BBC's Ethical Man

trogg06

With reference to the electrisave unit I found this link:

http://www.albautilityservices.co.uk/electrisave/electrisave.html

Looks like they are selling the unit for 68.50 inc P and P. I paid just under 80.00 for mine but they are great units. I have saved at least 20% of my bill just by simple awareness of what drives cost. Wouldn't be without it now especially with my tribe.

Anyway they look reputable as they are an electricity metering company.

Cheers

Cardew

I and a lot of others think that there are devices costing £6 or so that are far better than the electrisave. This cut and pasted from another thread.

"I am sorry to pour cold water on your device but it is nowhere near as effective in demonstrating savings as the £6 device.

Nearly all the devices that consume the major amount of electricity(Fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, cooker, iron, fan heater etc etc etc) are thermostatically controlled, or have variable power usage, so the Electrisave has no way of telling you how much electricity they use, except instantaneously and not over a period of time.

To give but one example. Take your freezer which when the compressor is running uses, say, 500 Watts(0.5kW or half a unit)

Switch off your freezer and the probability is that the electrisave will register no change at all. That is because most of the time it is using no electricity at all. This is because the compressor runs only for a small period of time.

However if you happen to switch it off and catch it during the short period of time when the compressor is running it will indicate that you are saving 5pence an hour.(set to 10p/kWh) Well you could deduce then that your freezer costs £36 a month to run.(or nothing) How do you know the cost of running your freezer? - You simply have no idea with the electrisave.

Plugging the freezer into a cheap £6 device and leave for a while and it will measure the exact consumption and cost which is probably in the region of £4 a month.

Take your washing machine. When the heater is on the electrisave will show it uses 30p an hour. If your machine runs for 1.5 hours you might deduce that it costs 45p for the cycle, the probability is that it uses less than 10p.

Put on everything on your cooker and you will have the electrisave telling you that it costs, say, £1.50 an hour. As everything(ovens/plates etc) are on a thermostat(and continually switch on and off) your consumption varies between zero and £1.50 and the electrisave has no idea how much it costs.

So the only thing that electrisave works for is something with a fixed consumption like light bulbs and you don't need to be an electrical engineer to work out that cost.


So as this is a money saving site it surely must good advice to tell people not to waste their money on a device like the Electrisave(costing £59 to £80) when a simple £6 or so device is much much more effective in showing power consumption and hence savings.

I am afraid I stand by my original statement that the electrisave is a gimmick."




Fuller discussion on device here.


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=86203&highlight=electrisave

Maddie

Fritha wrote: »

They also made out that carbon offsetting is pointless, but I figure if you're going to fly (which I am on my honeymoon) then Carbon Offsetting (or the buy a couple of trees scheme as it's known in this house) is better than nothing?

Personally I feel that if you want to carbon offset, you should do it for yourself. Eg, I want to fly this year so I will stop buying food that has been flown in, or I will not fly again for x years, etc.

Hard to do as you may already be making all the sacrifices you can.