This blog post is a little off topic I know, but with the ever increasing costs of energy this may be found to be interesating to some.
We recently changed our domestic electricity supplier to EON and with this transition, the nice people sent us an Eaga Energy Monitor from Carillion to help us understand our electricity consumptions and costs.
Benefits
- Typically saves around £25 on your electricity bills.
- Gives you the power to understand your energy consumption, as it happens.
- Know what to expect when your bill arrives.
- Save money and do your bit for the environment by understanding what changes you can make.
- Could save nearly one tonne of CO2.
The Carillion Energy Services Energy Monitor provides prompt, convenient feedback on electrical usage in the house, cost of energy used and estimates of greenhouse gas emissions. By providing real time feedback, the Carillion Energy Services Energy Monitor supports behavioral changes that reduce energy consumption in the home.
So whats included?
- A Sensor
Consists of a sensor that is clamped around the Live line that feed into the consumer unit. This should ideally be the line straight from the electric meter. You need no tools, or even electrician, but care should be taken so as not to electrocute yourself. - A Transmitter
Powered by 3 AA batteries, supplied in the kit, this has the sensor connected to it and wirelessly connects to a paired controller. - A Controller
This is a multi display unit showing data such as cost per hour, watts per hour and CO2 calculations.
The Test
Before I started testing, I took a base line reading as a reference. This basically consisted of making sure the majority of appliances were off or in standby mode, the only major appliance that was left on was our Samsung American style Fridge/Freezer unit, even televisions, PC's and lights were turned off.
So with this base test, the display showed that we were consuming £0.03 per hour or 190W. With so little powered on, I will put this down to the Fridge/Freezer being on, I am yet to dig out the manual and confirm what the actual usage is, but suspect it to be around that value, so no big shock,
We then systematically went around the house turning items on, recording the cost and then turning off before moving on to the next item.
So lets checkout the results in the following table.
| Appliance | Model | Cost £/h | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kettle | Russel Hobbs | £0.45 | Running up to boil |
| Toaster | Russel Hobbs | £0.26 | 4 slices down |
| Oven | Format | £0.40 | Ramping up to remperature |
| Halogen Hob | Format | £0.28 | Maximium setting |
| Grill | Format | £0.42 | Full power |
| Washing Machine | Hoptpoint WF250 | £0.05 | First Cycle |
| Dishwasher | Hotpoint WDF60 | £0.02 | Pre wash cycle |
| Microwave | Delonghi | £0.26 | Full power |
| Tumble Dryer | Electra Compact 288 | £0.19 | |
| Vacuum | Henry Hoover | £0.20 | Max setting |
| Television | LG 42" Plasma | £0.05 | |
| Shower | Mira | £0.55 | |
| PC | Custom Dell | £0.02 | At login screen |
| Lights | Filament | £0.15 | All filament lights in house |
| Lights | LED | £0.01 | Kitchen 100% LEDs, too many to mention |
So there we are a full list of what our applicances are costing to run and now time to educate our children to realise how much its costs when they leave all the lights on around the house, or leaving the shower running before the get in becuase they are distracted.
Now it may look like trivial amounts, but this all mounts up of the course of a year.
Consider for a moment, how much consumers are over paying, for wasted energy and if you live in the UK you will appreciate how much are costs are so high.
Want to get one?, then get one here: http://www.icouldsave.co.uk/energy-monitor/buy-now.html
