how much electricity?

Norman_Castle

Try a plug in monitor to find actual costs.

polymaff

mr_mitch wrote: »

Yeah I hear they are inaccurate. But at the end of the day the average daily usage roughly tallies with the one I worked out by taking the readings straight from the metre. So it's probably a good enough indication.

We do have the type of metre with the flashing led... Do that sounds interesting... Where can you get this type of energy monitor? And are they very expensive?

Google power meter led

They should be cheap - but they don't seem to have been taken up much by the retail market. Lack of imagination, I suppose, because they are a darned good idea. Not a meter, btw, just an accurate repeater of what your electricity meter is recording.

polymaff

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Try a plug in monitor to find actual costs.

Some of those are very, very inaccurate at low power levels, too.

Norman_Castle

polymaff wrote: »

Some of those are very, very inaccurate at low power levels, too.

Any links to tests to show that?.

This phone ap might be a cheap alternative to an led meter.
http://www.doradasoftware.com/led-power-meter/

polymaff

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Any links to tests to show that?.

This phone ap might be a cheap alternative to an led meter.
http://www.doradasoftware.com/led-power-meter/

Links? You've provided one yourself:

"Typical "clamp meter" electricity monitors become very inaccurate at low power levels, this makes it hard to reduce your "vampire" standby power, "

As for plug-in meters - it is just a fact. Meters that actually measure VoltAmps - as many do - and then represent that as Watts are well-described by the above quote.

Norman_Castle

polymaff wrote: »

Links? You've provided one yourself:

"Typical "clamp meter" electricity monitors become very inaccurate at low power levels, this makes it hard to reduce your "vampire" standby power, "

As for plug-in meters - it is just a fact. Meters that actually measure VoltAmps - as many do - and then represent that as Watts are well-described by the above quote.

There is no mention of plug in monitors in my link.

Clamp monitors are inaccurate at lower power. The Owl website used to state this.

Plug in monitors are sold as accurate to within 1 or 2 %. Claiming "Its just a fact" that they are inaccurate means nothing.

polymaff

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Plug in monitors are sold as accurate to within 1 or 2 %. Claiming "Its just a fact" that they are inaccurate means nothing.

The paragraph - from which you quote only four words - comprehensively addresses the issue.

Norman_Castle

polymaff wrote: »

The paragraph - from which you quote only four words - comprehensively addresses the issue.

You're claiming to be right without providing any explanation or proof.
As previously stated, Claiming "Its just a fact" that they are inaccurate means nothing.

OP A plug in monitor will be accurate enough to measure what your items are using individually. They may not measure below 1 watt which is not important when reducing household usage.

An led power meter may be more accurate than the owl meter, although you seem happy with the owl results, but it will not measure consumption of individual items.

chris_n

mr_mitch wrote: »

Yeah its definitely cheaper at night, were on the economy 7 meter.

70 to 80 watts?! Is that about average consumption when "everything" is off?

Even taking account of the inaccuracy of the metre... 300watts at night seems like a lot.

Thinking what it could be...Or fridge and freezer are massive. And we have a second freezer that is full of fish. We have a garden pond with a pump and a UV filter thingy.
A few things in the house that we keep on 24/7 like separate modem and router... Cordless phones (4), answer phone, digital free view recorder, bedside clocks, central heating timer.... Dustbuster, burglar and fire alarm...

Could all that be adding up to 300 watts? I suppose it could

How many watts and how many hours for your pond pump an UV light. My Owl reads 50 something when I go to bed, I know these are wildly inaccurate at low currents with switch mode psu's but 200 - 300 is massive standby usage.

mr_mitch

chris_n wrote: »

How many watts and how many hours for your pond pump an UV light. My Owl reads 50 something when I go to bed, I know these are wildly inaccurate at low currents with switch mode psu's but 200 - 300 is massive standby usage.

To be honest its more like 300 - 400 most of the time.

I've no idea how much the pond stuff uses, but its on 24/7. I tested it today and when I turned all the pond stuff off, it did drop down a fair bit, but it was still showing about 200watts.

Im not sure what other stuff... Fridge and freezer (epic sized ones) plus an additional freezer.... (They're all full)...

And then just all the other small electrical devices i listed esrlier, that remain on at night.