A way to save up to 25% on your Electricity Bills?

Cardew

ElectricE wrote: »

Depends!

e.g. If you're looking for a misbehaving freezer then the £6 device is best as it will monitor an individual item over a period of time, giving a good idea if it's being greedy.

If you're looking for phantom loads (things left in standby, etc) then the electrisave type device is better - IMHO - as you can switch something off and see instantly how much power it is drawing.

The big question: Is the electrisave type device 10 times better? ~ £60

Personally I think not, but I'm borrowing one that was sent free to a SSE customer, so I'm happy.

The £6 device also monitors instant consumption. So plug in your TV leave it on standby and it will show 1 watt consumption; another setting will show cumulative power over a period of time.

However yet again we have this emphasis of standby consumption, as if it is a major cause of high bills. It is not, even if you are careless with standby consumption it will 'waste' a few pounds per year.

Nearly all the 'power hungry' appliances are, as explained in post 8, have a thermostat or variable power and for all of those the Electrisave is absolutely useless.

Want to know how much your PC + Printer + Router have used in an hour? Plug into the £6 device and it will tell you. The electrisave won't.

Want to know the difference in consumption of your washing machine between 40C wash and 60C wash - the £6 device will tell you - the electrisave won't.

It is not a freezer that is 'misbehaving' as such, merely if you want to know how much your freezer, fridge, TV, PC etc etc are costing to run you can do so with the £6 device the electrisave won't.

Probably a simple thing like boiling up too much water in a kettle will cost Mr and Mrs Average far more than standby consumption over a year. Again you can see how much extra it costs to boil a pint more water with the £6 device.

SimonWarn

I think they are two different devices, I'm not quite sure why the constant comparison is going on.

This Current Cost thing I have has shown me not to be so frivolous with my kitchen lighting, (in the words of Cardew) "The £6 plug in device won't"

It shows me the cost of my Cooker/boiler/immersion "the £6 plug in device ... oh you get the idea.

They are different products, designed for different things.

My suggestion is buy the £6 device and try and borrow a Current cost monitor, that should keep everyone happy(?)

Cardew

SimonWarn wrote: »

I think they are two different devices, I'm not quite sure why the constant comparison is going on.

This Current Cost thing I have has shown me not to be so frivolous with my kitchen lighting, (in the words of Cardew) "The £6 plug in device won't"

It shows me the cost of my Cooker/boiler/immersion "the £6 plug in device ... oh you get the idea.

They are different products, designed for different things.

My suggestion is buy the £6 device and try and borrow a Current cost monitor, that should keep everyone happy(?)

The reason for the comparison was the question below:

Right - so if I have v high electricity bill (as per my thread before I saw this!) in a new house and want to diagnose the culprit are ppl saying I'm best to get a £6 meter from Lidl and just go round the house checking each appliance individually?

I said in an earlier post that you don't need to be an electrical engineer to know how much fixed wattage items like lights cost to run. Switching off two 100watt bulbs will save you - let me think about that one;)

"It shows me the cost of my Cooker/boiler/immersion "the £6 plug in device ... oh you get the idea."

How does the electrisave show you the cost of those items? All it will do is tell you their rating; all those devices are on a thermostat.

SimonWarn

Cardew wrote: »

Switching off two 100watt bulbs will save you - let me think about that one;)

"It shows me the cost of my Cooker/boiler/immersion "the £6 plug in device ... oh you get the idea."

How does the electrisave show you the cost of those items? All it will do is tell you their rating; all those devices are on a thermostat.

While you're working out the cost of those two 100W bulbs, would you mind doing my various strip lights and Low Voltage lights as well.

The timer circuit on my boiler is (apparently) drawing 28W, I can confirm this is not on a thermostat nor is it plugged into a power socket, I only know its 28W due to this monitor (and by pulling out the fuse).

Don't get me wrong, I can see the validity in the £6 plug-in option, but:

a)I don't want to check all my appliances periodically, I can't be bothered to pull out my dishwasher/fridge/freezer/washing machine, obviously they will draw more current as time goes on, so this weeks reading may no longer be accurate next month.

b)My monitor cost £6 less than the £6 monitor.

