Electricity meter monitor (sensor) advice

ajm71

Hi all

I have an Efergy E2 and a Loop energy monitor. I'm trying to decide which to stick with.
The Efergy sensor I've had to install into the consumer unit, onto the live feed coming into the flat (the meter is in a cabinet on the floor below). That's all working fine but it's a bit basic.

The Loop seems a lot better for my needs, but the sensor is way too big to get into the consumer unit. It'll need to go onto a cable from the meter. According to Loop's guidance, for Economy 7 I need to connect the sensor to the centre cable. On my meter that's neutral so I'm not sure if connecting the sensor onto that would provide any real benefit. The cables, from left to right, seem to read L1, N2, N3, L4, L5. I'm unsure of the significance of these numbers.

I was wondering if any experts here had a similar setup and could advise? I have some pics of the meter and cabling if that helps, but I can't attach them to the post (new user).

Thanks in advance!

matelodave

You should find that L1 is the Live from the company fuse, N2 is the neutral from the company connection, N3 will be neutral to your fuse box, L4 and L5 should be the feeds to your fuses boxe(s), L5 is probably the of-peak supply to your storage heaters or hot water tank and may only come on during off peak times..

You can put your sensor on L1, or N3 and it should measure all the energy that you use. Using L4 or L5 might only measure either the peak or off peak energy so you need to use the supply to the mete (L1)r or the neutral (N3) which will carries both peak and off peak supplies.

ajm71

Hi

Thanks for the advice. In fact I just received an email from Loop and they also say the neutral (N3) is the one to use. I'll give that a go.

I guess I misunderstood the purpose of neutral! Happy to be educated if anyone cares to explain.

Raxiel

ajm71 wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for the advice. In fact I just received an email from Loop and they also say the neutral (N3) is the one to use. I'll give that a go.

I guess I misunderstood the purpose of neutral! Happy to be educated if anyone cares to explain.

Unless you have a leak to ground somewhere (which is bad and will be tripping the RCD constantly) the current coming in through the live will be the same as the current going out through the neutral (which is actually how RCD's work) so that's why the monitor works on either cable.