Are energy monitors accurate?

ChewChew

Hi,

This may be a silly question.

I live in a block with four flats, basically like a couple of houses. If I get an energy monitor how do I know that it is only tracking my energy usage and not tracking my neighbours too? Obviously that wouldn't mean I was going to be paying for my neighbour's energy, but I don't want to get one if it isn't going to be fairly accurate.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can answer this.

Nada666

It'll only track what you're paying for through your meter. If your neighbours use the same meter as you then you can't track your usage (but you're not paying only for yours, then, either.)

Meters being close to each other are not going to affect the detector - its range is pretty much the cable it is wrapped around.

Nada666

(They are, however, completely unnecessary and irrelevant. Use stuff for a shorter time, use less. Use stuff at a lower heat, use less. Things that have a such a low consumption that they are difficult to decipher from the background are not going to be much easier to distinguish from just reading the actual meter.

A back of an envelope and five minutes common sense is all that is needed to fathom out good enough approximations of use.

(If you must use extra technology, a plug-in meter with memory display to gauge an individual device's use from a socket over time is more useful. ))

footyguy

Not as accurate as the energy monitor (meter) you already have

If you want another monitor, if you compare this over time to the meter you already have, you will see for yourself just how accurate it is and/or if it is monitoring an additional use.