Airtricity energy monitor

clint_silver

Apologies if up already, Airtricity are giving a free energy monitor to you when you sign up as a new customer. Im already with them and chanced my arm 2 weeks ago, rang up and requested one. Courier delivery free to the door yesterday.

Hooked it up last night. Goes on the meter and tasty wireless remote set up in the kitchen. Within an hour Id found
1. My microwave costs me 4e a month to keep on standby
2. Its about 40 cents to boil a kettle, same to make toast.
3. My tv electrical usage doesnt seem to reduce or increase whether on standby or not. Neither does having the oven clock on.
4. My immersion timer was set wrong as I was just going to bed and seen the usage jump.

Anyway... someone may get some use out of it. At the very least youll get a new digital clock and thermometer in the kitchen.

EoghanConway

Think you might have miscalculated there. For example the average kettle will draw 3kW to boil water but will only do so for a few minutes, let's say 5 for a very full kettle, so that would be 3kW * cost per kWh (say ~17c) * (5 / 60mins) = 4.25c

clint_silver

EoghanConway wrote: »

Think you might have miscalculated there. For example the average kettle will draw 3kW to boil water but will only do so for a few minutes, let's say 5 for a very full kettle, so that would be 3kW * cost per kWh (say ~17c) * (5 / 60mins) = 4.25c

god damn, Im sending the energy monitor back. useless.

edit: when you turn on /off an applicance the monitor gives you a instant cost per day and month on how much that appliance cost you e.g. turning on the kettle might show UP: 12e per day. so divide by 24 and 60 to get a minute cost.

I think I worked out that the kettle cost 40c but must have missed a zero when totting in my head, 4c seems about right.

Kristopherus

But you must sign up for a min of 2yrs. They know they'll get the cost of it & more out of the punter;)

tommy21

clint_silver wrote: »

god damn, Im sending the energy monitor back. useless.

That's the least of your problems!

LordSutch

Make sure to enter the correct price per Kw/h, I think ours is something like 14.09, although I might be totally wrong, will check later.

Also, how do you isolate each appliance on the reading? what buttons do you press to find out how much juice your kettle uses for example?

clint_silver

Just to clarify Im with them about 18 months already and did nothing else but make a phone call to them to request it. I didnt have to sign up for any longer term.

clint_silver

LordSutch wrote: »

Make sure to enter the correct price per Kw/h, I think ours is something like 14.09, although I might be totally wrong, will check later.

Also, how do you isolate each appliance on the reading? what buttons do you press to find out how much juice your kettle uses for example?

It allows you to enter the price, airtricity have their rates published on the webside, I think I put in their standard rate of 17.97. If youre with them already you can check your account on their website to see exact rates. rates are independent of VAT and standard charges.

After you enter the price /kw, To isolate the applicance, its switch on and see, the reading on the energy monitor gives the house total usage in kw and how much it costs per month and day. Turn on or off the chosen appliance and note how much that appliance has affected the overall cost. Bit of maths and noting involved and I have a bit more to do to isolate everything.

I have used individual socket meter readers before but this one is very nice as you can turn off/on a bulb and directly see how it affects the cost.

NIMAN

Was thinking these calcs were wrong myself, thank God.

I would boil hundreds of kettles, toast hundreds of times, use the microwave, dryer, TV etc etc per bill, and its still around €100 - €110 per 2 months.

Soarer

What's the make and model of the meter?

Anyone know where you could buy something similar? Saw a presentation on one a few months back, and it was brilliant. It's used in connection with your computer.
You connect it to your mains, turn everything off. Then set it to receive and turn something on. It recognises the electrical signal of the appliance and stores it, which you then name in the software. You do this for all appliances, and then whole lot is monitored and stored. You can then see what's costing you what.
It was in a development stage, and they were hoping that they could link it to the elctricty suppliers so they could recommend a better price plan for the user.
They were also hoping that if your kettle was costing you so much, they could link you to another kettle (on Amazon or wherever) that's save you money on usage.

Very clever stuff.

themadchef

TBH all the meters in the world cant make up for cop on. I swear to God i watched someone boil a kettle once at least 3 or 4 times over the space of five minutes. About to make a cup of coffee and gossiping so hard you forget yourself :rolleyes:. so you keep hitting the boil button because it's not hot enough if it's not rolling in front of you. (and i eint talking about myself here ) Im the scab :pac: for going on about boiling it again and again and agian!!

Off topic heaven sorry.

Back to the meters. They will only be as good as the info you feed them, and as good as the person using them. Seriously. Just tighten up, switch off, and use less. Is it really that difficult? Oh and if you need a cup of water why boil a whole kettle full of water? That really wrecks my head! boil the minimum the kettle will allow safely. Not the max!

Free meter, go for it, wouldint sign my life away for two years for one though.

EoghanConway

Soarer, that sounds quite familiar, was it a spin out company from Oxford?

Edit: Think this is the one I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNA2KvXW1A

nukin_futs

Does the monitor itself use electricity? And is it possible to see how much? (without getting another monitor to monitor the monitor )

blossom180

clint_silver wrote: »

Apologies if up already, Airtricity are giving a free energy monitor to you when you sign up as a new customer. Im already with them and chanced my arm 2 weeks ago, rang up and requested one. Courier delivery free to the door yesterday.

Hooked it up last night. Goes on the meter and tasty wireless remote set up in the kitchen. Within an hour Id found
1. My microwave costs me 4e a month to keep on standby
2. Its about 40 cents to boil a kettle, same to make toast.
3. My tv electrical usage doesnt seem to reduce or increase whether on standby or not. Neither does having the oven clock on.
4. My immersion timer was set wrong as I was just going to bed and seen the usage jump.

Anyway... someone may get some use out of it. At the very least youll get a new digital clock and thermometer in the kitchen.

Any idea if showers cost much to run, my friends son stays in it for hours. her bills are very high we were thinking maybe the shower.

Do-more

Soarer wrote: »

Anyone know where you could buy something similar?

Here's one I've been considering but haven't purchased yet....

irishproduce

Rang em.
They want a 2 year contract in return for one.
I moved recently so thought that qualified me but it doesn't.

clint_silver

themadchef wrote: »

TBH all the meters in the world cant make up for cop on. I swear to God i watched someone boil a kettle once at least 3 or 4 times over the space of five minutes. About to make a cup of coffee and gossiping so hard you forget yourself :rolleyes:. so you keep hitting the boil button because it's not hot enough if it's not rolling in front of you. (and i eint talking about myself here ) Im the scab :pac: for going on about boiling it again and again and agian!!

Off topic heaven sorry.

Back to the meters. They will only be as good as the info you feed them, and as good as the person using them. Seriously. Just tighten up, switch off, and use less. Is it really that difficult? Oh and if you need a cup of water why boil a whole kettle full of water? That really wrecks my head! boil the minimum the kettle will allow safely. Not the max!

Free meter, go for it, wouldint sign my life away for two years for one though.

Just to clarify, the meter gets attached to the cable going into the endpoint of the live feed into the meter so if anything is used in the house, it captures it.

I'll get the make and model later on.

Yes, it uses power, and yes I had a chuckle to myself last night thinking how can I measure it.

clint_silver

blossom180 wrote: »

Any idea if showers cost much to run, my friends son stays in it for hours. her bills are very high we were thinking maybe the shower.

Depends on how its set up.
If you have you have hot water from your heating then you should have no extra cost on the water.
If you use the immersion to heat the water then that will be the cost, mine came on last night and it was pricey, I'll get the details tonight. again though, thats to heat the water in the tank, if your shower is water fed, theres no cost in actually supplying the water to the shower from the tank.
I have 2 showers in my house, 1 water fed and 1 pump. There would be a cost on the pump.

If its electric shower (e.g. triton t90), then you could nearly do the maths based on the wattage of the unit. I would guess these are pricey. Someone else may know the wattage of these units and work out how much 15 minutes usage would be. I think I read recently electric showers are around the 10kw usage. So if its nearly 18c per kw/hr. A 15 minute shower would be 18c divided by 4 for 15 minutes * 10kw would be about 45c per shower ex vat and charges.

I think. check your electric shower kw rating and also your cost of kw/hr which should be on your providors website.

unkel

clint_silver wrote: »

1. My microwave costs me 4e a month to keep on standby
2. Its about 40 cents to boil a kettle, same to make toast.
3. My tv electrical usage doesnt seem to reduce or increase whether on standby or not.

Haha, best throw that monitor in the bin so

Boiling a full kettle costs about 2 cent (3kw for 3 minutes). Making 2 slices of toast cost about 1 cent (1kw for 5 minutes). Microwaves don't use any energy while on "standby", tvs do and typically use about 3W so cost 2kwh per month (30 cent)

I didn't need an airtricity energy monitor for that. I didn't even need a calculator

To charge a smartphone from empty costs about one tenth of a cent. Did you read this Michael O'Leary?

Moon54

blossom180 wrote: »

Any idea if showers cost much to run, my friends son stays in it for hours. her bills are very high we were thinking maybe the shower.

More than likely it's a number of things that add up to a high bill.
Generally anything that involves heat or heating water will make up a major part of the bill.
Other heavy power use items in a normal house would be immersions, convector heaters, cookers, dryers etc.

Eg, the shower is probably a standard 9KW one, so using the approximate Kwh calculations from above,
it would probably be something like ~ €1.70 - €2 an hour to run, which sounds about right.

Perhaps a better way to assess your power usage would be to divide your total Electricity bill
by the number of days on the bill, usually 56 days or something.
That'll give you an approx €x/day cost.
Of course, summer-time bills will be a lot lower that winter-time ones,
but it may help to illustrate what is causing the high electricity bills.

dowtchaboy

The main culprits are any devices that create heat. Kettles and cookers obviously - though the kettle is usually only on for short periods so really you get great value (especially if you use one of the newer tall ones that are insulated, not the older metal ones).

The killer is often the tumble drier - on for ages, venting all its heat directly outside the house with the damp air, and if you have a teenager in the house who (a) has to wash a favourite pair of jeans every day, (b) throws their washing into the drier sopping wet and (c) doesn't pay the bills - this is serious cost! Getting them to hang clothes outside on a line, if only to get them to the sorta damp stage, before tumble drying helps a lot.

The newer washing machines with the low temperature washes, and the low-temp washing powders/liquids, does help.

Halogen lights are heavy on electricity too, alas, and some of the dimmer systems waste as much in the dimmer as gets out in the lights! The new CFL's are amazingly low on power consumption - pity the light is so hard on the eyes and slow to get to full brightness.

The power used in phone chargers is just so low it's really irrelevant - one minute less of a tumbledrier in a year would probably pay for it!

clint_silver

unkel wrote: »

Haha, best throw that monitor in the bin so

Boiling a full kettle costs about 2 cent (3kw for 3 minutes). Making 2 slices of toast cost about 1 cent (1kw for 5 minutes). Microwaves don't use any energy while on "standby", tvs do and typically use about 3W so cost 2kwh per month (30 cent)

I didn't need an airtricity energy monitor for that. I didn't even need a calculator

To charge a smartphone from empty costs about one tenth of a cent. Did you read this Michael O'Leary?

we set up the monitor in the kitchen and jsut did trial and error on everything. the total monthly usage went up by 4e by turning on the power on the microwave (switch on the socket) , and down by 4e when I switched it off again. Obviously jumped massively if we used the microwave. I'll investigate this.
Doing the same to the tv didnt affect the thing at all which I was amazed at, unless the power consumption was so low it didnt affect it.
I worked out the price of a kettle boil and a toast from the increase, deffo did it wrong.

anyway, just to re-iterate, this is really only a bargain if youre ALREADY on airtricity.

Daibheid

Kristopherus wrote: »

But you must sign up for a min of 2yrs. They know they'll get the cost of it & more out of the punter;)

Not true - I just rang Customer service and asked for it over the phone. No problem and I'm just out of a deal with them so no long term contract and an apparent gesture of good faith on their part.
BTW there's no equivalent for the gas meter.

ted1

A magpie meter would work on gas, but you'll only get a m3 reading.

jmorrisey

ted1 wrote: »

A magpie meter would work on gas, but you'll only get a m3 reading.

dont need one of them. Theres two magpies in the garden the whole time stealin the bread crumbs i leave out for the small birds. Do airtricity do pellet guns

Michael_Myers

The monitor is very crude and is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

It is also illegal to attach any device to the ESB's wiring in the cabinet. The ESB will remove any illegal devices that they find attached....

dodzy

Michael_Myers wrote: »

The monitor is very crude and is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

It is also illegal to attach any device to the ESB's wiring in the cabinet. The ESB will remove any illegal devices that they find attached....

they'll most likely be stroked before the meter readers come along due to the number of open / missing meter doors ( in D15 at least ).

If you are getting one, place the transmitter close to the consumer unit with the clamp inside the housing ( get a sparks if you are in any doubt ).

Have one myself ( the owl monitor ). Does what it says on the tin, but as a previous poster has stated, you cant beat common sense. If you have any idea of figures, you will have a good idea what the meter is going to throw at you as you turn on and off various devices in the home.

If, like me, you have a home full of Gu10 spots, and i dont mean the LED range, and a couple of kids who dont know how to turn a light switch off, you would be surprised what they alone cost over a 2 mth period

wil

Do-more wrote: »

Here's one I've been considering but haven't purchased yet....

The CM119 is available in some te$c0s. Shelf price 30, scan 60, so with a little bit of mental arithmatic, that makes a sum total of 60 - 2 x (60 - 30) which makes it a very viable bit of tech indeed. Moral of story, check the SEL first and purchase accordingly:D

Do-more

wil wrote: »

The CM119 is available in some te$c0s. Shelf price 30, scan 60, so with a little bit of mental arithmatic, that makes a sum total of 60 - 2 x (60 - 30) which makes it a very viable bit of tech indeed. Moral of story, check the SEL first and purchase accordingly:D

I've put your post into Google translate, but I'm afraid I still can't figure out what it means!

quenching

Do-more wrote: »

I've put your post into Google translate, but I'm afraid I still can't figure out what it means!

Tesco will refund double the difference if they charge more at the till than is displayed on the shelf. So, if the price label says €30 and you're charged €60 they should give you back €60 if you bring the receipt to the customer services desk! Haven't seen them in any Tesco shops near me though.

dodzy

wil wrote: »

The CM119 is available in some te$c0s. Shelf price 30, scan 60, so with a little bit of mental arithmatic, that makes a sum total of 60 - 2 x (60 - 30) which makes it a very viable bit of tech indeed. Moral of story, check the SEL first and purchase accordingly:D

Hey wil, if you are near a store, will you pick me up one? I'll pm you my paypal details and you can transfer that €1740 when you get a chance