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Ethical living

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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