energy monitors...

[wohmum]

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

ooh - those wattsons look good! bit pricey tho - but very cool.

now i need to dfind out about these remote control thingies for switching off stuff at the sockets- but thanks for the tip - we do have bt vision linked to home hub, so may have to find a way of excluding them.

The wattson is insanely expensive - I can't see us saving the amount it cost us any time soon - but DP loves it, and it does make us much more energy conscious, which can only be a good thing.

Don't know if you can do this with others, but you can also fiddle around with pricing on the wattson, and download data onto a programme, compare daily usage, peak times etc and compare with others online. All of which is very geeky and quite fun.

Just read the OP.

Yes ours sits at about 4p an hour with TV and lights and heating ticking over. When we first turn on the heating and it is heating the boiler that shoots up a bit!

Turn off everything at the socket and see what happens, we noticed our washing mashine drew power even when off - no digital display or anything! We turn everything off completely now, once you get used to it it is fine.

.... I've just compared the kwh reading from the OWL with my scottish power one (when i supplied meter readings) The Owl is showing a lot less - 280 kwh vs 533! so in actual terms my elec has cost £45 for 2 or so weeks not £28 .

anyone else experienced this and is there a way round it?

Not sure I'm quite following you, WOHmum: are you saying your OWL is showing a lower reading than your Scot power energy monitor?

hi gizmo,

I put in my meter readings to scottish power online and they do an immediate calculation - they showed 533 kwh whereas the OWL only showed 288 for the 2 weeks or so sonce the last reading.

i wouldn't have minded a small difference but this is almost double! needless to say its the scottish power one that'll have to pay.

to be fair it was probable the most expensive 2 weeks of the year - all at hoe so heating on all the time, plus cooking over christmas - but still, £45 for 2 week just on elec!!

You might want to check your clamp on sensor and/or the radio link for the Owl, WOHM. Sometimes they only work intermittently, meaning they miss data.

Which is not to say Scot Power are necessarily totally correct. The meter is very unlikely to be wrong, but is it possible you might have misread it?

We bought one of these yesterday from Tesco, and are with Scottish Power on the fixed-rate Energy Online tariff.

Our background reading is 2.5p - that's after I went around switching everything off.

It made me realise how much kettles, spotlights and our PC cost - the laptop is much cheaper.

Also how much better it would be to use a slow cooker instead of putting the oven on.

And hairdryers are heavy on power - much better to let hair dry naturally and perhaps use straighteners which are less power-heavy.

I'm hoping it'll persuade the dds to turn things off in their rooms when they're not actually in them.

Pity there's no similar device for gas consumption.

Well, funny you should say that, Mamhaf...we're working on the development of one end of that system right now.

Popular wisdom is that a gas energy monitor wouldn't have the same effect as an electricy monitor, because a lot of gas consumption is 'non-discretionary' ie it's used for things like heating and cooking, which really have to be done.

I would be interested in a gas monitor - I've been checking my meter very couple of days over the last few weeks to see the effects of changing the times during which the heating is on, and turning down the central and room thermostats.

Our background usage with an OWL is between 0.6p/hr and 1.6p/hr, not quite sure what causes the variation though. If the heating is on then it's higher (electric pump, I think).
We have a fridge/freezer, clocks on gadgets, baby monitor, but do try to turn the router off when it's not being used and are pretty anal about making sure lights are off in rooms we aren't using.
Lights EAT electricity, don't they... Also the oven.
I posted a while back a response I got from the energy saving trust about more energy efficient ways of cooking, and interestingly they said that slow cookers AREN'T always more energy efficient than the oven, as although they use less, they're on for so much longer. A hay box is the way to go!

I'd definitely be interested in a gas one gizmo - although it's non-discretionary it's always possible to turn off or turn down radiators or work out if it's cheaper to cook on the hob rather than put on the electric oven.

Interesting point about the slow cooker - the OWL lets you know how much you've consumed over a set period, so I should compare an oven day with a slow-cooker one I suppose.

I haven't tried the slow cooker yet, but the toaster frightened me this morning!

Hmmmm...that's all very interesting folks about the gas.

What about water? Do you think you'd like to know how much you're using and when?

I wouldn't want to fork out for a water monitor, because I'm not metered (although I do try not to waste water - use a water butt and don't use a hosepipe, for example).

yeah - try toaster, kettle and microwave (tea, toast and soup anyone?) all at once - scary!! thank god tey are all only on for a short time.

Same as ange8 - no financial incentive for a water meter so wouldn't fork out for it.

However, I am single-handedly responsible for our rain-sodden summer in 2008 because I insisted on buying a water butt which has never been in less than overflow mode.

So, it's your fault, eh, Mamhaf?

Please tell me you have removed the Butt of Wetness so we can enjoy a decent summer this year.