Accurate meter

davholla

I want to know what my electricity goes on. Ie I know how much I use but not where it goes.
Is this any good ?

http://www.ecohamster.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=228&products_id=8975&osCsid=83pn909p3tbvbu6kftgqgsp240

Wireless Energy Saving Monitor

Our Price: £44.95 £39.95
Knowing how much electricity you are using, and having the information in front of you can make a real difference. It can't save you money on its own but it can help you change your habits.

This amazing gadget will really open your eyes to how much energy you are using and watching the pennies tick by really does make you want to change your ways.

Cardew

This doesn't tell you where your electricity goes.

It is similar in principle to the 'electrisave' in that it just tells you how much electricity your property is using at that particular instant in time.

Of far more use is the 'plug in' type of power mesuring meter available from Lidle/Aldi from time to time for about £6 and Maplins all the time(was on offer for £12)

If you do a search for 'electrisave' you will see the pros and cons of the 2 devices.

penrhyn

Dammit, I thought it was about Richard Hammond testing a Prius.

Merry Christmas.

hander

@Cardew

Not sure I agree. This is a much more practical unit (encouraging use) and if you can switch off the device in question you can see how much it uses by the difference in the read out on the readout device.

Cardew

hander wrote: »

@Cardew

Not sure I agree. This is a much more practical unit (encouraging use) and if you can switch off the device in question you can see how much it uses by the difference in the read out on the readout device.

Handler,

The problem is that with the electrisave type meter it simply doesn't tell you how much power an appliance uses. All it tells you is the instantaneous consumption. This is an extract from something I posted in another thread.

The the advantages/disadvantages of of the Electrisave have been covered extensively on MSE.

Nearly all the 'power hungry' devices have a thermostat or variable power.

Just take your fridge for example. The thermostat switches on and off as the temperature is reached. If the compressor is, say, 500w*, using the electrisave will show it as using 5p an hour(taking a nominal 10p/kWh) or nothing. If you use 5p or nothing as the basis of your calculation it will work out that it costs £438 a year to run or nothing!!

*(500w is too high but it illustrates the principle and makes the maths easy)


The same applies if you use the electrisave on Washing machine, dryer, freezer, immersion heater, oven, fan heaters, PC's and equipment, microwave, phone chargers etc etc. For all these devices the electrisave is about as much use as the bottom half of a mermaid!!

However plug your fridge into the Aldi device and leave it for a week and it records all the electricity used as the compressor switches on and off. So you can get an exact cost of how much it costs to run. - Say £30 a year.

Switch on my washing machine and the electisave will show it is drawing 3kW(if it is in heating cycle) and a wash takes 90 minutes. So what conclusion would someone draw fro that? That is uses 4.5kWh(say 45p)? Well depending on the washing cycle, and the temperature of incoming cold water, it uses between 0.4kWh and 1.9kWh - the majority being 0.6kWh.

So this device is useless for the following as it cannot tell you how much electricity they use:

Fridge, freezer, iron, washing machine, dishwasher, immersion heater, any electric fire with a thermostat, cooker, microwave, Computer equipment, in fact the vast majority of electrical equipment in the house.

So to quote you "you can switch off the device in question you can see how much it uses by the difference in the read out on the readout device"

It simply won't achieve that aim. About 95% of the time if you switch off your freezer it will tell you you are saving zero. Switch it off when the compressor is running and it will indicate it costs a fortune to run. Neither is remotely accurate.