With my EDF smart meter on monthly billing, there is an analysis page which says how much you used for hot water, heating, standby devices, cooking etc.
Given that we have no devices which report back to EDF, I assume that software somewhere analyses usage patterns and assigns usage to individual devices.
I now wonder how accurate they are.
Microwave and electric oven should be easy to spot. Central heating in the winter also. I wonder how accurate the rest are?
Cheers
Dave R
Hmm, given that they only get power drawn for every half hour interval I imagine that there’s quite a lot of guessing involved but I’m sure modern data analysis techniques can make those guesses pretty good.
Tim
Big brother is watching?
It's deliberately designs that way so it's not possible do fine grained analysis, as some of the second-by-second data can be sensitive (eg tell what model of oven you have by the way its thermostat works).
But with the half hourly data they can make some guesses:
- standby power is the lowest power consumption in the course of a 24h period
- heating is only used in the winter, and more strongly at certain times of day (eg in the evening). Or it's gas, so is easy to separate.
- cooking, likely a spike around 5-7pm, although that could also be heating
I don't think they can be too accurate, eg unless you tell them how do they know if your cooking is gas or electric? What if you have a gas hob and electric oven? etc etc
Theo
I’d say that they could be fairly accurate.
Once upon a time we had a device that not only displayed current consumption levels, using a cable clamp device as a sender on one of the meter tails, but which also recorded this data every few seconds. The data could be downloaded and displayed graphically.
Once it had been running for a week or so, it was fairly obvious from the graphs what appliance was being used, when it was being used, and for how long, and what the consumption was.
For example, it was quite easy to see what temperature the washing machine had been used at, and whether it was a 40, 50, or 60 degC wash. The oven had its own fingerprint, and the microwave and kettle was easy to see.
With this sort of data, coupled with patterns of usage, it would be quite straightforward to say how much electricity which appliance had used, and when.
The data was good enough to be able to show whether you were in or out in the evening.
And what is the point other than to show you something you almost certainly don't need to know (unless there's some heavy power consumption going on somewhere you don't know about. But then surely you'd notice it from the total consumption figure without the analysis)? Or is it to try to justify the cost of smart meters to all energy consumers - "Wow! Look what this can do and show you! How did you ever exist without it?".
Yes, but the power companies don’t get second by second data, just half hourly consumption so it’s not really comparable.
I still think though that they’ll be able to make some pretty good guesses.
Even with half hourly data it’s good enough to identify very small gas leaks. Somebody somewhere should be writing scripts to alert home owners if a leak is detected.
Tim
Well there is only guesswork. I think we can all walk around with the power monitor and turn off an on different things and see what they use. Older devices with wall warts can be surprisingly power hungry as they are seldom turned off, particularly older ones with transformers working at 50 hz and getting hot, like the brick that came with an older DAB radio. The problem is that switch mode ones tend to create RF interference if not designed correctly. Brian
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.