Sub £50 energy consumption monitor. It says it'll save you 25% off energy bills

pcla007

It is quite possible for devices that are starting to fail to use significantly more electricity than they should do. An electric motor whose motor is starting to fail will generate a lot of heat and may have significantly higher resistance and need more electricity to overcome this. For instance I have measured the power consumption of a 0.5hp motor that was using twice as much power as it should have been.

The remote device also allows you to track down how much "standby" power your house uses (including fridges and freezers), and if you have any rogue devices it will help you find them. Plus having had a girlfriend who left the lights on in a cellar for a week, this would have been completely obvious with the wireless monitor. You will never turn a kettle or toaster on again after monitoring their power usage.

Also, if you want to cut power on your computer, set it to automatically hibernate after so many minutes of idle time. And finally, B&Q were doing electric socket timers for £2 last week, so all my home office devices have them on. They were all using small amount (less than 10W per device) but in total 60 to 80W. For £2 they all get switched off during the night.

Most modern laptops will use about 60W per hour, whereas a desktop with LCD monitor will use about 300W minimum. So I use my laptop when I do not need the power of my desktop for intensive IT work.

Finally, as an installer of a solar powered system in Africa without mains, low wattage LED light bulbs are the answer. Normal bulbs (e.g. 100W) use a massive amount of power in a house. Compact Flourescents Bulbs use a lot less (15 to 20W), good high power LED bulbs use 3W.

Cardew

pcla007 wrote: »

Most modern laptops will use about 60W per hour, whereas a desktop with LCD monitor will use about 300W minimum. So I use my laptop when I do not need the power of my desktop for intensive IT work.
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In my experience those figures are on the high side.

Well they certainly are for the PC's in my house and there have been many posts on this forum where people have measured their consumption and have produced figures in line with mine.

My laptop(a 1 year old basic Dell) uses no more than 25W, my daughter's new HP laptop uses approx the same.

My Desktop (which was 'cutting edge' 18 momths ago) uses apprx 160W and a 19"LCD about 40W. I have an old(4+year) PC that uses about 70W and a 15" CRT monitor about the same.

Incidentally I was concerned that the accuracy of my power monitoring meter might be questionable. So I have 'calibrated' it against known electrical loads up to 3kW and with a multimeter and it seems to be absolutely accurate for Watts and VA.

pcla007

Not intending to mislead, however I did say intensive IT work, and my PC is not your standard desktop, much more powerful (and therefore hungry) and even my monitor is signficantly larger than most. However, the general point is that a laptop uses much less power than a desktop, and I think you reinforced that with your figures, Cardew. Interestingly, much older laptops usually use less power than ones that are a four or five years old, and they only started to improve in the last few years.

Since I have to have accurate figures all my measuring devices are calibrated accurately. If I get it wrong an African farm runs out of power and cannot pump water or keep vaccines cool enough in a clinic fridge. Much more critical than how much we spend on our bills. It also makes you think about how much energy we waste, and how little you really need without significantly reducing your quality of life.

I do use a wireless monitor, and move it round different premises to monitor overall consumption and find rogue devices (and I do understand about thermostats and average against instantaneous consumption). Obviously this means I paid for the device once and use it to save in many different premises. Most people are shocked by the amount lights use, even if they do understand the difference between a 40W bulb and a 100W bulb. The wireless system demonstrates this very effectively.

Andew_Hove

Does anyone know the legal lenght of time that the electric companies must, by law change your meter?

I called my supply company and they could not tell me when my dial meter was installed.

Thanks

mech_2

pcla007 wrote: »

Finally, as an installer of a solar powered system in Africa without mains, low wattage LED light bulbs are the answer. Normal bulbs (e.g. 100W) use a massive amount of power in a house. Compact Flourescents Bulbs use a lot less (15 to 20W), good high power LED bulbs use 3W.

LEDs may be good when you've only got solar panels, but as a replacement for mains lighting they're not good enough for me to want to buy them yet. Sure they use less power than a compact fluorescent, but they also give out less light. I've still not seen one yet that was more efficientthan a good CFL (ie better than 60 lumens per watt), but the LED bulbs are hugely more expensive.

Give them another couple of years.

Terrylw1

Andew_Hove wrote: »

Does anyone know the legal lenght of time that the electric companies must, by law change your meter?

I called my supply company and they could not tell me when my dial meter was installed.

Thanks

Hi,

This is called Recertification. It depends on the time of meter e.g. older mechanicals could be 25 years, PP meters tend to be closer to 10-12 years, etc.

You need to contact your Supplier to check.

Every Supplier receives the date of the meter being fitted along with the year it is expected that the Recert should occur. Then when the Recert comes close, the Meter Operator will inform the Supplier of the 2 dates they expect to make the change in (although they may change this as they often work ahead of the legal requirement meaning they can have more time to gte in)

Suppliers are legally responsible to monitor the Meter Operator under their duty of care. However, Meter Operators arrange the change themselves so Suppliers are rarely aware when it's going to happen.

