Energy Monitors

[threebikesmcginty]

Anyone use one of these, is it worth the bother?

Was just reading up some stuff on them and you can get various types including ones with a software suite that lets you see all sorts of graphs and bar charts, etc. Was kind of keen to see one would give some accurate information about what's going on here with power usage/cost as our house is all electric, ie power and heating.

 

[4F]

I use one from EON and imho no its not worth the bother. Mild interest in the first week and a bit of fun turning things on to see what difference it made (washing machine, kettle, power shower and hoover all at the same time was a shocker ) but now only occasionally look at it from time to time.

 

[Shanks]

I'd agree with 4f on this, it's the sort of thing you think will be really useful then after the first week of interest it just gets ignored. That being said if you want to try one out I have a brand new one here still in the box gathering dust. It came to me free of charge so you're welcome to it for the same cost. PM me if your interested, cheers

 

[Kies]

Saw a friends monitor ... told me what i already know.
Boil only what you need in a kettle
Ironing should be done together,as heating up an iron is expensive
Switch lights off when not in use
Switch the TV off,don't leave it in standby

 

[Nebulous]

I have an EON free one. I was trying to monitor usage anyway, for both cost and environmental reasons. We've really driven down usage and the monitor played its part in that. One key point though was replacing old appliances. We had a fridge/ freezer and a small fridge. We got rid of both and bought a new efficient fridge/ freezer. That alone made a big difference.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Thanks for the replies - and thanks for the kind offer, Shanks, worth a look.

 

[PaulSB]

On the point of energy consumption in standby mode can anyone answer this? We have a light at our back and front door which illuminate as the house is approached obviously there is a sensor triggering the light.

Would this standby mode be consuming energy to the same extent as a TV does?

 

[Nebulous]

On the point of energy consumption in standby mode can anyone answer this? We have a light at our back and front door which illuminate as the house is approached obviously there is a sensor triggering the light.

Would this standby mode be consuming energy to the same extent as a TV does?

I don't know what it will be consuming- but TVs have dramatically improved how much they use on standby. It's still worth switching them off however, it all adds up. I doubt if your PIR on your light is drawing very much, 2-5 watts at a guess.

Houses always have a great deal of background consumption. We have reduced our usage to average 12 kilowatt hours a day. If we are away on holiday, with as much as possible switched off we still use 5 units a day. That's accounted for by burglar alarm (it has 3 or 4 pirs) fishtank pump, fridge/freezer etc.

 

[Crackle]

They're shoot, don't bother.

 

[summerdays]

It is worth monitoring your consumption - I noticed that we seemed to be using more gas than normal (comparing with last winter), and have tracked it down to the central heating seems to be heating the water at the same time. (Water is getting hot even when it's completely switched off over 24 hours, but doesn't if the heating isn't on for 24 hours). Hopefully got someone coming to sort it out soon. I'm presuming it is the switch that controls what is on, though we only had that replaced last year. But I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't aware of our usage levels.

 

[simon.r]

I use one and find it very useful. The main benefit for me is glancing at it before I leave the house, just as confirmation that everything is switched off (rather than on standby). Just realising what I was using cut my consumption by about 20% - 'tho to be fair I was a low energy user already.

I also have my router/modem and TV etc on remote control sockets, so they're switched off overnight and when I'm not in the house - the equivalent to turning off several low energy bulbs.

 

[Garz]

On the point of energy consumption in standby mode can anyone answer this? We have a light at our back and front door which illuminate as the house is approached obviously there is a sensor triggering the light.

Would this standby mode be consuming energy to the same extent as a TV does?

Depends on the age, make, model but I'm guessing only drawing between .1 to .2mA per sensor.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I bought one a couple of years ago. I am using it to compare my electricity consumption now compared to when I had an immersion heater. With the immersion heater, I was using 2000 kWh (units) a year; without, I used about half that.

It was quite interesting when I first got it. I was surprised how little some energy some devices used and how much others used. I found that when my devices were on standby, they hardly used any energy, not what I had heard. Devices like stereo systems didn't use as much electricity as I thought. Anything that produces a lot of heat, such as toasters or kettles take a lot of power, although only for short times.

There were three problems with my energy monitor:

• It only stored about three months' of data.
• When you downloaded the data to your PC, it tended to delete your previous logs unless you were careful.
• The batteries can die and you don't realise it's not recording any data for weeks.