how much electricity?

polymaff

Norman_Castle wrote: »

OP A plug in monitor will be accurate enough to measure what your items are using individually.

Prove it. You can't have it both ways, Norman.

Norman_Castle

Quote:
Originally Posted by Norman Castle
OP A plug in monitor will be accurate enough to measure what your items are using individually.

Prove it. You can't have it both ways, Norman.

They are sold with an accuracy of within a few percent. I cannot find anyone (other than you!) disputing this.

These people http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/measuring-standby-power/15/ who have access to very accurate measuring equipment consider them accurate
Reply #25 ""The Kill-a-Watt is regarded as very accurate for what it does, more than good enough for checking and optimizing energy use at home."

In use, mine has matched quoted consumption.

Pincher

My baseline usage is around 5,000kWh a year.
When I had two lodgers, it went up to around 7,000kWh.
In fact, they did not stay the full year, so it could easily have been 8,000kWh.


Gas for central heating, water and cooking.

mr_mitch

Pincher wrote: »

My baseline usage is around 5,000kWh a year.
When I had two lodgers, it went up to around 7,000kWh.
In fact, they did not stay the full year, so it could easily have been 8,000kWh.


Gas for central heating, water and cooking.

Ah OK thanks for that! That makes me feel a little bit better about ours!

You have gas for cooking too? Seems quite high to me?

Pincher

mr_mitch wrote: »

You have gas for cooking too? Seems quite high to me?

Tumble dryer. Shameful, I know, but you dragged it out of me.


I also have a second fridge I use half a year.


People are too fixated on piddling amounts with electricity, when they throw money at the car. My electricity bill is about £650 a year, when the insurance on the car alone is £400.


I could probably just get home delivery, and take minicabs, not have a car, and save more than the entire electricity bill. I can probably save £50+ by not using the tumble dryer, but the convenience is far more valuable to me.

mr_mitch

Pincher wrote: »

Tumble dryer. Shameful, I know, but you dragged it out of me.


I also have a second fridge I use half a year.


People are too fixated on piddling amounts with electricity, when they throw money at the car. My electricity bill is about £650 a year, when the insurance on the car alone is £400.


I could probably just get home delivery, and take minicabs, not have a car, and save more than the entire electricity bill. I can probably save £50+ by not using the tumble dryer, but the convenience is far more valuable to me.

That's good. At least you can account for where your electricity is going. Mine just seems to disappears into the ether with all these devices that I can't get away with turning off overnight!

Youre right about one thing.... We spend a hell of s lot more money on cars than we do on our energy bills.

asifzk

Hello, just installed the "geo Minim" monitor I got from Amazon.

I have E7 and attached the sensor to the 'L' cable on my meter, which has 4 cables. I know some E7 have 2 cables that need sensors but I don't think mine does(??)

Does 11p/hour sound about right for a 4 bed house, with no heavy utils on, LED TV/ lights? just ballpark (it's not scientific).

The weird thing is there was a 3minute period when it shot up to 40p/hour for no apparent reason, we couldn't think of anything.

Any ideas welcome.

mr_mitch

asifzk wrote: »

Hello, just installed the "geo Minim" monitor I got from Amazon.

I have E7 and attached the sensor to the 'L' cable on my meter, which has 4 cables. I know some E7 have 2 cables that need sensors but I don't think mine does(??)

Does 11p/hour sound about right for a 4 bed house, with no heavy utils on, LED TV/ lights? just ballpark (it's not scientific).

The weird thing is there was a 3minute period when it shot up to 40p/hour for no apparent reason, we couldn't think of anything.

Any ideas welcome.

Rather than looking at the cost, can you change it to show the amount of kw being used instead?

My monitor says I'm using 4.8p per hour, that's with a LCD TV switched on, a few lights, along with the normal 24/7 stuff like fridge, 2 freezers, garden pond fountain and filter, and quite a few other small devices like internet router, cordless phones, house alarm etc etc.

There must be something on your house that was using a few kW for 3 mins for it to shoot up to that amount. If it keeps happening you need to look into what it might be.

Also, have you set the electricity monitor up with the price per kWh that you actually pay?

And as you said, these things are rather inaccurate. But instead they're just intended to give you a rough indication. (Although I check my actual metre a few times a week, and comparing it against what my energy monitor says, it seems fairly accurate).

asifzk

mr_mitch wrote: »

Rather than looking at the cost, can you change it to show the amount of kw being used instead?

My monitor says I'm using 4.8p per hour, that's with a LCD TV switched on, a few lights, along with the normal 24/7 stuff like fridge, 2 freezers, garden pond fountain and filter, and quite a few other small devices like internet router, cordless phones, house alarm etc etc.

There must be something on your house that was using a few kW for 3 mins for it to shoot up to that amount. If it keeps happening you need to look into what it might be.

Also, have you set the electricity monitor up with the price per kWh that you actually pay?

And as you said, these things are rather inaccurate. But instead they're just intended to give you a rough indication. (Although I check my actual metre a few times a week, and comparing it against what my energy monitor says, it seems fairly accurate).

Thanks very much, mr_mitch, with my usage profile as your example I get near-abouts the same price/hour (my daytime rate is probably higher at 12p/kWh), so I'm satisfied it's showing me a realistic figure. Yes I've input both tarrifs.

That weird spike is going to be my next mission!

asifzk

asifzk wrote: »

Thanks very much, mr_mitch, with my usage profile as your example I get near-abouts the same price/hour (my daytime rate is probably higher at 12p/kWh), so I'm satisfied it's showing me a realistic figure. Yes I've input both tarrifs.

That weird spike is going to be my next mission!

O.M.G.

So I said investigating the electricity spikes was my next thing and did I EVER.

To re-cap: crazy high electricity bills, supplier telling me my DD would be increased by 15%, electricity monitor showing bizarro usage when nothing was on.

On day 2 of our monitor being setup we'd see it shoot up to 3kW out of nowhere, as though the tumble dryer were on, or a fan heater. We walked around the house room-to-room switching off everything, even the fridge/freezer but the reading was the same.

Eventually we (my brother-in-law actually) tracked it down to our hot water tank. We were under the impression we were controlling it via the timer of our gas boiler BUT it can also act as an immersion heater, an ELECTRIC water heater if left switched on!! we had no idea. NO. IDEA. I can't imagine how long it was left like this.

The Saturday (31st Jan) electricity usage was £3.73, then after switching off the hot water tank our Sunday usage (otherwise like-for-like w/ overnight washer/dryer) was £1.70!!!

Just insane, I suppose I'd better look on the bright side and be grateful this tiny little monitor has saved me so much waste, there was no way on earth we'd have known about it otherwise.