Dont need to. JUST see what the alternative ways of making porridge takes electricity wise to make a single meal of porridge. The only time that is harder to do is if you use the stove hob to make porridge and even then it isnt much harder to turn everything except the stove off and read the house meter before and after you make one serve of porridge.
Smart PLUG, not meter. A smart plug plugs in ONE socket and meters the consumption of ONE device. I’d agree that smart meters are no use for monitoring individual devices.
Which is why I was referring to a PLUG as the OP was asking about a plug-in usage meter.
He can do what he likes with a smart plug. Why would he compare it with his freezer though? He wants to compare it with other methods of cooking porridge. Pretty pointless IMO as it’s gonna be so low as to be pretty inconsequential in the big scheme of things.
I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. A clamp meter is great for measure load in real time, but will it measure consumption over 24 hrs say? Many appliances power consumption varies over time. An instant “snapshot” isn’t helpful to tell you the difference between a regular 40 degree wash and a quick 30 degree one say or how much power your fridges uses in a day.
That's nice - the open-source Tasmota firmware gives you a proper website on the device, and it will speak MQTT. None of this installing an outdated app to talk to their cloud server in China which breaks half the time.
Some of the similar ones on Amazon can be converted to Tasmota but they have started locking them down, so it's nice to be able to buy them preflashed.
I take it all back then! Didn’t realise clamp meters had that kind of functionality built in. Just out of interest, how much do you have to pay to have all that functionality?
I don't think it makes any difference, even if you use medium oatmeal instead of rolled oats. (I still get the oatmeal ready the night before so I can turn the hob on as soon as I get up as it takes 20 minutes of simmering to cook.)
The cooking time is the same, at 5 minutes for rolled oats, but on the hob that doesn't include the time taken to bring it to a boil; also you have to stir it more.
Stupid question, but is that a clamp meter at the consumer unit, or at the appliance? If the latter, how are you clamping it - are you separating the live and neutral conductors so you can clamp only one of them?
Or is it at the CU and the above are calculations based on subtracting what you assume your 'baseload' is?
You clamp it onto one of the two incoming conductors live or neutral it shouldn't matter which unless you have a huge earth leakage fault.
You don't have to guess about your base load. You switch the device being tested on and off and see how much the reading changes by.
The only fly in the ointment is if the freezer or boiler decides to fire up whilst you are taking the measurement. Anything that is making a serious contribution to power consumption is easily seen above the noise. Reducing your base load is well worth doing. Mine is now 70W.
That includes the emergency lights, alarm, kitchen white goods, various kit in standby and the ONT and router and smart devices all running.
In round numbers a continuous 1W load 24/7 is about 10kWh/year = £3.40 (at the present price cap for electricity)
Finding one ancient old wall wart lurking down the back of the settee may save you as much as 10W. Likewise checking that the TV really does a proper low power standby and isn't running the TDTV tuner continuously (many earlier sets did this by default).
Sounds systems for PCs are notoriously bad for power consumption. Mine has a power led which goes on and off when you switch it off but the thing consumes about the same amount of power on *or* off. It doesn't power down it merely disconnects the audio inputs and the "on" LED! (the switch isn't mains rated)
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