Ask your Supplier to look at the "D0150 data flow" which tells them all this. Failing that, you could contact your local metering company (although they may not like it unless you are due)

Terrylw1

marcmoustache wrote: »

Martin,

This isn't strictly true, the European Energy Services Directive (ESD) requires (from the government Energy Billing Consultation):

"... that Member States ensure that, in so far as is “technically possible, financially reasonable and proportionate in relation to the potential energy savings”, final customers for electricity, natural gas, district heating/cooling and domestic hot water are provided with competitively priced, individual meters that accurately reflect the customer’s actual energy consumption and provide information on actual time of use.

It further requires that, when an existing meter is replaced, such competitively priced individual meters should always be provided unless it is “technically impossible” to do so or it is “not cost-effective in relation to the estimated potential savings in the long-term”."

What this really means is that the UK doesn't have to fit smart meters from 2008 - and they won't be, believe me! If we do fit smart meters it will cost the man in the street a fortune in additional energy costs to pay for it.

The government is suggesting that these clip on devices will be provided free of charge by Suppliers from April 2008 where requested by customers and with all new or replacement [electricity] meters. Although they're trying to back away from this proposal.

Exactly, leaving it with regulatory bodies in the UK to resolve this. For a start, "financially reasonable" is open to a very wide interpretation!!! As far as the statement about reflecting correct use and actual timings go, you could argue you've got that if you monitor consumption and advise customers on the best meter where a change in consumption pattern occurs (which some already do!)

vinylmusic

MSE_Martin wrote: »

What's this about?

Home energy monitors are devices which allow you to monitor your total home energy use. Its makers claim this means users very quickly become more aware of their energy usage and turn more appliances off, making serious savings.

I suspect some of this is spin, but it's likely to have some impact and thus for high energy users should make back its puchase price and help the environment. As they're very popular I'd thought I'd check out the cheapest and the alternatives.

Of course the best way to cut your energy costs is by switching to Get the Cheapest Gas & Elec. Plus find out what environmental grants may be available in Grant Grabbing.

The cheapest wireless home energy monitors

These clip into your mains supply and collate info from all appliances in the house and wirelessly beam the info back to the remote display.

• Wireless energy saving meter, Maplin, £40 inc delivery. Maplin is currently offering its wireless monitor at £39.99 (dont confuse it with the web only deal which isn't the same thing).

• The Owl, £55 inc delivery. The next cheapest is The Owl at £54.90 inlcuding delivery.

The cheapest plug in monitors

These only work directly at the plug socket and thus only measure that socket's specfic usage. They are much cheaper but you will have to add up the consumption at different points in the house.

• Lidl, £6. Get yourself down to a Lidl and you might be able to bag a plug in monitor for around £6 which will still do the job of measuring energy consumption but only directly at the plug socket, so you would need a couple or to switch them around the house to get a good idea of energy use.

You may be able to get one for free

Energy providers are currently testing energy consumption calculators in specific areas and some MoneySavers have reported getting one. Call your provider up and ask if you can have one for free. It's worth a try... (and do report any successes below, what region you're in and who your provider is)

You could just wait for a smart meter

Smart meters, different from home energy meters will, under new European regulations, have to be installed when any energy meter is replaced after 2008. As well as tracking energy consumption they will take readings and automatically send them back to your energy provider.

Martin

I almost bought one in Lidl yesterday but weighed things up in my mind first.
Surely if your going to use an appliance your going to use it whatever.
You should be able to get an idea from the wattage. Almost every appliance shows its wattage.
The higher the wattage the more youir going to use.
When buying a fridge or a freezer for example I look at the wattage and its economy rating.
Having a meter isnt going to stop me using it.
I dont see the point of a meter since thats just extra cost

tamsinedwards

I bought an Efergy meter this summer (the whole-house meter that Maplin sell - also available from the nice people at http://www.bettergeneration.co.uk).

I think the best way to make use of it is with the pence/hour setting, leaving it somewhere you will catch sight of it a lot - next to your bed, by the front door, or next to the sofa - and putting a label on it saying something like:

1p per hr = £88 per yr


(Calculation: 0.01 * 24 * 365)


This is, I think, the simplest and most immediate way to gauge the effect of your usage. Watch it fluctuate throughout the day from 1p - 10p per hour! This works for me as motivation to get off the sofa and turn things off.

About these whole-house and plug socket meters: it's true that it costs nothing to just take readings of your own electricity meter, or read kW usage on appliances, but not everyone is that motivated or numerically-minded. These meters give a more immediate kick up the bum, I think.

LadFromWales85

Look at the one Firebox is selling...The Wattson
http://www.firebox.com/product/1870?itc=78&src_t=nwt&src_id=161

Does look spiffy, hooks up to PC too, and has pretty lights, but who knows if it reports the same info as the cheaper maplin one or the owl.

EDIT: Do any of these have the ability to take into account the cheaper rate of E7?