Accuracy of power rating plugs

nekr0mantik

so my usual electricity use for the past 2 years is between 190 and 205kw a month however last month my smart meter reading said 50kw more.
I not changed my use or bought new equipment that uses more. so want to find out what is causing the extra 50kw.
are those plugs that tell you how much its using accurate? 

CSI_Yorkshire

You mean kWh, not kW - but yes, reputable ones are accurate.

nekr0mantik

CSI_Yorkshire said:

You mean kWh, not kW - but yes, reputable ones are accurate.

oops yeah kWh 

[Deleted User]

Hi - the Tapo P110 energy monitoring plugs are a safe bet and plenty accurate enough - ready available from Amazon and the like for £10 each or so. If you search the forum for P110 you'll see lots of forumites have them. You can see the data on your smart phone - very easy to set up - which is way way easier than grovelling around on the floor trying to look at an LCD display on the plug itself. Also, once you've finished monitoring you can use the plug as a timeswitch, very easy to set up with your smart phone.

nekr0mantik

[Deleted User] said:

Hi - the Tapo P110 energy monitoring plugs are a safe bet and plenty accurate enough - ready available from Amazon and the like for £10 each or so. If you search the forum for P110 you'll see lots of forumites have them. You can see the data on your smart phone - very easy to set up - which is way way easier than grovelling around on the floor trying to look at an LCD display on the plug itself. Also, once you've finished monitoring you can use the plug as a timeswitch, very easy to set up with your smart phone.

will check it out ta

bob2302

I think you are going to have a hard time finding the cause without a baseline level for each of the separate consumers of energy. Most things use power erratically and so need to measured over at least a week, and plug-in  meters wont show usage for cookers etc.
If you haven't already done so, check there isn't an old incandescent bulb running in a loft or outdoors. 

nekr0mantik

bob2302 said:

I think you are going to have a hard time finding the cause without a baseline level for each of the separate consumers of energy. Most things use power erratically and so need to measured over at least a week, and plug-in  meters wont show usage for cookers etc.
If you haven't already done so, check there isn't an old incandescent bulb running in a loft or outdoors. 

i live in a flat so none of of those apply

markin

Its often a fridge, freezer, or an immersion heater heating a tank of water.

[Deleted User]

..... your looking for something that runs continuously at about 70W (old fashioned light bulb), or a high power device. Shouldn't be too difficult to track down if you're methodical.

A good quick thing to check first is your immersion heater, but you can't do that with a monitoring plug as it's wired in and too powerful. Just make sure it hasn't been left on accidentally and/or make sure the timeswitch is working properly and it's not running continuously.

After that suggest you start by going round each room and making a list of each socket and what's plugged in. Worth looking at the lights at the same time, probably not the issue but as you're going round you may spot one that would benefit from LED bulbs.

When you've done that, check each appliance one at a time. For the fridge and freezer (which switch themselves on and off) you need to see how much energy they use over a 24hour period, the power at any point in time won't tell you a lot.

If you have any questions as you go round post back here.

Good luck, well worth doing even if your consumption goes back to normal. It will give you a good sense of what you're paying for each month and where the potential for any savings is.

Qyburn

Our freezer was drawing a lot of power when the defrost mechanism got screwed up, but this wasn't a sudden change from one month to the next.