Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Ethical living

Discover eco friendly brands and sustainable fashion on our Ethical Living forum.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

energy monitors...

42 replies

wohmum · 02/01/2009 16:39

Hi all,

I got a shiny new OWL energy monitor just before Christmas - does anyone else have one ? and would you mind telling me what you 'background level ' (ie lights, no washers/oven/drier etc) reading is - mine is approx 4p per hour !!

is this normal ? - seems high to me, at around £1 per day just for a couple of lights (and a million electronic gadgets on standy!)

thanks

OP posts:

nannyL · 02/01/2009 18:50

I assume that includes a fridge / freezer etc
they use quite a bit of power

do u have all energy bulbs?

to me that doesnt seem that high...

how much does 1 unit of electric cost you?

Takver · 02/01/2009 18:58

What is it in units?
Do you have answerphone, mains clocks, power supplies for computer/printers, central heating pump, mobile phone charger, baby monitor charger etc? They can all add up to a lot.
Have you tried going round room by room carrying the monitor & turning things on & off to see what makes a difference?

babyjjbaby · 02/01/2009 21:36

nope that is about right ours goes from 1.6 to 6.0 p an hour

Original poster

wohmum · 02/01/2009 22:27

Thanks all - I was surprised to see how much difference it was made by turning off the the spot lights in the kitchen - around 1.2p per hour - which is a fair bit compared to a normal light (not even a low energy one!)

it goes up to around 29p when the kettle is on! and 35p when the microwave is on!

OP posts:

IotasCat · 02/01/2009 22:31

God yes! spotlights eat electricity - we have 12 in our kitchen

IotasCat · 02/01/2009 22:32

And our floor lamp I think it's halogen uses loads

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 02/01/2009 22:33

ooooh, now don't get me started on this one!

I bought DH an OWL for Christmas which he set up today and now all I hear is "what have you turned on/ off now?!" He's turned into a complete addict!

BTW anyone know if it's worth swapping an electric kettle for one that you boil on the hob?

babyjjbaby · 02/01/2009 22:33

ours went upto 72p earlier when we had kettle and microwave on all the other bits which are useally on

IotasCat · 02/01/2009 22:35

Try putting the dishwasher washing machine and tumble dryer on at the same time

babyjjbaby · 02/01/2009 22:37

hehe i can imagine lol ain't got a dishwasher tho another thing which i find fab is remote conrtrol switches to turn stuff off which are hard to reach worth very penny

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 02/01/2009 22:43

Iotascat - you sound just like my DH!!

Original poster

wohmum · 02/01/2009 22:44

I'm like your DH Iwishiwas...

my DP keeps putting the elec heater on and now I can spot it straight away!

mind you he was a bit concerted to fnd that we spent £300 on gas and elec in about 2 months!

I don't think our dishwasher and washer are too bad - and i never use the drier , luckily as we've also got a halogen floor lamp which is on all the time.

my aim is for elec to be less than £50 this month !

OP posts:

aidansyummymummy · 02/01/2009 22:45

Im tempted to get one of these but where do they fit to? Plus I am on a key meter...maybe i could keep popping out to the box!

Original poster

wohmum · 02/01/2009 22:50

babyjjbaby,
how do those remote control thingies work ? can i switch off my tv/sky/dvd player or will it keep losing all the settings and recordings?
what about the pc/bt home hub/printers etc.... they are all in one socket ( there must be about 10 appliances all on standby!) wioll my home hub lose all the others if i switch it off? anyone know?

OP posts:

babyjjbaby · 02/01/2009 22:51

they fit to the wire coming out of meter we have a pay as u go elctric meter and still use it

aidansyummymummy · 02/01/2009 22:52

and do you have a control indoors or do you have to go outside?

Original poster

wohmum · 02/01/2009 22:54

my Owl just clipped onto a red wire coming out of my fuse box meter box. was dead easy, but it took me a while to get the remote monitor setup .

OP posts:

babyjjbaby · 02/01/2009 23:05

it is indoors

Takver · 03/01/2009 09:55

wohmum is a homehub the same as a broadband router? If so we have ours on a timer so that it goes off overnight and it doesn't cause any problems. Our timer is a tweaked garden water timer (because it runs off a rechargeable battery so isn't another phantom load).
For computer, printers etc we have a 6 socket strip with individual switches on each socket (like this) so that we only have to have what we are actually using switched on.
In terms of saving electricity/cash it is much more worth while hunting down the little things that are on all the time - the microwave may use a lot, but only for a few minutes a day . . .

Original poster

wohmum · 03/01/2009 13:58

Thanks Takver,

yes i think the home hub is just really a broadband router so probablty would be ok. will just have to try it I guess.

DO you think it makes much difference switching it off overnight?

OP posts:

aidansyummymummy · 03/01/2009 16:45

Wohum....do you have BT vision connected to your homehub? If so dont turn it off...its thats quite a while to restore after power turned off

Takver · 03/01/2009 16:55

In terms of power saving, our router takes about 150 watts, so 24 hours a day is a bit over 3 kWh, so losing half of that saves 1.5 kWH not an enormous amount in itself but you don't have to lose that many kWh to start saving quite a bit.
My feeling is, for anything electrical, that if its not benefitting anyone right now, then it ought to be turned off. TBH the router is only on a timer because it serves 4 separate flats, if it were just us I would have it on a switched socket next to the computer & put it on when we were using it.

babyjjbaby · 03/01/2009 17:30

i turn our modem and routers off at night and if i know i need to do stuff cos if it is left on i spend all day on the laptop

Hopefully · 03/01/2009 18:14

We have a Wattson and it's turned us into addicts. Our 'background' level is something in the region of £250-£350 a year, which is insane. Actually, you've made me think about how ridiculous that is for a couple of lights. Need to become more obsessive about turning things off!

babyjjbaby · 03/01/2009 18:57

our background is useally 6.4 p thats what it is most of teh time i think it is to hight persoanlly but i do have 2 good sized fishtanks

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread