electricity "meters" like current cost, killawatt, owl, etc

[Fred]

Hi,

I was wondering about the various devices like "current cost", "kilawatt", and "owl" that measure your electricity usage. I know they have been discussed on here before and some people have said why do you need one of these when you already have an electricity meter, and there is some logic in that.

My electricity direct debit has jumped from 60-odd pounds per month to ninety-odd pounds. I think that's due to changes in prices rather than changes in usage, however I would like to see what I am using to see if there is anywhere I can tweak some savings. I think using one of these meters might be quicker and easier rather than read the "proper" meter every night or do mental arithmetic based on how many flashes of the LED or rotations of the disc (depending on your meter) there are.

Are these makes all much the same or are some models better than others? It would be nice to be able to view the data on the computer and it would be even nicer if the device logged usage so that I did not have to leave the computer on to download from the device in real time: that would only add to my usage!

TIA

[Tim Streater]

Why don't you just read your own meter on the first of the month each month and record the readings? Shove the differences into a spreadsheet and thus record how your usage varies. Not too onerous.

[Toby]

I bought a "loop" from the Ideal home exhibition last week (£20)

You get two devices, one that you clamp around your meter tail (this has an integral long life battery), the other you connect to your broadband router (this one needs a power supply, which can be taken from the router if it has a USB port, or via the included mains adaptor)

This then shows you (via a web page) your real-time usage, and all historic usage - once they have 30 days of usage, they will then be able to recommend different suppliers based on your actual usage.

they claim to have a gas transmitter that will be available later this year, someone reading the dial on the meter, apparently the receiver unit has 16 channels, so hopefully it will be able to read other things like water meters and exported power if you have solar etc..

The parent company is

which appears to be a well established company.

[Bob Minchin]

There is also a subscription to pay and unlike other monitors, it does not help you identify things that are take more power than you think. Once you stop paying the subscription, the thing is a bit of a chocolate teapot.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 28 March 2013 14:08 Toby wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Sounds rather intersting. Can you pull data direct from the device (without relying on their online service)?

[Martin Brown]

I suppose it depends how determined you are to log it manually. My electricity meter requires considerable effort, a torch and a step ladder to read. The Owl by comparison sits on a windowsill and gives (nearly) immediate feedback. Expect to shave about 10% off your bill by having one even if you are relatively good about switching lights off.

I found a couple of orphaned wall warts drawing 20W continuously behind furniture when I got mine. Getting your overnight base load down is the first easy thing to do - many modern TVs default to running the digital decoder in case your DVD recorder might want to use it.

10W continuous load is 80kWh or approx £10 off the annual bill.

It is also worth having a more sensitive plug/socket based device that can measure standby power down to fractions of a watt. That way you can decide if any of the kit you have needs isolating from mains when not in use. Various smart extension sockets and adaptors exist for this.

That is a very big change - what new toys have you bought? Plasma TV is the most obvious suspect.

Unless you really want to play at logging then the Owl is good enough - you might even persuade your electricity supplier to give you one...

The saving for our village hall is massive because it stops people leaving the electric heating, ovens or hot water immersion on overnight.

[harry]

Go to your local library. Many lend them out like a book.

[Chris J Dixon]

If you are in any doubt, look at your previous bills, either on paper or on line (some suppliers will even show you comparative graphs. If you are not already doing it, I would strongly recommend that you maintain your own spreadsheet with meter readings, at least fortnightly.

I have an Eco-Eye Smart PV, which (provided your mains cables have been separated to permit this) can show both usage, generation and net import/export. The display includes a special SD card, from which data can be downloaded when convenient, and there is an included analysis program.

If you have no PV, they have a slightly cheaper option.

You can also connect via a USB lead to graph the data in real-time, if you wish, but it is not essential to do this.

Basically it does what is claimed. Like all such devices there is a degree of error in the readings, but it seems sensitive enough to changes. There doesn't seem to be a wired option, so you need the display to be able to receive a reasonable signal from the transmitter.

