What is a good reading on your energy monitor?

[festive]

Ok i know i know how long is a piece of string?

Currently i have a PC and a monitor on, living in a 4bed detached house without 3 other tvs on standby, and a CCTV system running apart from that not much, maybe a few phone chargers and transformers etc.
OK long n short current draw of 3amps. What would you expect your house to be consuming on a relative 'idle'

TIA.

 

[Jackrae]

5 watts - front door bell
200 watts if CH is running

 

[Iggifer]

That's pretty decent. Even on a pretty average cost per kW/h you're spending 10p an hour. I'd be happy with that.

They few times I've put my clamp meter round tails, it's been between 3-5A. Have another look when you've added some lighting to the equation later. Unless you've got lots of LEDs, you'll see that shoot up.

 

[endecotp]

Currently i have a PC and a monitor on, living in a 4bed detached house without 3 other tvs on standby, and a CCTV system running apart from that not much, maybe a few phone chargers and transformers etc.
OK long n short current draw of 3amps.

750W sounds too much for what you've listed. That's £75 per month ish.
One issue is that 3A doesn't necessarily mean 750W as the monitor doesn't know the phase of the current relative to the voltage. Even so, 3A still sounds a lot to me.
Time to go around unplugging things (or turning off MCBs) and see what happens.

 

[festive]

Thanks to all of you so far for your input now house is quiet going to go round cutting see what is consuming, my thoughts also (now 3.7) seems alot for a pretty much idle house.

 

[JohnD]

With low-energy lighting and a couple of large, modern fridge freezers, plus PC, TV and stuff on standby, my house uses about 350w average, until you turn on something with a heating element, like washer, drier, dishwasher, fan heater, kettle.

So less than 2A.

Any of the heating appliances uses in the region of 2000W to 3000W each, so are the only things worth worrying about.

If I turned all the lights on, they use only about 250W the lot (are mostly CFLs, the latest generation of LEDs use less).

If you have filament bulbs (incandescent lights) you are wasting a lot more.

My old fridges and freezers used a lot more, I actually saw the electricity bill go down noticeably when they were replaced.

 

[Jackrae]

5 watts - front door bell
200 watts if CH is running

I wasn't being serious - just giving a silly answer to the "how long is a piece of string"
I'm not proud but my annual consumption is around 6500kWh per year which works out at a daily average current of around 3 amps and that's in a large house.

 

[endecotp]

something with a heating element, like washer, drier, dishwasher, fan heater, kettle.
....
uses in the region of 2000W to 3000W each, so are the only things worth worrying about.

No, they're not the only things worth worrying about in this case: he appears to have a continuous load of 750W. That's as expensive as a 3 kW load that's on for 6 hours per day. Washing machines, kettles, ovens etc. and even an electric shower with typical usage will cost less than that.

Will be interesting to hear what he works out!

 

[JohnD]

In my house only the heating appliances are worth worrying about.

could it be energy-hogging lightbulbs?

Hopefully he doesn't have downlighters and spots.

Or an old freezer.

I just checked, my average Summertime usage dropped by 5kWh/day when I scrapped two old fridges and one old freezer, and replaced them with two large modern FFs.

 

[big-all]

i use between 5 and 7 units a day so average5.32876 a day [1945 a year]
0.222 units per hour

 

[endecotp]

i use between 5 and 7 amps a day so average5.32876 a day [1945 a year]
0.222 amps per hour

Yeah, and I use 240 volts per day which is 10 volts per hour. Slightly more than one PP3 battery.

 

[big-all]

i corrected to units on the origional

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ok i know i know how long is a piece of string?

As long as it needs to be.

Currently i have a PC and a monitor on, living in a 4bed detached house without 3 other tvs on standby, and a CCTV system running apart from that not much, maybe a few phone chargers and transformers etc.
OK long n short current draw of 3amps. What would you expect your house to be consuming on a relative 'idle'

Whatever it needs to be.

It really is so simple: Always turn off what you don't need. Then by definition the electricity you are using is what you need to be using, and it is what it is.

BTW - those monitors which clamp around the meter tails are desperately inaccurate at low currents.

 

[magicmushroom666]

My place is around 150W with everything off, ie when we are out. Obviously plenty of gear in standby, internet router etc still on.

 

[ericmark]

I was given a meter by Scottish Power now with flat batteries and I also have a plug in meter. In early days I went around testing things. However soon realised there was no point as knowing it uses XkWh does not change if used or not. Well one exception, when I realised how little was saved having Sky box in stand-by I set it not to go into stand-by mode.

There is the odd time you can locate faults using an energy meter. I did find a faulty thermostat on my mothers freezer and also faulty insulation on my freezer. But to find it you have to know what to expect in the first place. The general unit that does the whole house is just a waste of batteries in the RF current transformer as it is very unlikely you will work out what is using excess power.

Most items have it written on them 2.8 KW for example with a kettle so no need for meters just a pair of glasses. It is items which switch themselves on and off which require a meter able to measure how much is used over a given time. So my beer brewing heater uses 5Wh and the heater is 18W so I know it is big enough for the job. If the heater was only 6W then cold spell could mean beer under temperature.

But although one can plug the washing machine in and work out how much it costs to wash 4 pairs of overalls what is the point? Your not going to go to a shop with 4 pairs of overalls and say can I see a demo on how much it costs to wash these in the new super machine.