Gadget for measuring Home Electricity Use??

lanod2407

Hi

I've seen a coupl of TV progs where people have gadgets that display the current (excuse the pun!) electricity usage in one's home. Have googled a bit but cannot find anything similar ............ can anyone point me in the right direction, and advise if they're beneficial?
Am encountering a major problem ....... kids entering teenage years and electricity and other power / utility bills increasing exponentially!

All help appreciated -

tipperary

Hi

I recently picked up a meter in maplin for about €15. You plug it into the wall, and then plug the appliance into it and it tells you how much power it is using.

pete6296

I got one a few weeks ago, its an OWL with wireless transmitter thats connected to the live in the meter cabinet. Great tool or accessing current usage, got it on ebay for 50 euro

lanod2407 wrote: »

Hi

I've seen a coupl of TV progs where people have gadgets that display the current (excuse the pun!) electricity usage in one's home. Have googled a bit but cannot find anything similar ............ can anyone point me in the right direction, and advise if they're beneficial?
Am encountering a major problem ....... kids entering teenage years and electricity and other power / utility bills increasing exponentially!

All help appreciated -

lanod2407

Pete6296 ........ thanks a million - just ordered one!
As the gas ad across the water used to say - "now I'm in control!" Life will never be the same again!

lanod2407

OWL received and installed - fantastic device. Highly recommended - there are a few others on the market also, some of which can store usage history in memory, so shop around for the one that has the required functionality.

Another question - can anyone direct me towards a product that boils water on demand to the exact amount required. Again, it's been seen on tv as a sort of tap-like device that boils and pours water to the exact amount required at the touch of a button .... i.e. press the button and boiling water pours until you've enough.

mneylon

I've been looking at the meters that hook into the ESB meter. My problem is that the meter isn't in the house. It's in a box outside the front door.

lanod2407

blacknight

The OWL has a 'sensor' that is placed in the ESB box and connected to the live feed, or can be connected to the feed into the fuse board, whichever is accessible.
When I say 'connected' I mean that it's simply clipped around the outside of the wire. Google it and you'll find pics - I bought one on ebay and the seller had a copy of the documentation on a pdf file on the web

Mine is clipped to the live feed in the outside box. The 'sensor' then sends a wireless signal (up to 30m I think) to the display unit that can be mounted on a wall or simply carried around the house. Both are battery powered using standard AAA or AA batteries - can never remember which is which!

I got a local spark to fit mine - for no other reason than my relentless fear of getting a whack of juice! It's really simple - but I wouldn't recommend messing with wiring in the aforementioned locations! (Added the last bit for fear that a moderator might scold me for reckless abandon!!!:eek:)

Patrickof

I looked into the OWL, couldn't find it on ebay.

It's sterling 29.95 including p&p from their website, but they won't ship to Ireland.

Their Irish distributor is charging Eur 69.95 for it here. Rip off or what.

muffler

Moved to the electrical forum

lanod2407

Patrickof

Sent you a PM with the ebay address for an OWL for sale from the UK.

You may also want to google something like "electricity monitor" to find other similar products. I found the site that will not ship outside the UK, but I usually find the product on those sites, and then ebay them to get them cheaper / from someone who'll ship to Ireland.

There are many other products - the OWL is great, but there are others that will, for example, also save historical energy usage if you want that level of detail / information.

I've a ten year old whose taken the OWL as his latest toy - goes around the house turning off lights and electricals like a man on a mission .............. ran up the stairs at the weekend demanding who was using €1.00 per hour and demanding it be switched off ............ his 17 year old brother using the pumped electric shower .......... there was only ever going to be one winner there!!!!!

Hope this is of help - if you leave out the ramblings of a demented father at the end!

byte

Looks intriguing. Might be worth an investment!

Any hint on a gadget similar to the OWL, but with historical logs that you mention?

byte

lanod2407 wrote: »

OWL received and installed - fantastic device. Highly recommended - there are a few others on the market also, some of which can store usage history in memory, so shop around for the one that has the required functionality.

Another question - can anyone direct me towards a product that boils water on demand to the exact amount required. Again, it's been seen on tv as a sort of tap-like device that boils and pours water to the exact amount required at the touch of a button .... i.e. press the button and boiling water pours until you've enough.

The water boiler you mention is the Tefal QuickCup...
http://www.tefal.co.uk/tefal/products/product/index.asp?category%5Fid=400&dept%5Fid=430&sku=U00444&mscssid=15ABVW9E8W8B8JFD66EP1BU9WJTABPC0
www.quickcup.co.uk (needs broadband connection)

BigglesMcGee

http://cgi.ebay.ie/The-Owl-Energy-Monitor-Brand-New_W0QQitemZ260237642663QQihZ016QQcategoryZ106260QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Andrea B.

Their Irish distributor is charging Eur 69.95 for it here. Rip off or what.

Only by €9 when compared to the Ebay link above when you include shipping.

Either way just bought from Ebay, as I reckon payback will be worth it in relation to transparency of cost of running hairdryer etc

Andrea B.

The water boiler you mention is the Tefal QuickCup...
http://www.tefal.co.uk/tefal/product...EP1BU9WJTABPC0
www.quickcup.co.uk (needs broadband connection)

Typical. You'ld probably have to wait 10 minutes for a cup using dial-up:D

Patrickof

lanod2407 wrote: »

Patrickof

Sent you a PM with the ebay address for an OWL for sale from the UK.

You may also want to google something like "electricity monitor" to find other similar products. I found the site that will not ship outside the UK, but I usually find the product on those sites, and then ebay them to get them cheaper / from someone who'll ship to Ireland.

