How would you clamp meter a ring main ??

[Murdochcat]

To monitor electric usage. I rent 3 rooms in my place & its nice to keep an eye on whos using watt, "Sorry what" Problem with many of company's that do the software dont seem to realize many country's have off peak tariffs & it would be nice if they could build into their programs "lets say 3 tariffs" so you can say my electric @ 6am to 12 mid-day cost 0.22p pkwh & from 12-2pm cost 0.07p from 2-12pm cost 0.22p & 12m/night to 6am 0.07p only because many in the UK are going off peak to charge EV's & house battery's & not forgetting hot water.

I don’t think you’ll ever get proper consumption figures unless you have a rewire and set up each room as a unique circuit (s).

Also unless you do this as above, and challenge people about their usage they will ask you to produce proof, which you won’t be able to do

 

[ebee]

Indeed - so called "monitoring" is only as accurate as what you are monitoring with, if we (take a figure out of the air) say +/- 10% might be appropriate at best then yes it might give us a usefull feel for things but probably not much more that that, on a good day.

 

[Collectors]

Well how do you monitor individual bedrooms by clamping a ring final ?

There’s a lot overthinking going on with energy monitoring in general .

Keep the place warm and tell them no electric heaters and 5 minutes in the shower max

Just by luck the three bedrooms i rent are on seperate rings & many lodger dont listen. lol. Its in there contract to have no heaters or cooking appliances in the rooms. I took out the 10kw electric shower & 2 pumps & upgraded to a pressurized hot waster set up on off peak. way cheaper than the gas boiler. Around £7-8.00 per month for hot water for 4 of us. Gas/lpg was around £25-30pm. Its also nice to see if the lodgers have left anything switched on or any unusual usage.

 

[Murdochcat]

Just by luck the three bedrooms i rent are on seperate rings & many lodger dont listen. lol. Its in there contract to have no heaters or cooking appliances in the rooms. I took out the 10kw electric shower & 2 pumps & upgraded to a pressurized hot waster set up on off peak. way cheaper than the gas boiler. Around £7-8.00 per month for hot water for 4 of us. Gas/lpg was around £25-30pm. Its also nice to see if the lodgers have left anything switched on or any unusual usage.

So you need a spark to investigate fitting individual meters adjacent to the CU. That could be done

 

[mikehammer69]

Just by luck the three bedrooms i rent are on seperate rings & many lodger dont listen. lol. Its in there contract to have no heaters or cooking appliances in the rooms. I took out the 10kw electric shower & 2 pumps & upgraded to a pressurized hot waster set up on off peak. way cheaper than the gas boiler. Around £7-8.00 per month for hot water for 4 of us. Gas/lpg was around £25-30pm. It’s also nice to see if the lodgers have left anything switched on or any unusual usage.

Well in that case wouldn’t energy metering on each ring be better than a clamp

Build it into the rent whatever way

 

[SUNRAY]

So you need a spark to investigate fitting individual meters adjacent to the CU. That could be done

Indeed.
Some years ago a friend rented 2 rooms out to students (£40 /week near Lewisham).

In time for the second years intake I de-ringed the upstairs circuit so those rooms were on (15 or 20A?) radials and fitted 2 certified meters (from Exchange and Mart but collected from Fluorescent and Electrical in Queens Road Peckham) above the CU under the stairs, she specified a monthly free amount and above that had to pay the same rate she paid LEB.

It's amazing how quickly Uni students learn to switch things off in their second month

 

[mikehammer69]

When I was in student campus accommodation in US im sure i recall they had circa 5A breakers on the rooms

So that would be 550w+

Could be wrong but I seem to remember remarking on it

 

[Collectors]

When I was in student campus accommodation in US im sure i recall they had circa 5A breakers on the rooms

So that would be 550w+

Could be wrong but I seem to remember remarking on it

Oddly enough we fitted 13a sockets on the landings of rented flats & all of these had 6A mcb's on them. Just enough for the cleaners hover. Its surprising how many times they got tripped. The cleaner learnt how to reset the fuse in a locked cuboard in the hallway where she kept her cleaning gear.

 

[Collectors]

Well in that case wouldn’t energy metering on each ring be better than a clamp

Build it into the rent whatever way


View attachment 421490

Was looking at similar ones.

 

[ebee]

LOL - if you attract a premium in their pockets and/nuisance trips likely over a certain threshold they learn to be more frugal in line with past generations had it drummed into every action the took (sometimes to ridiclous extents too) , it can be quite strking to note those if we compare ourselves to our parents the to grand parents and then to our children, there is often a very striking difference looking 4 or 5 spaces up/down the scale, even more marked than relative wealths of peers.
Labour used to be very cheap and materials very expensive the further we go back in history and people tend to get a sort of norm about their own values and then look forward/backward and see differences.

 

[mikehammer69]

Was looking at similar ones.

Yes they appear to be another daft gadget imo for the reasons i outlined below

Except for the modular load monitoring which is a better practice than the clamping of wires in board etc

I can see the energy monitoring use rather than messy clamping

Seems only over-voltage protection not under , hmm

Remote control of circuits - No mostly and not a sound electrical practice

Overload etc. No. A dedicated DB should always do that

 

[Murdochcat]

Seems the OP isn’t interested in sensible , easy to install, reliable solutions

 

[mikehammer69]

P

Well in that case wouldn’t energy metering on each ring be better than a clamp

Build it into the rent whatever way


View attachment 421490

I'm just after realizing now that the monitors measure usage the same as the dedicated meters . Probably cos I'm not familiar with them

How accurate would the clamp and inline type monitor be compared to the dedicated meter above

Presumably not much difference