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Sub £50 energy consumption monitor. It says it'll save you 25% off energy bills
Comments
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Just a minor point, but I know my electricity is charged at 2 rates: the first 225kWh per quarter cost 10.5p, the remainder cost 8.4p-this would make it slightly harder to calculate the actual cost of your usage.0
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Just a minor point, but I know my electricity is charged at 2 rates: the first 225kWh per quarter cost 10.5p, the remainder cost 8.4p-this would make it slightly harder to calculate the actual cost of your usage.
The majority of consumers will use the first 225kWh per quarter on essential, and hence unadvoidable, consumption. So it probably makes sense to use the 8.4p as a representative figure of the cost of running appliances.
The only other way, if you know your quarterly consumption, would be to use an average figure.
e.g. For a quarterly consumption of 1,000kWh use 8.87p ([EMAIL="225@10.5p"]225@10.5p[/EMAIL] [EMAIL="775@ 8.4"]775@ 8.4[/EMAIL]) Obviously for consumption greater than 1,000kWh the average figure is lower and vice versa.0 -
Just a minor point, but I know my electricity is charged at 2 rates: the first 225kWh per quarter cost 10.5p, the remainder cost 8.4p-this would make it slightly harder to calculate the actual cost of your usage.
No, I only pay at one rate (7.2p/KWh). I definitely checked I had keyed that much in correctly before ranting.
I didn't knowingly key anything in for dual tariff, but it's possible I accidentally left some silly number in there by being ham-fisted I suppose. If I accidentally hit the "select" key while pressing "function" to get back to normal mode, I could have carelessly left a £1 in there as a night time tariff and that could have got me to £9 quite easily over 3 days. Impossible to tell now that I've reset it.
Only time will tell if it's OK now. Maybe I should have tried twice before being grumpy...:o0 -
LadFromWales85 wrote: »Which is technically the best unit between the two (The Owl and the Maplin Energy-Saving Meter)
I'm currently reading my meter daily as I've not long moved into my first place, and I'm keeping tabs on whats changed so as to work out what saves me money and what doesn't.
Got a Russell Hobbs 'Thermal Technology Kettle' the other day, keeps water above 85c for 3 hours (according to the box), but the water is still hot enough for a coffee (not for a tea, needs to be boiling IMHO) 3 hours later, so I don't have to reboil, which means boiling from cold, as I can't stand the taste of water thats been reboiled!
Being a self confessed geek, I wouldn't mind one of these monitors that I can plonk on my desk and glance at whenever...is it worth getting a plug-in monitor as well, just to check specific devices?
El_Presidente, could you put the file on a webserver and give the link, or pm me the link, wouldn't mind a look, though it probably won't work in OpenOffice!
The Maplin Meter, made by Efergy, can record electricity consumption over a day, week and month. I don't believe the Owl can do that, it can only show instantaneous consumption."You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"0 -
heh you missed my last post! :rotfl:Had a nosey, and it seems as though the difference between the Efergy and The Owl are:-
The OWl shows humidity and temperature but lacks any memory for storing history
Efergy lacks humity and temperature display, but can show usage for today and the previous 6 days, this month and the previous 23 months, and last year.
I read reuk.co.uk that a new Electrisave is due out later this year which will have the history functions, and also support split tariffs and E7.
Switching over to Southern Electric now, and will switch to a credit meter once there and probably go onto Pricefix 2008, according to them this will be no problem
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LadFromWales85 wrote: »heh you missed my last post! :rotfl:
Switching over to Southern Electric now, and will switch to a credit meter once there and probably go onto Pricefix 2008, according to them this will be no problem
But it still won't tell you what most appliances use - history or not.
So no good for fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, cooker, PC equipment, immersion heater etc etc0 -
Having read the article on this website about the way that smart meters can help users monitor power consumption, I contacted United Utilities when they wrote to advise me they were about to change my electricity meter.
I asked them if they were able to fit one of these new smart meters.
After speaking to 8 or 9 different people I was told that they were no longer fitting smart meters!0 -
Having read the article on this website about the way that smart meters can help users monitor power consumption, I contacted United Utilities when they wrote to advise me they were about to change my electricity meter.
I asked them if they were able to fit one of these new smart meters.
After speaking to 8 or 9 different people I was told that they were no longer fitting smart meters!
I think they got a bit mixed up and are referring to "Smartpower powercard meters" which are an alternative to token/key meters dependant on the region you are in (Metering services Ltd in the old Midlands region were the ones that used them)
Smart meters are coming in, but it's pretty unlikely staff have been briefed until a company rollout strategy has been agreed.
Looking at the terms in this there still has been no decision on how it will work in this country as it is mentioned that it needs to be within financial capabilities of the Supplier. So, I'm sure it will be up for much debate for a while since Suppliers won't want to payout.:rotfl: It's better to live 1 year as a tiger than a lifetime as a worm...but then, whoever heard of a wormskin rug!!!:rotfl:0 -
LadFromWales85 wrote: »Look at the one Firebox is selling...The Wattson
http://www.firebox.com/product/1870?itc=78&src_t=nwt&src_id=161
Does look spiffy, hooks up to PC too, and has pretty lights, but who knows if it reports the same info as the cheaper maplin one or the owl.
EDIT: Do any of these have the ability to take into account the cheaper rate of E7?
We've got this, I got it free with Nectar points. http://www.nectar.com/rewards/generalSearchOfferDetailsCatMain.nectar?ROM=ROM0008161&outsideSearch=true It's absolutely brilliant - my husband is now, at long last, addicted to switching lights off! He used to be terrible.
We feel very affectionately to our little Wattson and we always say "Ooh Wattson's angry, what have we left on?" if he's glowing red.
You can download your usage patterns and programme it with your actual unit price costs to see how much energy you are using per year in £.0 -
We've got this, I got it free with Nectar points. http://www.nectar.com/rewards/generalSearchOfferDetailsCatMain.nectar?ROM=ROM0008161&outsideSearch=true quote]
Yeah only 29,600 nectar pts!!!!!!!:eek:
British Gas (excuse me why I spit on the ground) phoned me and asked if I wanted a free one of these - just cost me an extra £3 a month for me to switch to their green supply of energy, thats all - I said 'I am sorry but I just not as thick as you, goodbye!'
Besides, don't these machines use energy to tell you ...........
your using energy!0
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