There are many other products - the OWL is great, but there are others that will, for example, also save historical energy usage if you want that level of detail / information.

I've a ten year old whose taken the OWL as his latest toy - goes around the house turning off lights and electricals like a man on a mission .............. ran up the stairs at the weekend demanding who was using €1.00 per hour and demanding it be switched off ............ his 17 year old brother using the pumped electric shower .......... there was only ever going to be one winner there!!!!!

Hope this is of help - if you leave out the ramblings of a demented father at the end!

Thanks, I googled a web page that compared the four main ones on the market and went for the efergy model via an ebay shop. Works out at about £38 inc shipping. I can imagine our daughter now doing the same!!!!

lanod2407

Byte

The efergy has ability to store historical usage - I think energy-monitor.co.uk has a list of different items - they don't ship to Ireland .... that's what ebay is for!!

byte

I think it's electricity-monitor.com you're thinking of, as that link is a site in progress!

Anyway, despite the efergy having a less-informative display, its historic data could be useful. thanks.

byte

Patrickof wrote: »

Thanks, I googled a web page that compared the four main ones on the market and went for the efergy model via an ebay shop. Works out at about £38 inc shipping. I can imagine our daughter now doing the same!!!!

Can you mention the eBay Shop? Searching efergy in eBay gave one result, the same seller selling the OWL. £15 delivery is quite expensive.

BigglesMcGee

Got my OWL today and tested it out.

And speaking as someone with a backround in electronics and physics its not entirely accurate at all.

Its good to show you if your consumption goes up or down, but not very accurate at measuring this.

fishdog

its not entirely accurate at all.

Why do you say that??
(I have not seen one yet)

byte

fishdog wrote: »

Why do you say that??
(I have not seen one yet)

Yeah, I've read somewhere else (can't find link now) about the sometimes poor accuracy. Apparently, it can stray maybe 20 -30% off the true mark, due to how some appliances may work or something.

That said, it's only to be used as a guide anyway, not the true cost. I'd expect it would need to be wired in directly to the supply to give true accurate readings, and probably be far more expensive.

BigglesMcGee

Im not saying its completely useless but it isnt accurate enough to be used as a measure of your consumption.
Just use it to see if you have high or low consumtion really Or if turning off a particular item makes a big difference in the consumption.

One thing it did show me was that about 0.5 KW would easily run my house during the sleeping hours. So if i got solar that could pass back about 0.5KWh to the grid during the day, like they can in the UK (if we ever get it here), then this would more than cover my night time use.


Try a few experiments with the OWL. I did a lot of different experiments involving measuring devices that i have at home.

But you can do simple tests, like

switch off all the trips
Only turn on the light circuit and make sure all lights are off.
Make sure the meter reads zero at this point and is on the 6 second cycle. And have the display on Kw.

Then start switching on lights that you know the wattage of. Old tungsten bulbs are best for this test.

You can then see the OWL meter moving upwards but with varying amounts. It should only increase or decrease by the amount that the particular lights wattages add up to.

You can turn on the same amount of lights several times and you will get different values on the Owl.

Andrea B.

You can turn on the same amount of lights several times and you will get different values on the Owl.

Just fitted mine last might and am delighted with it as it will create awareness elsewhere in the house;).

On an accuracy front I think that that is going to be affected by any deviations/fluctuations in mains voltage which is out of our control. The unit bases it's voltage for calcs on what we have input (Eg 230v) and the CT reading from the cabinet. If we get voltage fluctuations, it cannot compensate.

A handy little item IMO and will be interesting to see what next generation of them brings.

sesswhat

byte wrote: »

Yeah, I've read somewhere else (can't find link now) about the sometimes poor accuracy. Apparently, it can stray maybe 20 -30% off the true mark, due to how some appliances may work or something.

That said, it's only to be used as a guide anyway, not the true cost. I'd expect it would need to be wired in directly to the supply to give true accurate readings, and probably be far more expensive.

Like the one everyone already has in their property. As you say, accuracy is not really the point. If it was, all you would need would be a watch, pen and paper.

What people want is an amusing gadget to play with for a couple of days before it goes to live with the old mobile phone chargers. It might raise some awareness but I don't think many of us have the patience to change our habits very much.

Andrea B.

What people want is an amusing gadget to play with for a couple of days before it goes to live with the old mobile phone chargers. It might raise some awareness but I don't think many of us have the patience to change our habits very much.

Not really, I now notice that at 75cents /ph (approximately ) electric shower is not being turned on before kids are undressed and at 25cents /ph the kettle is consciously being filled with only what's needed.

It may get packed away with SodaStream and FootSpa later, but I really feel that this one has paid for itself.

lanod2407

I'm with Andrea B - ours has been in place for several weeks now and is located in the kitchen - the hub of a house with 4 kids.
Gets referred to regularly by parents and younger kids - a lot of lights and other items getting switched off, and kettles, etc being boiled only as required. Teenagers contemptuously ignoring it - I guess that's par for the course!

Regarding accuracy - I'm sure it's not spot on, but when the 2kw kettle gets switched on it jumps by 30 cent per hour - 2 units @ 15 cent inc VAT. And it does baseline @ circa 0.5kw/hr - the fridge and freezer units I guess.

Overall a good investment - pity I'm not getting sponsorship from OWL 'cos so many of my mates say 'wow, must get one of those' ........... "blokes and their gadgets"!

bornacoola

Does anyone have a way to set the owl up to show cents per hour. I got mine from the UK a few days ago and it only shows how to set up for UK prices.

Or am I missing something?

Thanks,

bornacoola

Davy

These will show you how to set it up: [Link] Scroll to page5