Cardew

If you tell me the wattage of your lights - sure I will;)

Also don't get me wrong.

As a free device the electrisave has its uses - the main advantage is that it is marginally more convienient with a remote display for those items with a fixed consumption and those with a fixed consumption that are not plugged in via a 13 amp socket.

However the majority of queries on this forum, and I suggest of interest to most of us, is what contributes to our high electricity bills.

The majority of our high consuming items have thermostats or variable consumption. So to measure fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, PC/printer etc, fan heaters, TVs, DVDs etc etc it is only the £6 device that will tell you.

I concede that there might be a tiny increase in consumption over the years for some appliances - if that is what you mean by 'as time goes on'.

The biggest danger in that respect is a fridge or freezer where the door sealing perishes or thermostat goes faulty. If that happens the compressor will draw no more current(which is all the electrisave can monitor) it will simply run for much longer periods(which the £6 device will detect)

I hardly think anyone will 'periodically' monitor their appliance's consumption. I have measured my chest freezer(housed in a garage) twice. Once in summer when the garage gets pretty warm, and in winter, to see if it made any difference. I simply left the freezer connected for a week each time.

Is a free electrisave better than nothing - of course it is. However people with absolutely no idea about electricity can very easily be fooled. e.g.

"I switched off my fridge to test and it made no difference at all to the reading on the electrisave"

OR

"I switched off my fridge to test and the electrisave shows it costs 3p an hour to run - that is £262 a year!!"

ElectricE

SimonWarn wrote: »

My suggestion is buy the £6 device and try and borrow a Current cost monitor, that should keep everyone happy(?)

Good advice – but I bet not everyone will be happy and will need to have a final word in the subject

Life's too short to keep going on about the pro's and con's of each device. Both, in their simplest form, measure power. It's how we interpret the information that counts, and all do what we can to reduce our usage.

espresso

ElectricE wrote: »

Good advice – but I bet not everyone will be happy and will need to have a final word in the subject

Pot, kettle, black!

:rotfl:

ElectricE

espresso wrote: »

Pot, kettle, black!

:rotfl:

lol - doh!
:beer:

ElectricE

espresso wrote: »

ElectricE

Still waiting to see a breakdown of such a high standby usage!

Well I did say a couple of weeks ago that I’d let those interested know what was causing such a high standby load in the house. The simple answer is I’ve not got a clue and I can’t be bothered to switch off one ring at a time to try and locate the bad boys! Maybe sometime later.

I did get around to measuring some of the items in my house to see what power they were drawing (according to the www.currentcost.com meter, free from SSE)

Computer Equipment, which I leave on all the time:
Wireless Access Point = 12W
Router = 5W
19” LCD = 0W Surprise
Low power Computer = 5W PSU Only + 7W PC = 12W

Kitchen TV (Istandby) = 5W
Video Receiver = 10W

Main TV Stack (standby) = 33W Total
Of which:
DVD Surround Sound System = 10W
TV = 2W
Sky Box = 15W
Video Sender = 3W

Doesn’t total 33W but its close enough.

Interestingly the sky box (not Sky plus) used the same power in standby as it did when turned on. Is Sky’s advertising campaign just a PR excersise?

Central Heating Pump = 70W

BUT….

Frankly I’m going to chuck all these results out because I thought I’d do a comparison using the 6 quid plug in device with my laptop and was shocked at the results.

The plug in device measured 50W when the computer was quiet but the current cost meter measured a mere 30W – Hmmm

Which one is wrong? I have no idea without some constant to compare against.

One thing though, I’m about to go out and buy a Bye Bye Standby kit for the TV Stack as if it is using 30W it’ll pay for itself in about a year but if it is using 50W then great – it’ll pay for itself sooner.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bye-Standby-Starter-Kit/dp/B000Q2NO7S/ref=sr_1_2/203-0085746-7166362?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1188759038&sr=8-2

Even with all the obvious things turned off, I still can’t get the baseline figure for the whole house below 90W. I will do some investigation at some point to find out what the hell’s causing it.