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

mute_posting

stphnstevey wrote: »

Besides, don't these machines use energy to tell you ...........
your using energy!

Well, yes. But for the <5w that it is, it is probably more "green" than feeding the normal type with AA batteries. - It does bring energy usage to your attention so it will soon pay for itself IMHO.

I got myself a Wattson from eBay about a month ago, mainly because I wanted something that could record and be hooked up to a computer to trend and interrogate. Also looks pretty funky too :cool:

MP

mech_2

Is there something like the Wattson that can read the gas meter as well? If there was I'd probably buy one. I'm more interested in gas consumption than electricity. I think I've already reduced my electricity usage as much as I can. Besides my electricity consumption is fairly consistent and boring. I like tracking gas usage as I try and use weather data to predict usage (yes, I have no life).

I've cobbled together something that reads the gas meter myself, but I have problems with accuracy over long periods of time. It does the job, so long as I correct it every night to minimise the error due to false reads. It's connected via ethernet, and whenever my PC is on it uploads data that I can import into Excel. But it's not wireless and it's rather ugly compared to Wattson. And it consumes 11 Watts.

Cardew

feesh wrote: »

You can download your usage patterns and programme it with your actual unit price costs to see how much energy you are using per year in £.

You cannot!

For instance how much electricity is your Fridge using?

If your fridge compressor takes, say, 200 watts and electricity costs 10p/kWh.

When the compressor is running it will indicate it costs £174 a year.

However most of the time the compressor isn't running so it will indicate it costs zero to run.

The only way to know how much your fridge costs to run, is to know for how long the compressor is running, and how long it is is not.

Similarly switch on your 3Kw Immersion heater and it will indicate it costs £2,628.00 a year to run!!!!(or nothing)

So it can't tell you the cost of running nearly every major electrical appliance in a house - fridge, freezer, cooker, washing machine, dishwasher, immersion heater, iron, microwave, PC, any thermostatically controlled heater or device with variable power consumption.

All it will tell you about is steady state consumption items like light bulbs.

mute_posting

Cardew wrote: »

You cannot!

For instance how much electricity is your Fridge using?

If your fridge compressor takes, say, 200 watts and electricity costs 10p/kWh.

When the compressor is running it will indicate it costs £174 a year.

However most of the time the compressor isn't running so it will indicate it costs zero to run.

The only way to know how much your fridge costs to run, is to know for how long the compressor is running, and how long it is is not.

Similarly switch on your 3Kw Immersion heater and it will indicate it costs £2,628.00 a year to run!!!!(or nothing)

So it can't tell you the cost of running nearly every major electrical appliance in a house - fridge, freezer, cooker, washing machine, dishwasher, immersion heater, iron, microwave, PC, any thermostatically controlled heater or device with variable power consumption.

All it will tell you about is steady state consumption items like light bulbs.

feesh was talking about a Wattson (diykyoto.com) meter I think which does actually record the value (5, 10 or 15 second intervals selectable) so they are partially correct in what they say.

The only comment I would make is that the data/graphs that are output are based on 5 minute averages when you download to a PC/Mac

MP

Cardew

mute_posting wrote: »

feesh was talking about a Wattson (diykyoto.com) meter I think which does actually record the value (5, 10 or 15 second intervals selectable) so they are partially correct in what they say.

The only comment I would make is that the data/graphs that are output are based on 5 minute averages when you download to a PC/Mac

MP

Yes I understand the function they perform; but they record the instantaneous electrical consumption for the complete property.

Take the fridge. How will it indicate its yearly consumption?

It might be on for 7 minutes and off for several hours. The on/off ratio varies according to many factors - how often door is opened, temp of room etc.

If you produce a graph of consumption for a day(let alone a year) your overall consumption will vary from a few watts, to several Kw. How do you allocate consumption to any particular device?

"At 10:18 and 27 seconds, consumption rose from 3.275kW to 3.377kW for 37 seconds; then dropped to 2.954kW for 98 seconds; then ----"

The point I am making is that with the Maplin/Aldi power meter you can find out exactly the consumption of every plug in appliance. e.g. plug your fridge into the meter and leave it for a day, a week, a year and it will tell you exactly how much electricty it has used over that period.

The Wattson or similar won't.

mute_posting

Understood.

But they do serve different purposes, like you say the "plug inline" devices are designed to monitor single appliances, whereas the wattson type devices are designed to do the whole house with reference to time.

I don't think feesh claimed they were using it to monitor individual appliances

Looking at a graph from the wattson it is clear to see what the "background" usage is and where the spikes are and what these spike are costing.

The wattson in particular (I'm not sure about the other whole-house types) adapt to the usage of the hosehold to provide coloured feedback when the usage varies from background usage.

MP

Cardew

mute_posting wrote: »

Understood.

But they do serve different purposes, like you say the "plug inline" devices are designed to monitor single appliances, whereas the wattson type devices are designed to do the whole house with reference to time.

I don't think feesh claimed they were using it to monitor individual appliances

Looking at a graph from the wattson it is clear to see what the "background" usage is and where the spikes are and what these spike are costing.

The wattson in particular (I'm not sure about the other whole-house types) adapt to the usage of the hosehold to provide coloured feedback when the usage varies from background usage.

MP

Bear in mind I was only commenting of what feesh stated. Which was:

You can download your usage patterns and programme it with your actual unit price costs to see how much energy you are using per year in £.

Well I can't think of any other way to interpret 'usage paterns' other than know what appliances cost to run.

Your normal electricity meter and/or bills tell you how much electricity you are using.

The 'blurb' with the wattson states,

Turn off a device - TV, microwave, dishwasher - and watch in shame, awe, wonder and relief as the counter goes down.

Well my dishwasher uses 3 kW for a very small part of its 90 min cycle. and just a few watts for some parts of the cycle. If I switch it off when it is using 3kW or other parts of the cycle, what do I conclude?

I concede that they have some use for tracking down consumption of which you may not be aware. But as a guide to costs, they are useless.

kisk

See the Owl is now £29.95 inlcuding vat and delivery. Special discount for May.

kisk

mute_posting

Cardew wrote: »

The 'blurb' with the wattson states,



Well my dishwasher uses 3 kW for a very small part of its 90 min cycle. and just a few watts for some parts of the cycle. If I switch it off when it is using 3kW or other parts of the cycle, what do I conclude?

I must admit, I never read the blurb on the site before buying (had seen the wattson somwhere else) as I bought mine to (easily) record and trend usage versus time and as a funky gizmo to sit on the side and wow visitors - not to see how much individual items cost (as I'm quite capable of working that out)

I have to agree with you though on the blurb and your dishwasher example - not the best choice for them!

MP

mech_2

Cardew wrote: »

The point I am making is that with the Maplin/Aldi power meter you can find out exactly the consumption of every plug in appliance. e.g. plug your fridge into the meter and leave it for a day, a week, a year and it will tell you exactly how much electricty it has used over that period.

The Wattson or similar won't.

I find plug-in meters rather limiting. Mine doesn't seem to be reliable with fridges and freezers (I think the surge when the compressor starts fries its brain. Blatently crazy results most times and that's if the clock doesn't reset entirely). And then there's everything else I can't use it for (anything that doesn't have a 13amp plug - lighting circuits, things on a fused spur like my central heating boiler, cooker circuit, and (if I had them) immersion heater or electric shower). Basically all the highest uses of electricity. Anything over 3kW, forget it.

And it can't produce pretty graphs. :-)

I think each has their uses.