Background Electricity Usage 8760 hours a year

victor2

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Had mine a good few years now, and it's no longer made, but no need to spend more than £15 on one. They're all pretty much the same and will show instantaneous power usage and kWh over a period of time. They usually claim to show 0.1W steps, but I don't trust mine to be accurate on anything below 1W. 
Many have a battery to hold figures in memory (mine doesn't), which would be useful. I find it annoying if I inadvertently switch off the socket before I've read it!

cx6

[Deleted User] said:

cx6 said:

Ultrasonic said:

cx6 said:

Something like this used on a router of TV might pay for itself quite quickly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Status-S24HRSQT3-Square-Mechanical-Timer/dp/B01L4P5EYG/ref=asc_df_B01L4P5EYG/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232042431268&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11350190594533851001&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-613531797552&psc=1

For a TV using less than 0.5 W it would take years to recoup the cost, so best find out what power is being used first. 

Edit: missed the router comment - I wouldn't use one on a router personally.

Yes definitely measure your TV standby power first. My TV is old and uses about 3-4W on standby.

Re router. prior to the timer my 8W router was on 24 hrs so used 8 x 8760 in a year

With the timer - timer uses 1 x 8760, router is on 8am to 10pm so now uses 8 x 8760 x 14/24

Saving @ 28p I work out just over £6.00 a year., more after October. £5 cost of timer not included.

Note: if everyone is also out at work / school etc then the router can be timed to be off all day too so the savings would be a lot bigger. For example, if the router was timed to be on only say 4pm to 10pm the savings would be about £11 a year on a 8w router and 1w timer

Turning your router off isn't a good idea as it can play havoc with your line speeds. It takes a few hours after turning it on for the line speed to stabilize and settle down. Every time you turn it off and back on again you go back to square one. 
They are designed to run 24/7 for this reason.
Also you are cutting the connection to devices that may run updates or do other tasks over night.   

i don't run updates overnight and my line speeds are fine even with turning the router off

Ultrasonic

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

Norman_Castle

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. I've used a plug in monitor to measure using a kettle or toaster over many weeks. I'm not overly tight but it is nice to know how much things are costing and its not difficult to leave it in a socket for a month when it would otherwise be unused once you've checked the items you're most concerned about..

Ultrasonic

Norman_Castle said:

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. 

True but I'm not sure why I'd want to measure that? Plus the manuals for white goods will give some idea if needed.

The context of this thread though was the background electricity use with no obvious activity, and this can be measured with a smart meter IHD so this was the context I was commenting from.

JohnSwift10

I download my usage every week from n3rgy data - accessing smart energy data

FreeBear

victor2 said:

Slinky said:

What are people using to test power/energy consumption please? We don't smart meter so no IHD.

Meter readings if you're looking at whole house usage. I use a plug-in monitor for individual electrical appliances that have a plug on them.

I use one of these for whole house monitoring - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32869569441.html and on the lighting circuit - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32863450418.html

Both hooked up to a (low power) computer and logging readings every 30 seconds. The graphs give enough detail to see when the energy hogs are active.. The setup is not really suitable unless you are tech savvy and willing learn "stuff".

Slinky

Ultrasonic said:

Norman_Castle said:

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. 

True but I'm not sure why I'd want to measure that? Plus the manuals for white goods will give some idea if needed.

The context of this thread though was the background electricity use with no obvious activity, and this can be measured with a smart meter IHD so this was the context I was commenting from.

I'd like to know the costs of washing machine use etc as I've currently got E7 old style meter and I'm trying to work out whether the cheaper rate of running it at night is worth it to me. We don't have storage heaters so there's no heavy use overnight. We inherited the E7 with the house. We've just been dumped back onto an E7 tarriff when coming off our fix with OTM.

Currently we have builders in running power tools so it's impossible to get meaningful 'ordinary' data from an IHD even if we had one.

Effician

Slinky said:

Ultrasonic said:

Norman_Castle said:

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. 

True but I'm not sure why I'd want to measure that? Plus the manuals for white goods will give some idea if needed.

The context of this thread though was the background electricity use with no obvious activity, and this can be measured with a smart meter IHD so this was the context I was commenting from.

I'd like to know the costs of washing machine use etc as I've currently got E7 old style meter and I'm trying to work out whether the cheaper rate of running it at night is worth it to me.

Could be anything between 300wh & over 2kwh depending on the programme & efficiency of the washing machine

EssexHebridean

Returning to the router question - it's not only those who have had their lines switched to the new ones that rely on internet that need to be cautious with this. Anyone who has an even slightly dodgy/unstable 3G/4G signal locally, but whose mobile uses Wifi-calling also needs to think twice about turning routers off overnight. Let's be honest - we none of us want to be in a situation where we struggle to make an emergency service call in the middle of the night because we've just discovered that no mobile signals are reliable in our area, do we! 

Also - the earlier poster who said that "everyone should have solar panels" - be gentle with your "shoulds" please - I really can't begin to imagine where we would put panels in our ground floor flat with no garden...and for many others, they are in a position where the cost makes it prohibitive. Having both the space and the finances to make provisions like this possible and achievable is a massive privilege!