Average Hourly Usage

chouchoutan

Hi there.

We've just bought an energy usage monitor and when the bare minimum of stuff is on (ie - just before we go out the door or at night) our usage is at about 2.6p per hour (unless the freezer kicks in). Can anyone let me know what their minimum usage is so I can compare.

Thanks.

ETA - that's at 9.95p per unit I think.

Cardew

2.6p an hour equates to approx 250 watts which is huge if you have nothing running.

Something substantial is consuming power! What about the fridge?

chouchoutan

Well - we do have quite a few things running 24\7:

American style fridge\freezer
Oven and microwave have LED clocks
Fish tank pump
TV\DVD\surround sound\digital TV box\wii all on standby
Cordless phone (2 handsets) on charge
TV and another digital TV box on standby upstairs
Digital radio
Alarm clock
Broadband cable modem and wireless router

That's it I think. I know there's a lot of stuff, hence the large energy bills and buying the meter to try and sort it out. We did have 2 PC's and a printer and monitor (on standby) on 24\7 as well but that's stopped! We've also got one of the plug in things that will monitor usage over a longer period and will try that on the fridge\freezer first I think.

I didn't think 2.6p\hour was that bad- works out at £4.37 per week for running the bare minimum which doesn't seem a lot. Or have I got my maths wrong?

Cardew

You would do well to use the plug in power meter so you can monitor what is consuming the power.

Is the fish pump combined with a heater? Was the fridge running?

Leaving out the Fish pump and freezer the standby consumption of those items should not be more than(typically) 20-30 watts so there is 200+ watts you need to find.

chouchoutan

Many thanks Cardew - will get the meter up and running tonight and check things over the weekend to try and track down those pesky 200W.

Will update on Monday.

mute_posting

OP

I have the wattson meter and the average "background" (i.e. over say 6 hours whilst the house is empty or overnight) at my folks house (where I first tried it) was about 500w. That is for:

Couple of servers
printer, router and other IT gubbins on standby
Laptop usually on standby
various digital displays (i.e. microwave, cooker) and alarm clocks
3 or 4 tv/sky/freeview setups on standby
frinde (x2) & freezer (x2)
3 or 4 11w CFL's

PrinceGaz

Crikey, when I'm out and my PC is powered down (which it is unless I want to record something on TV), my electric consumption is only about 30 watts-- used by a variety of low consumption odds and sods like the phone, and insect-killer, a TV set-top box, computer scanner, the computer itself (as even when turned off, they consume a little power unless the power-supply at the back is switched off or it is unplugged), etc. My fridge averages out at about 0.6KWh/day, which is equivalent to a constant 25 watts, so my total power usage when asleep or out with no lights or heating on is roughly 55 watts- which at 10p/unit would be only 0.55p/hour.

mute_posting

PrinceGaz wrote: »

Crikey, when I'm out and my PC is powered down (which it is unless I want to record something on TV), my electric consumption is only about 30 watts-- used by a variety of low consumption odds and sods like the phone, and insect-killer, a TV set-top box, computer scanner, the computer itself (as even when turned off, they consume a little power unless the power-supply at the back is switched off or it is unplugged), etc. My fridge averages out at about 0.6KWh/day, which is equivalent to a constant 25 watts, so my total power usage when asleep or out with no lights or heating on is roughly 55 watts- which at 10p/unit would be only 0.55p/hour.

The 2 servers are the biggest culptits in my list above

magicmusician2002

the biggest thing id be worried about is leaving dvd players wii's tv's on standby
not a lot you can do about led clocks on microwave and stuff unless you switch off microwave at the wall
but your energy provider should have a department to help you with this
they should be able to tell you what appliances use the most electric and how much they are costing you
call your electricity companies cust services line and ask to be directed from there
hope this helps