Energy Monitor Location/Suitability

[ellal]

I'm thinking about getting my parents an Owl energy monitor as they are concerned about their bills, but was wondering where the sensor clip should be fitted so that it will monitor all usage.

Is it where the blue arrow points, or should it be where the green arrow points? Or somewhere else?

View media item 70037
Has anyone experience of these monitors and are they accurate enough to be useful?

cheers

 

[AndyPRK]

A picture further down would be good.

So they have economy 7 and heaters?

Where is the timer? Are they set correctly

 

[Lectrician]

Blue or green woud be fine. I assume there is NO storage heating? Just dual tariff? I can't see any 'switched' output to an off peak board?

 

[ellal]

The feed to the main fuse is a heavily shrouded cable. I can try and take a photo later, but as you can see its a bit restricted space wise.

No economy 7 heaters - just low/normal white meter for night time/daytime billing.

 

[Lectrician]

Either of your arrows is fine then.

Are they on a dual rate tariff then? Likely cheaper to go for a single tariff if there is little night usage.

 

[viewer]

The Amazon reviews are worth a look

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B001JJCLS0/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

especially the one by lindosland

 

[winston1]

I'm thinking about getting my parents an Owl energy monitor as they are concerned about their bills, but was wondering where the sensor clip should be fitted so that it will monitor all usage.

Is it where the blue arrow points, or should it be where the green arrow points? Or somewhere else?

View media item 70037
Has anyone experience of these monitors and are they accurate enough to be useful?

cheers

No they are not accurate at all. All they measure is current and display watts by assuming a constant voltage and unity power factor. Mains voltage actually varies throughout the day and the power factor is far from unity on devices such as freezers and any motorised devices. In general these energy monitors read high. I'm surprised trading standards have not thrown the book at them.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm thinking about getting my parents an Owl energy monitor as they are concerned about their bills

Just get into the habit of turning off anything not needed, don't fill the kettle when you only want 2 mugs etc.

Knowing that your tumble drier costs 35p an hour to run doesn't help you save money if you need to use your tumble drier.

 

[Vicario]

When I saw how much my halogens were using (on the Owl screen) I quickly switched them to low-energy ones. And they do become a bit of an obsession after a while - the electric shower uses 20A on the low setting and 39A on high, so we try to use the lower one. But BAS is right that it's really common sense. Can't hurt for people to see what they're using though. Some providers will supply these at cost price, I think.

 

[phatboy]

I have one, but am not using the cost per unit features, just as a live display of watts being consumed. I find it very helpful, i look at it, notice its higher than expected so go and find whats been left on (usually by the OH!).

It also showed me items that were using a lot of energy, particularly the many halogen GU10 fittings, so they have all been replaced with LED.

Worth while I think....

 

[jamesmcbride]

I use a current cost, which allows you to connect it to the internet to monitor the usage throughout the day - it also measures temperature and can do gas usage, which is nice although I've not got the bits to do gas yet.

My father has one too to measure his PV generation and usage.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Quite honestly it beggars belief that anybody would need a monitor to tell them that halogen GU10s consume a lot of power.

 

[ellal]

Quite honestly it beggars belief that anybody would need a monitor to tell them that halogen GU10s consume a lot of power.

To people well into their eighties, often 'a light is just a light'...

Hence why I thought a visual device might show them where the energy is being used rather than going into the vagaries of ohms law!

It seems that whilst the accuracy of the device is in question, it may be a useful reference tool (relatively speaking).

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Vicario]

Why would someone necessarily know that a halogen bulb consumes more electricity than a conventional one? It doesn't beggar belief at all.

 

[phatboy]

I wouldn't bother feeding the troll to be honest.