Hi All Trying to get my energy usage down, it would be useful to see what other people use (obviously annonymously) does such a database exist somewhere? I would have thought info on number of rooms, use of things like heating/dishwasher/washing machine/pc/server etc could be included ???
at the moment I am getting the weekly electricity usage down from
160Kwh/week down to about 110Kwh/week over a period of about a year - situation is complicated because the number of children in the house varies over a 2 week cycle .....
yes - I have the original currentcost bridge so usage is avalable across internet without having a computer running - it generally reads a little low in terms of kWH (x1.1 gives about the correct by meter amount though) I reckon due to its lowish sample rate of about 6 sec/reading. Can get the baseload overnight reading down to 80w which is making a huge differencemaking sure everything is off not on standby ....
Ah an opportunity for google here. fly a plane over towns at night with an infra red camera on it. Now what could we call this one..
Brian
What appliances did you find that consumed anything measurable on standby? Set-top boxes are about the only thing, unless you have a really old TV (like >12 years old).
Google Cannabis Farm
definitely sky+ stb,panasonic hd/dvd recorder, xbox power bricks, a couple of old laptop power bricks - 3 out of the 5 router/switches (not on standby but network reconfigured so they can be switched off atnight) and a couple of computer monitor power bricks :-)
Phew! Those pictures come as a relief. When you mentioned waste I thought you might have been talking about.. you know.. erme.. waste.
Nick
Anyone know how much electricity a cooker clock (old type - electrically driven/mechanical, unfortunately ludicrously noisy, and due to be replaced) actually does use? I have always assumed it to be at the level of utterly insignificant.
It is, 1 or 2 watts for the old synchronous motor clocks from the 50s & 60s.
NT
Thanks - Maybe not quite so old, but of that type.
Does the currentcost one discriminate between the direction of current flow? all the otherbrands I have looked at do not so if like me you have a solar PV system, the power fed into the grid is measured as power CONSUMED and added to the actual consumption making it useless.
This is due to the measurement head having a rectifier in it which loses the current direction info.
Bob
The reason for the lack of direction information is that the clip-on device is a CT (Current Transformer) as such it is only capable of detecting the magnitude of the current flowing in the wire, not its direction.
I understand that the Wattson monitor is capable, of using a second CT to measure generated power, and perform a calculation showing the difference. This facility may depend upon the detail layout of your cabling.
Details from a user here
It isn't cheap - I think I may have to add one to my Xmas list. :-)
Chris
Yep.
The CurrentCost does have 3 sensor inputs so one could measure what is flowing out of the invertor, what is flowing to the grid and what is flowing to the house. Simple maths after that, either by you or the attached logging computer.
The server is always on anyway so getting it to log the power use is a "no cost" option.
I found mine to be pretty close but the position of the CT is pretty critical just hung around the live tail wasn't very good but fixed with the tail hard against the inner side of the jaws and at right angles produced good results.
Never managed to get our over night base load below 300W. I might have another go at reducing it when we move back into the house.
couple of watts prolly. They did get warm to the touch.
i'd say utterly insignificant, same as the wall wart powering the current cost unit, unless your name is harry and you are out to screw every last penny out of the other energy users for the FIT payments, and post gloating about how much your saving, how much your costing everyone else and how great your solar array is every few weeks :)
This has been considered by one regional council. I did some rough calculations involving the sensor resolution and capture angle and we decided that the aircraft could not be flown accurately enough (and at a legal height) to produce the required results. Obvoiusly as the ground elevation changed (hilly region) the width of the cone changed so there would be overlaps or gaps in the recorded strips.
Strickly speaking, "of energy". Power is a rate, not an amount.
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