Anyone recommend a decent energy monitor

frugal_matelot

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a decent energy monitor as I am not wholly convinced that my energy usage is correct. Since my electricity was changed, myusage has increased from 8KWH per day to 22!
Scottish Power sent someone to check the meter and they say it is in tolerance. If thats the case then there are items in my house that are eating electricity

chanz4

turn everything off and turn them back on one by one, keep reading your meter. Everyone blames the meter first im afraid, have you had a house rewire or new consumer unit

[Deleted User]

Have read bits by presumably, experts in the field, that they are very unreliable and only good for showing general trends in whats actually happening.The Smart meter monitor I see quite often in my job is supposed to be 100% accurate, showing whats been spent in the last week and the last month along with exact kwhs useage.worth having a smart meter fitted if you are offered one ( I heard its going to be optional) just to get one

frugal_matelot

chanz4 wrote: »

turn everything off and turn them back on one by one, keep reading your meter. Everyone blames the meter first im afraid, have you had a house rewire or new consumer unit

No I haven't had a rewire or new consumer unit, I just want to find 'accurately ' what is using what. Scottish Power from what my wife told turned everything off and then used a blow heater
to check the meter.

torbrex

I have an Owl energy monitor and after the initial set-up, I find it easy to use and find myself looking at it and thinking, what's on now?
I got it from Argos using some vouchers received from doing online survey's

rogerblack

I'd recommend one similar to http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EON-Energy-Monitor-Pack-/180817620875?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item2a1991ef8b (no experience of this seller)
This particular model can be connected to the computer, to give a log of what power you have used.
I find this most useful.
For example, looking at the graph, I can tell I got up at 7:19, and put the washing machine on at 7:49.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Current-Cost-EnviR-Black-SmartR-Monitor-/180765976072?pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item2a167de608 - new from the maker

HappyMJ

frugal_matelot wrote: »

No I haven't had a rewire or new consumer unit, I just want to find 'accurately ' what is using what. Scottish Power from what my wife told turned everything off and then used a blow heater
to check the meter.

That's not an actual test. An actual test would have cost you money. That's just the supplier asking an engineer to have a quick look to see if anything is wired wrong. A 2kw heater could use anything from 1.9kW to 2.1kW and still be in tolerance as it is only 5% either side of 2kW. The supply voltage isn't even that accurate. That's supposed to be somewhere within the range 230V +10%/-6%.

There is no more accurate energy monitor than the meter. You can get an energy monitor to only show you trends such as turning the heater on and watching the figure jump. The figure it displays is not accurate.

Norman_Castle

Owl type monitors which connect to the main cable only have an accuracy of greater than 90%. Many plug in monitors have an accuracy of 0.005%. Maplins have plug in monitors on offer regularly.

From my experience old style light bulbs and fridges use much more than expected.

rogerblack

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Owl type monitors which connect to the main cable only have an accuracy of greater than 90%. Many plug in monitors have an accuracy of 0.005%. Maplins have plug in monitors on offer regularly.

No plug-in consumer meter is more accurate than a percent or two.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/plug-in-electricity-cost-and-usage-calculator-223573 - for example - the first one I found - is accurate to at best 2.5% at high loads.

The clip-on meters are typically specified as better than 95%.
(once you properly set the voltage).

The accuracy of the meter, or tests, is probably largely a red herring.

The absolute first thing to do when you have a abnormally high reading like this is to turn off all loads, see if it stops, and then turn on a known load, and see if it goes at about the right rate.

While the points made above about the heater not being a 'proper' load are correct, they don't make a bill go from 8 units to 22 per day!

As the energy company has done the above test, next is to watch the energy meter every hour or two, and see if the load is constant, or changing.
Then, on a period when it's occurring, turn things off one by one until the meter stops spinning/flashing furiously.

OP - do you have storage heaters? Is this an economy 7 or normal meter?
What's your normal heating?

frugal_matelot

rogerblack wrote: »

No plug-in consumer meter is more accurate than a percent or two.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/plug-in-electricity-cost-and-usage-calculator-223573 - for example - the first one I found - is accurate to at best 2.5% at high loads.

The clip-on meters are typically specified as better than 95%.
(once you properly set the voltage).

The accuracy of the meter, or tests, is probably largely a red herring.

The absolute first thing to do when you have a abnormally high reading like this is to turn off all loads, see if it stops, and then turn on a known load, and see if it goes at about the right rate.

While the points made above about the heater not being a 'proper' load are correct, they don't make a bill go from 8 units to 22 per day!

As the energy company has done the above test, next is to watch the energy meter every hour or two, and see if the load is constant, or changing.
Then, on a period when it's occurring, turn things off one by one until the meter stops spinning/flashing furiously.

OP - do you have storage heaters? Is this an economy 7 or normal meter?
What's your normal heating?

My water and heating are gas and I have a standard digital electrical meter. It's not a large 3 bedroom house, 2 kids. When I queried it with Scottish Power they said that the old meter must have been reading low and I had been lucky!

HappyMJ

frugal_matelot wrote: »

My water and heating are gas and I have a standard digital electrical meter. It's not a large 3 bedroom house, 2 kids. When I queried it with Scottish Power they said that the old meter must have been reading low and I had been lucky!

What sort of electrical items do you have? Dryer's use a lot. Backup immersion heaters left on use a lot. Electric heating of any sort use a lot even if you think it's just a small conservatory heater it's very expensive. TV's and Xbox's left on full power use quite a bit. What sort of shower do you have? How long are the showers that people take in your house and how many?

Have you been reading the meter every day to get to this 22kWh per day figure?