Chris

[Andrew Gabriel]

The OWL will heavily over-estimate the load of those. They won't have been anything like 10W each, but possibly 10VA.

The OWL doesn't have enough data to make an accurate measurement like your meter does.

[Bob Minchin]

Virtually all these cheap ones suffer from this. They do not have the capability to use a voltage/phase sample and so assume unity power factor and additionally if you have solar panels or such like, the output from these is registered as CONSUMPTION which unless you understand what is going on, will be very confusing.

Owl told me a year or so ago they were working on something more sensible but I've yet to see it available.

[Martin Brown]

Granted that the phase angle meant it was probably not dissipating anything like 10W but it was enough that the transformers were warm to the touch despite being unloaded. Finding and removing them must save some power even if it was only half what the Owl thought.

The devices that plug into a mains socket and accept a 13A plug should be able to do proper phase correction for consumption - although whether the one I have does or not I have never bothered to check.

Basically it is worth it to find and eliminate wasteful appliances.

[Brian Gaff]

I just went for the company and said, what is the best tariff and It seems to be working. I'm fixed till some time next year and do not pay monthly only after a reading has been made.

ie every quarter. I'm sure we can all guess what uses the most and if we have off peak meters we can arrange for most of that to take place during the hours when its cheaper. Brian

[Tim Streater]

Who is your provider? When I did a calculation recently, I discovered that if you use enough to get you into the "remaining units" zone, then it made absolutely no difference whether you paid with a standing charge (and all units cost the same) or No SC and with two rates. It came to the same within a p or two. If you use less that 225 units/qtr, then it pays to be No SC.

[Toby]

It has a real-time meter you can access on a computer, or a smart phone (there also an Android app, and an iPhone one is in progress), so it shows the same as any other clamp meter based one will. It reacts in a few seconds to a load change, pretty much like my Owl meter does, maybe a second longer.

It comes with 12 months, and then it is £5 for the next year, so 42p a month for them to provide the data storage, graphs, enabling me to check I haven't left anything on when I am not at home, and switching recommendation, I don't think that is a bad deal personally.

[Bob H]

I read my meter every day more or less to keep track of what is being used by what appliance.

[meow2222]

Odd that no-one's mentioned the tendency of suppliers to overcharge on dd. It means you're loaning them money for free.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

That has *always* been the case.

[Dave Liquorice]

I have a Current Cost C128. It works and provided that you are careful getting the clamp nicely around the tail fairly accurate. The average daily use is within 1/2 a unit of the metered daily use.

It has a TTL level serial data port on the back that squirts current and historical data in XML format every 6 seconds or so(*). They sell a lead talks USB and there are various third pary bits of software that will plot/analyse the data.

Many companies have a habit of dumping you back onto their standard (aka expensive) tarrif when a deal of some sort comes to an end. 60 to

90/month is a big jump unless you owe them a fair bit and they are clawing it back over the next year.

(*) It may only do the full historical data every hour, I have mine connected to the server which is on 24/7 so log the live data on that.

[Tim Streater]

Really. And for all providers, you mean? Then there is definitely scope for "simplifying the tariffs", because it's not obvious and the small print doesn't state it.

[Martin Brown]

Scottish Power isn't too bad, but with old nPower bills it took two PhDs best part of half a day to decode the layers of obfuscation. They may have improved now. Every time I look at electricity and gas deals and the myriad complex tariffs I am struck by how opaque they make it. I have just done it for my parents and discovered that because they have been stubbornly loyal to their geographic suppliers they were being ripped off by about 30% over the prevailing market rates.

Disloyalty pays! And the first switch is the deepest cut!

I also object to the dual fuel tariffs since there is no chance of us ever having mains gas in the village unless the nearby (danger zone) high pressure gas pipeline springs a leak. If they cannot be arsed to supply us with gas they should allow us to have the dual fuel tariff.