My Gas and Electricity Consumption - What do you think?

sho_me_da_money

penrhyn wrote: »

The most power hungry devices would be Electric Showers 7-10 Kw, Electric Kettles 3Kw, Electric Heaters 2- 3 Kw, Electric cookers, Tumble Driers, Washing Machines etc. By comparison computers take next to nothing.

If you want to monitor you overall usage get hold of an Owl or similar device, it maybe that your electricity supplier will send you one for free.

Got a question:

For the washing machine we have a switch on the wall that's always switched to ON even though the washing machine is off. Does that consume anything?

Same thing for the shower upstairs. There is a switch on the outside that is switch to ON and there is a stringy pull switch in the bathroom that is always in it's ON position. Do either or those consume the electricity even though the shower is not in use?

Thanks!

macman

No they don't (except possibly the neon indicator on the shower isolator, if it has one, uses a couple of watts).

victor2

As well as a monitor like the Owl, which does your entire house's consumption, you could also consider an individual monitor which plugs into a socket like an adapter. It can only measure power used by appliances with a plug on them, but can be quite useful to see what an individual item takes. The sort of thing I'm thinking off can be seen here. I got a similar one from fleabay for a bit less and while not the most accurate thing in the world, it gives a good idea.

sho_me_da_money

victor2 wrote: »

As well as a monitor like the Owl, which does your entire house's consumption, you could also consider an individual monitor which plugs into a socket like an adapter. It can only measure power used by appliances with a plug on them, but can be quite useful to see what an individual item takes. The sort of thing I'm thinking off can be seen here. I got a similar one from fleabay for a bit less and while not the most accurate thing in the world, it gives a good idea.

That's the cookie!

Having a device that shows the whole consumption is pretty pants. I assume the OWL just outputs the total figure without specifying which device is consuming the most.

I think this device is good for measuring each item and identifying if it is a high or low power sucker.

So how does this work? You get yoru washing machine plug and stick it into this badboy? I take it that gives you the standby consumption but how then do you then power the device on and see what it's live consumption is?

victor2

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

That's the cookie!

Having a device that shows the whole consumption is pretty pants. I assume the OWL just outputs the total figure without specifying which device is consuming the most.

I think this device is good for measuring each item and identifying if it is a high or low power sucker.

So how does this work? You get yoru washing machine plug and stick it into this badboy? I take it that gives you the standby consumption but how then do you then power the device on and see what it's live consumption is?

You just plug the monitor into a socket and plug the device into the monitor. The one I have shows current power usage, voltage, frequency, high and low watts taken, elapsed time and total kWh over that time. When you switch the appliance on, the monitor shows what it is taking. So you can plug something like a fridge into the monitor and record the power it has used over a period of time, like 24 hours, which is useful for equipment that uses relatively high power for a short period of time and then sits idle until it cuts in again.

penrhyn

All you do is turn stuff off, do some simple arithmetic you'll then get the general idea.
Standby power consumption has been over hyped IMHO, as you say get the power hungry bad boys under control first.

MORE POWER!!