Any suggestions for a (cheap) device that can keep an eye on what is sucking up the electricity in our house?
We also have ‘old’ meter that needs changing….
Bearing in mind that nPower mucked us around for ages, and therefore our starting readings were all over the place, we have had a rather large bill for the last couple of quarters since we moved away from them. It is puzzling me, as we don’t use tumble drier much, most of the spots are now LED and everything else is pretty new and efficient (enough)…
We have http://neur.io/ fitted in the house, can monitor usage from smart phone / web anywhere in the world.
I backed it on Kickstarter, costs $150 now.
By the minute (you can see the fridge / freezer cycling the pump on and off all through the night, then we wake up and lights / kettle get switched on). The kettle was used twice….
[url=https://flic.kr/p/yDrsF1]Neurio2[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr
By day:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/zAtyap]Neurio[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr
In the day one you can see when we were on holiday and then came back and ran the washing machine flat out for a day cleaning walking / biking kit from a week in the Lake District….
In theory it can identify appliances from their power profile, but we don’t have any that it seems to recognise, mainly as we don’t have any really hungry appliances. It endlessly gets the oven and the kettle confused….
[url=https://flic.kr/p/ziXUMB]Neurio2[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr
Electricity – 2755kwh
Gas – 2080kwh
(start of July-Mid Sept)
Prior to this, and for the prior two years we have estimated readings alongside lots of real readings at various dates. Add in for 6 years prior we were on electric THTC, I have no comparison as to a ‘reasonable’ power use for 5 of us in small 4 bed semi.
We use about 5 kWh per day, but them there’s only two of us and gas central heating.
Edit~: I does not help we are still on a mechanical meter either, having been promised a new one ‘as soon as we can’…
You can check it if you want. switch off all circuits except one, and just have a single 100W light bulb (old banned filament type) running (as they’re a very good 100W load).
Then time the meter disc to do 10 full rotations. Divide time by 10 to get the rotation time in seconds. On the meter it will state the conversion rate from revolutions per minute to kWH. Do the math and see if the meter is still accurate. NB Meters are only rated for 10 years maximum life.
It is high – I know that, I just want to nail down *why* and *what*.
No electric shower, no immersion, no-one home all day, seemingly actual ( I need to go and find my pad with the actual readings on from me though).
We do run a de-humidifier for a few hours a day in winter, but it has not been on since March. Dishwasher and fridge are both B or C rated, so not *too* bad.
😕
2 adults,3 kids in a 3 bed semi.
That is us – ex 3 bed semi, with downstairs study as kids bedroom, five of us.
You’ve got it good. According to my online dashboard at Scottish power we average 45.5 gas KWH and 12.5 Electric KWH per day. Thats 16000 and 4500 KWH respectively.
Our total bill is about £950 per annum which for family of four in a semi doesn’t feel that bad*
*My wife prefers the house to be the same temperature as Barbados, I’ve given up with the argument.
Ive got a Tado smart thermostat and a stand alone energy monitor that just shows really time readings. However I am sue that out energy bills and especially gas have gone up since we got the smart thermostat. Does anyone know off a smart thermostat and a energy monitor that is combined and works for gas and electricity?
Electricity – 2755kwh
Gas – 2080kwh
(start of July-Mid Sept)
If it’s any help (as we’ve got solar PV which supplies quite a bit in the summer), in Nov and Dec last year we used 1400Kwh while the Pv supplied 120Kwh so a total of 1600Kwh at the max usage period of the year.
5 of us (3 teenagers) in a largish detached house.
Mrs SB does not skimp on the washing/tumble drier and we have 2 freezers and 2 40″ plasmas. I work from home so there’s always a couple of PCs running and bit of electric heating in my office. Heating/water is oil.
Between May and Oct we import 10Kwh/day.
So there’s something wrong with your numbers. Best thing I did was to change our downlighters (about 60 in total) to 5W LED. I’m pretty keen on switching off stuff that’s on standby.
Kettle/washing machine aren’t used enough to make that much difference.
If you can get a monitor it would help you track down where your usage is mostly.
we got an M&S branded (OWL I think make them) one on eBay for not too much a while back. Works well, clamps oin the meter supply, it’s maybe not super accurate but keep an eye on it for unusual or unexpected usage on a realtime basis – quite handy, you get a feel for ‘normal’ usage and can see if there is something on unexpectedly.
Can’t recall what our bills are but they’re a bit high – but that’s (or was) 2 adults, 2 children, outbuilding where I work, house occupied usually during the day..
If you ask your provider, they may fit a new meter and a monitor thing for free. Well, that was the plan with edl & us. Two attempts and no one showed. To be fair to them, they did give us £50 each time and my wife was home anyway.
Its the background usage that hurts…whilst you are at work and asleep the house could be consuming 10p per hour with a few odds and sods left on.
Our TV uses naff all so is allowed to stay on standby, my 15yr old Sony Hifi uses 2p an hour so gets unplugged.
A common one is when you get a new A+++ fridge, but then put your old inefficient one in the utility as a beer fridge and it sits there guzzling away your pennies 24hrs a day.
I think I got ours down to around 3p an hour although the clip on meters are not that accurate at measuring low currents. I reckon the main consumer is my broadband hub and cordless phone.
Our always on is 71W apparently (1.1 pence per hour is), which is top 10% of Neurio homes (but I guess a lot are in the US, so probably more profligate with energy).
[url=https://flic.kr/p/zmgscd]Neurio Always On[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr
You can get a plug in energy meter, to measure what specific appliances are using.
eg http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/15a-plug-in-energy-saving-monitor-l61aq
Worth measuring for things you leave on all of the time, eg the fridge. Or anything like TVs left in standby.
Posted 8 years ago
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