Background Energy Consumption

zeupater

SavingNow wrote: »

.... also, what is that meter thingy using to monitor the power consumption ? .....

Hi SavingNow

Welcome to the forum .....

Regarding the question referenced above, are you referring to the whole house energy monitors which have been mentioned on the thread, the Wattson, OWL etc. ?

Z

reeac

Our Smartpower meter which Npower Juice sent me for free shows a pretty consistent 1.0 kWh used between midnight and 0700 and also 3.4 kWh used over 24 hours if we are away. That's 140 watts average to run 1 fridge, 1 freezer, 1 front door chime [wireless transmitter type], 1 constantly plugged in and switched on DAB radio transformer, 1 constantly plugged in alarm clock radio and 2 cordless phones plus heating controls.

smartn

Well, looks like approx 15W of it is down to heating and controls. Still got approx 75W to find.

SavingNow

zeupater wrote: »

Hi SavingNow

Regarding the question referenced above, are you referring to the whole house energy monitors which have been mentioned on the thread, the Wattson, OWL etc. ?

Z

Yes, the smart meter. I just they must connect to the mains somewhere, and would consume so power to operate wouldn't they ?

Don't know for sure since we don't have one... I rely on taking taking regular meter readings direct and have a spreadsheet.

We typically use around 9.4 kwh per day (year avg) at the mo, even with all our efforts to reduce. Seems a lot to me for what we have connected, but we have reduced from around 11 kwh two years ago, so not a bad improvement I guess.

Annoying thing for me is that our electric shower was already installed when we moved into this house 6 years ago. There is no isolating switch in the bathroom, and the cabling runs under the tiles, so short of wrecking the current bathroom there is not much I can do about the glaring red neon indicator on the unit remiinding me that it is slowing and surely racking up on the electricity bill.

Not to worry, the 'boss' says she wants a new bathroom within next couple of years, and keeps reminding me how much it will 'save' me

SavingNow

reeac wrote: »

Our Smartpower meter which Npower Juice sent me for free shows a pretty consistent 1.0 kWh used between midnight and 0700 and also 3.4 kWh used over 24 hours if we are away. That's 140 watts average to run 1 fridge, 1 freezer, 1 front door chime [wireless transmitter type], 1 constantly plugged in and switched on DAB radio transformer, 1 constantly plugged in alarm clock radio and 2 cordless phones plus heating controls.

We also have 2 cordless phones, which whilst handy, I read that they can consume quite a bit in electricity. Anyone have a resource for weighing up the compative sonsumptions btw ?

We have 2 x BT Synergy 700 phones, and even if they are only consuming at 20 watts each, that can equate to around £42 / year I guess, versus free for basic corded plug in phones.

Cardew

SavingNow wrote: »

We also have 2 cordless phones, which whilst handy, I read that they can consume quite a bit in electricity. Anyone have a resource for weighing up the compative sonsumptions btw ?

We have 2 x BT Synergy 700 phones, and even if they are only consuming at 20 watts each, that can equate to around £42 / year I guess, versus free for basic corded plug in phones.

I would hope no cordless phone draws 20 watts.:eek:

They should use about 1 watt.

http://www.which.co.uk/technology/phones/guides/how-to-buy-the-best-dect-cordless-phone/cordless-phone-performance/

zeupater

SavingNow wrote: »

Yes, the smart meter. I just they must connect to the mains somewhere, and would consume so power to operate wouldn't they ?

Don't know for sure since we don't have one... I rely on taking taking regular meter readings direct and have a spreadsheet.

We typically use around 9.4 kwh per day (year avg) at the mo, even with all our efforts to reduce. Seems a lot to me for what we have connected, but we have reduced from around 11 kwh two years ago, so not a bad improvement I guess.

Annoying thing for me is that our electric shower was already installed when we moved into this house 6 years ago. There is no isolating switch in the bathroom, and the cabling runs under the tiles, so short of wrecking the current bathroom there is not much I can do about the glaring red neon indicator on the unit remiinding me that it is slowing and surely racking up on the electricity bill.

Not to worry, the 'boss' says she wants a new bathroom within next couple of years, and keeps reminding me how much it will 'save' me

Hi

My OWL monitor consists of two units, the first measures the energy flowing through a cable using a clip-on sensor and then transmits the reading to a remote display, both are battery powered. These monitor units are not smart meters, info on which is here .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter#United_Kingdom

HTH
Z

zeupater

SavingNow wrote: »

We also have 2 cordless phones, which whilst handy, I read that they can consume quite a bit in electricity. Anyone have a resource for weighing up the compative sonsumptions btw ?

We have 2 x BT Synergy 700 phones, and even if they are only consuming at 20 watts each, that can equate to around £42 / year I guess, versus free for basic corded plug in phones.

Hi

To measure the draw of anything which plugs in I have a Philex 'eco-power' monitor which looks like a plug in timer adapter unit but displays loads of information relevant to current mains conditions and power usage of anything plugged into it. It's the kind of unit which you would probably initially only use to feed usage information into a spreadsheet model of your power profile.

HTH
Z

SavingNow

Cardew wrote: »

I would hope no cordless phone draws 20 watts.:eek:

They should use about 1 watt.

OK, so you made me unplug the phone :rotfl:

Input 230V @ 40ma

2 outputs
5v @ 300ma
9v @ 300ma

Input wise, that should be 9.6w each, not 20w as guessed earlier, but if we recieve incoming voltage at 230 I'd be very surprised.

Looking at that Which article suggest I should consider replacing these phones.

SavingNow

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

To measure the draw of anything which plugs in I have a Philex 'eco-power' monitor which looks like a plug in timer adapter unit but displays loads of information relevant to current mains conditions and power usage of anything plugged into it. It's the kind of unit which you would probably initially only use to feed usage information into a spreadsheet model of your power profile.

HTH
Z

Maybe I should invest in one of these to track down some of that usage, after I deal with the external security wattage. Been waiting for prices to come down a little on those Megaman clusters.