electricity meter and monitor giving diff readings

elantan

hi .

wonder if anyone can give me a wee bit of advice, i have been taking regular meter readings and have recently recieved an eon electricity monitor, the monitor is saying that i use between 6/7 units per day but the meter is saying 10.5 units per day

can anyone help ?

victor2

The monitors are notoriously inaccurate, believe your meter.
To test the monitor, switch on something using a known amount of power, such as a heater or electric kettle. Watch the change on your monitor and see how well it relates to the usage the device should take.
My E.On monitor consistently reads higher than actual, but not by the same amount! Over a month, it has read between 10% and 90% above what the meter shows.

elantan

its an eon one that i have aswell ... only diff is mine is saying i use less than the meter lol ... so these monitors really arnt worth getting then if they are notoriously inaccurate ...

victor2

elantan wrote: »

its an eon one that i have aswell ... only diff is mine is saying i use less than the meter lol ... so these monitors really arnt worth getting then if they are notoriously inaccurate ...

I would have felt a bit cheated if I paid anything for mine, but do still find it useful.
Take the "Energy Now" figure as a ball park value and an indication of when something is using power. I can tell when my fridge compressor cuts in for example, as well as when a big user like an electric oven or shower is in use.

rogerblack

It seemingly depends on the individual unit, as well as how it's installed.
First, make sure that the clamp is all the way closed, and properly seated on the cable, not partially open.
I have two of these meters, and they are within 10% in general, even for loads under 100W.

elantan

victor2 wrote: »

I would have felt a bit cheated if I paid anything for mine, but do still find it useful.
Take the "Energy Now" figure as a ball park value and an indication of when something is using power. I can tell when my fridge compressor cuts in for example, as well as when a big user like an electric oven or shower is in use.

have to admit i do enjoy watching go up then down and it certainly showed us that what we thought would be burning alot wasnt , but somethings that we thought would be ok really were more expensive than we imagined

elantan

rogerblack wrote: »

It seemingly depends on the individual unit, as well as how it's installed.
First, make sure that the clamp is all the way closed, and properly seated on the cable, not partially open.
I have two of these meters, and they are within 10% in general, even for loads under 100W.

yep the clamp is deff all the way around the cable, its sitting in the right position, i think maybe i just have a not very good monitor

macman

Your electricity meter is a precision instrument. The monitor supplied free by your utility co. is a piece of cheap tat produced in China for which they probably pay a fiver at most. Which do you think is going to be more accurate?

elantan

i get all that ... i do fully undersand that my meter will be the more accurate, i was surprised however in how inaccurate the monitor in comparison, not worth the hassel of having one really ... even though i do enjoy watching it going up if i shove the kettle on lol

macman

They can be OK at high readings, but generally terrible at low ones though.

DVardysShadow

If you have worked out what appliances consume a lot and which are low users, you have got all the value there is out of the monitor.