you have a gas boiler or is it electric.

Do you have a night stoarge heater?

macman

freddi wrote: »

I got an e.on monitor and with the software I can tell how much energy is being used during the night and when I am not even at home.

I have been studying my usage and during the night between 2am when I normally go to my bed, and 8am, I used on average 189 watts per hour. Then at 8am the usage jumped to 220 watts.

Not a lot, but I wondered why, as I don't get up till after 9am.

Then it increases as I switch things on.

So I decided to investigate, took all of 2 minutes to figure it out, my heating is timed to come on at 8am, but since I turn the thermostat of my heating down when I go to my bed and turn it up when I get up, heat is not being produced, radiators do not get warm, water is not being heated but electricity is being used by my heating system somewhere.

I then changed the time my heating came on to 9am just to check and yes the usage did not jump to 220 watts until 9am.

So when my heating switches on via the timer it is using electricity even although it is not producing any heat.

I bet no one thought their heating used electricity when it is not heating, I would never have found that out without the monitor and the software from e.on.

In fact, I wonder if it is meant to do that, I will have to investigate.

Pity the software did not give a graph plotting usage every second:D

So, one up for the energy monitor.

So what did you think powered the timer and the ignition circuit on your boiler then? Even assuming that the 31W 'jump' is accurate (which it won't be), the standby power is less than 0.75kWh per day-that's about 7.5p.

ollski

Probably turns your hot water on at the same time operating the pump and boiler. Motorized valve on a 3 port heating system uses a very small amount of power aswell even when not on.

ERICS_MUM

Hi freddi,

thanks for your post, very useful. E-on sent me one of these last week but I've not dared use it yet - is it easy to set up or do I need a masters degree in electro-physics (middle aged woman speaking here !).??