Electricity Monitors - Is there really a need for them?

[Andy Burns]

Hmmm, a calorie is not an indivisible quantity, even if you ignore the fact mostly food is measured in kilocalories.

[Nightjar]

It may not be as glitzy, but it is perfectly possible to use the electricity meter to work out how much any one item uses.

Colin Bignell

[js.b1]

No, utterly pointless. They have probably cost more energy globally in their design, component material manufacture & distribution, actual product manufacture, product distribution, product retail, product usage etc than they ever saved.

Individual appliance energy meters are useful however to check "your freezer thermostat is working" and "your new appliance is actually drawing 390W when it said 320W in the instructions" (such as a dessicant dehumidifier which seem to always understate perhaps in lieu of compressor drawing substantially less albeit with less heating benefit). Once you have used such meters, you might as well sell them back on fleabay to actually *be* "green" and thus recycle them so preventing another one being pulled down the supply chain, it then effectively only costs you =A31-2 to hire the thing rather than the =A310-14 they cost.

DIN rail meters are easily bought (german ones on Ebay are about a tenner?) and useful for sheds, garages, home business subject to IR acceptance, Koi fish production facility (!), garage freezers re stuck thermostat and so on.

I would rather they did a mailshot of "99p plug-in RCD" which might actually save some lives or "we collect your electric blanket for free, PAT test it and replace it for free if defective if over 65 or for =A35 if under 65".

[The Natural Philosopher]

its outside in the cold and wet ;-)

[Tabby]

for folks that don't know, electric blankets are the biggset killer electrical appliance

NT

[Clive George]

And for folks that don't know, electric blankets are fantastic :-)

When I was younger I knew electric blankets were dangerous, but thought they were only for old doddery folk. Then I started living in cold houses and learned better.

Of course ours are only a few years old, and in decent nick. Underblankets are a better idea than overblankets anyway, and you notice if they've been left on, let alone overheating.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not that easy over a longish time period (12hrs or more) in an ordinary house with fridges/freezers and other stuff automatically switching on and off.

[John]

So one can tell us that 10 off 60watt lights uses 600 watts.

[Nightjar]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to pick up errors in grammar.

David Cameron tells us 'I wish there was another way'.

Colin Bignell

[Man at B&Q]

Anything/everything that doesn't need to be on.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

[The Natural Philosopher]

[chris French]

In message , ARWadsworth writes

[Vortex7]

e.on sent me one for free (Current Cost ENVI), but I thought it was borderline useless....because the associated (PC based) logging software was complete s**te.

The other week I purchased the so-called "bridge" from Current Cost and can now see my domestic energy consumption on the web:

compelling. Maybe I have OCD?

[ARWadsworth]

But you are not going to turn a fridge or freezer off to save money.

And you are even less likely to turn a TV off halfway through a film to save a few pence on the elctricity bill.

[Dave Liquorice]

Same here I can't work out what is taking 300W when we are all in bed, asleep. I guess it must just be the cumulative effect of server, switch, modem, network drive, pabx, answering machine, alarm, couple of CFL lights etc. Still seems an awful lot though.

[pete]

[The Natural Philosopher]

But you might replace it.

I dunno..

[The Natural Philosopher]

thats probably what it is. I am nearer 500W..

[The Natural Philosopher]