Energy monitors.... (nervous giggle)

[charlesr]

http://www.naturalcollection.com/products/2-save-energy/owl-119-wireless-energy-monitor/

Got myself one of these.

Got experimenting with all the electric stuff.
With all stuff on standby, no lights and my PC running, it's 4p/hour.

Turn on Plasma. 6p
Turn on Kitchen lights 6p (i.e. plasma off again)
Turn on tumble drier 34p
Turn on oven 36p

I quite often have all that stuff on at once

Now looking at LED MR16 bulbs - might buy one just to see if it's any good. Already have flourescent GU10s which makes a huge difference.

[abigsmurf]

2p an hour for kitchen lights? That's about 180W (depending on how much you pay for your power). Something's deeply wrong there, especially if it's fluorescent.

[merf]

charles, does that unit detect power usage by some magic from being plugged into the system or do you have to set up every device manually in your home ?

if you just put in the cost of your leccy i'd be interested in getting something like that but couldn't be fagged manually setting the whole thing up, I'm a plug and play kind of guy.

[abigsmurf]

just count the time between the light flashing on your meter if you're ultra lazy :P

[charlesr]

My kitchen lights are 6x20W halogen spots (the flourescent GU10s are elsewhere, but take 2mins to reach full force). Very bright for "only" 120W. It wasn't exactly 2p - the device goes more accurate than that, but I was just writing down approximates.

It's super easy to install. You just open the meter cupboard and put a sensor round the main red feed and plug it into a battery powered (3X AA included) sender. The battery powered wireless receiver (3X AA included) also shows temperature and time and date and kW and carbon impact.

[speedlolita]

I'm glad my Mum doesn't know these exist.