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

Cardew

mech wrote: »

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.

Presumably your meter is faulty? mine works without problem on fridges and I have lent it to other people.

You are quite right about it not working on a shower - but my electric shower is 9.5kW and there isn't much more I need to know.

Similarly I know if I have a lighting circuit with 4 x 60W bulbs it uses 240W!!

The Owl(or similar) cannot tell you what power your cooker, Immersion heater consume either.

However I have to concede the point about funky lights and pretty graphs

feesh

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.

Cardew we don't mind that we can't check the running costs of every single item in the house. After all, the fridge is on all the time and there's not much we can do about that!

But Wattson is really useful for changing behaviour. Now my husband can see in POUNDS and PENCE the effect of switching things off, it has made him a lot more careful.

Wattson is a lot of fun, I think you're taking it a little seriously

It's really changed our habits and it makes us smile, we actually talk to Wattson and check if he's angry or not

The best thing, just to reiterate, is that our electricity bills are on the way down, now that hubbie has finally, at long last, learnt to switch lights off! :j

For us, it was Nectar points well spent - I have been collecting them for years and never found anything interesting to spend them on. Even the flight/hotel discounts weren't real discounts. But by spending them on Wattson, they will also help to save us money.

Vancat

Hi All
I've just persuaded my electricty supplier to credit me with the cost of an Efergy Monitor. :money: Very nice of them too!
I've set the thing up, as per instructions, but....the manual says to attach the sensor to the live cable in the electricity box....which should be coloured BROWN.
Both the cables going to the electricty meter are GREY!
Manual says " If you are unsure which cable to attach this to, get a qualified electrician!!". Hardly MoneySaving....:eek:
So, before I pay an electrician to come out and laugh at me,:rotfl: can anyone who's already fitted one tell me which cable is which??
Thanks
VC

Cardew

Vancat wrote: »

Hi All
I've just persuaded my electricty supplier to credit me with the cost of an Efergy Monitor. :money: Very nice of them too!
I've set the thing up, as per instructions, but....the manual says to attach the sensor to the live cable in the electricity box....which should be coloured BROWN.
Both the cables going to the electricty meter are GREY!
Manual says " If you are unsure which cable to attach this to, get a qualified electrician!!". Hardly MoneySaving....:eek:
So, before I pay an electrician to come out and laugh at me,:rotfl: can anyone who's already fitted one tell me which cable is which??
Thanks
VC

The cable is grey? or the wires inside are grey?

What I mean is the 'cable' for my kettle is grey, but inside it are 3 wires -these are coloured brown, blue and yellow/green.

On very old electrical wiring you could have red and black.

Vancat

Hi Cardew
There are two cables. Both casings are grey. And because they're thick and grey, you can't see any actual wires which are encased, IYSWIM? Surely they don't expect you to start cutting the cable casings to see what colour the wires are???:eek:
Regards
VC

toby11

Hi Vancat,

I have an Eco-Eye monitor, and in the instructions it says:-
".........attach the sensor unit around the live cable...........NOTE the live cable exiting a standard meter is usually on the right hand side and often coloured red or brown. Attaching the sensor unit to another cable in error will not cause damage of any kind...."

Hope this helps.

mech_2

I wouldn't have thought it would make much difference. Unless you have dodgy wiring, the same current should be flowing through the neutral wire as the live wire. Try each one in turn. If one gives a very slightly higher reading, that's the live.

mute_posting

mech wrote: »

I wouldn't have thought it would make much difference. Unless you have dodgy wiring, the same current should be flowing through the neutral wire as the live wire. Try each one in turn. If one gives a very slightly higher reading, that's the live.

Spot on!

Unless you have a serious fault on your electrics, the current flowing through your neutral (blue or black depending on age of installation) will be virtually identical to that flowing though the live.

This is also useful if you have a split rate meter (i.e E7, E10 etc) and you want to monitor the entire load (not just the domestic) - you will probably have 1 neutral and 2 lives (1 live for heating, 1 for domestic), clamping on the neutral will allow you to monitor the entire load, clamping on either of the lives will only allow you to monitor either the domestic or the heating load.

HTH

MP

Vancat

Thanks all!
I attached it this morning, to the right hand cable, and the unit immediately started working...so obviously was ok.
Now sitting at an unlit desk, drinking a lukewarm cuppa and switching off everything in sight!!
Someone posted their "going out of the house" reading, when just the essentials were running, like fridge/freezer/standbys etc. Can't seem to find it, any ideas what kwhs I should be aiming for?
Regards
VC
BTW. I've set the alarm to 3KWH....and it has just gone off when OH boiled the kettle.

Cardew

Vancat wrote: »

Someone posted their "going out of the house" reading, when just the essentials were running, like fridge/freezer/standbys etc. Can't seem to find it, any ideas what kwhs I should be aiming for?

Here you have the problem with these devices.

The 'going out of the house' consumption cannot be determined by these meters.

By far and away the heaviest consumption will be the compressor on your fridge and on your freezer.

If one or both compressors are running you will get a very high and totally misleading reading.

If they are not running you will get an equally misleading reading.

The crucial measurement is for how long the the compressors are running and how long they are not running.