Electricty Monitor

[Des]

Hello

Is it possible to buy a device that I can fit myself which will give me a clear indication of my current rate of electricity consumption. . Ideally I'd like a portable device which can show pence/hour, cumulative cost etc and maybe even predict/calculate my electricity bill.

Yes, I know I have a meter, but that's in the garage and doesn't really give me all the info I'd like. I did google around a bit but couldn't really find what I was looking for. I'm sure I've seen these devices on the telly.

Many Thanks for any pointers.

Des

[F]

Yes, a couple of weeks ago. IIRC, they said the electricity companies would be compelled to provide them FOC in the (fairly) near future.

[Roger Mills]

There are plenty of plug-in devices (such as those sold by Maplins) which will monitor the energy consumed by whatever is plugged into a single 13A socket, including calculating the cost - but it sounds as if you want to to it for the whole house.

There are ammeters which will clamp round a cable, and display the current passing through the cable - by some inductive means which doesn't require an electrical connection to be made - but I don't know whether any of those will integrate the measurement over a period of time in order to calculate amp-hours (or watt-hours if they also take voltage into account) - let alone calculate your electricty bill.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:09:29 +0100, "Roger Mills" mused:

These need to be clamped round a phase conductor _only_ so would mean stripping bits of insulation of all your flexible cables! (Not recomended btw).

They can, if you go for one of the more expensive OTT for domestic measurement ones.

[Jb]

Strip back insulation to use a clamp meter!! CRAP!!!

[Andy Wade]

Lurch was talking about using one on a multi-core cable, where you'd need to remove the _sheath_ to separate the cores. For whole-house monitoring (single-phase) you can clamp round either of the meter tails, without removing anything.

[Kevin]

covered different devices.

Kevin

[Lurch]

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:16:26 +0100, Andy Wade mused:

Thankyou, that was clearly the only conclusion a sane person could draw from the statement.

Top posting fuckwits would do well to not bother posting.

[Alan]

If you've been watching "Its not easy being green" recently they were using a device just as you describe - with a wireless display unit so you can monitor the useage from anywhere within the house. I'm not sure what make it was though.

Alan.

[Des]

Thanks for the useful replies - especially Kevin.

Looks like the "electrisave"

comes closest to what I want. Only downside is the cost - about £62 from amazon.

Thanks again Des

[Nige Danton]

I saw a programme on BBC World last night that featured one such device. Looked quite good and anything that raises awareness surely cannot be a bad thing.

-- Nige Danton

[Roger Mills]

It does *part* of what you were asking for. It shows you at what *rate* you are currently consuming electricity - but it doesn't accummulate this over a period to measure kWHrs consumed in (say) a 24 hour period.

[Piers James]

[Mark]

They will be Freeeeeeeee next year