Wireless Energy Monitors

[LSainsbury]

Afternoon,

Simple question - Wireless Energy Monitors - anybody here got one?

If so - which one and are they any good?

I know most of them you have to clamp the sensor around the cable in the electric meter / box - but ours is on the outside of the house so I'm not sure if that would work??

Cheers

Lee

[AbyssUnderground]

Afternoon,

Simple question - Wireless Energy Monitors - anybody here got one?

If so - which one and are they any good?

I know most of them you have to clamp the sensor around the cable in the electric meter / box - but ours is on the outside of the house so I'm not sure if that would work??

Cheers

Lee

My friend got one from Maplin electronics, no idea what make but his parents find it very useful. Their electric box is also outside and it works just fine. It doesn't matter where it is, as long as you can clamp the transmitter around the cable.

My friends shows many displays, such as:
- Watts usage (live display)
- Pence/hr at current usage (based on cost you enter)
- kWh over day/week/month/forever
- Peak usage
- Average usage

etc etc.

Cost him £20 or £40 (not sure which) half price at the time I believe. They are expensive but worth it if you want to try and save money by reducing your usage.

[Taf]

Some companies (eg E-on) are trailing them at the moment, and you can buy one direct from them now. HMG wants us all to have one at some point (present financial crisis notwithstanding).

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

They are expensive but worth it if you want to try and save money by reducing your usage.

Doesnt just turning things off do that, how is a meter going to help

[AbyssUnderground]

Doesnt just turning things off do that, how is a meter going to help

The meter tells you your current usage, and your average usage and how much its cost you. It shows you the real-life representation of the costs of leaving a tv on standby for example.

I posted in another topic that in our house we leave the dvd, sky, tv, microwave, washer, pc, all on standby. That came to about 38watts 24/7. Which works out at 15p/day wasted. Thats £53/year just leaving those things on standby when a few extra seconds could be spent turning them off at the socket.

I even just bought a new server (needed one anyway) which uses under 1/2 the power of the old one (75w not 165w). Those savings do add up over time, and it doesn't have to be something big, even a phone charger being unplugged saves about 2p/day for the very inefficient ones.

[TheNorm]

... are they any good?...

There are some good reviews on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eco-Eye-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor-Friendly/dp/B001AENRPA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1228142602&sr=8-1