Great item. Worked out that the oven, fridge, freezer and tv were using all the electric so turned them all off.
Not sure where the wife has gone though, haven't seen her for weeks. Perhaps she is taking all the Pizza Hut boxes to the tip.

Smart meters are great for big consumers of electricity, but you're never going to be able to spot a 9W power supply being turned on - unless you live in a house without computers and other devices that randomly consume electricity. These units are way better at identifying inefficient devices rather than whole house issues.

The government would be better of sending one of these to every household and ditch the smart meter rollout, which is more about making more money for the companies than anything green.

Does anyone know if this particular meter requires batteries? I got one of these from Lidl or Aldi, but the need to keep replacing the button cell batteries made it pretty much useless for saving money.

mike

I have identified the "worst energy offenders" using my smart meter. it displays live data so simply by switching an appliance on, you're able to see it's consumption. hope that helps someone

I found out my "Worst energy offender"
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the children

For info, these probably can only measure (or deduce power consumption) linear power usage (where VxI is steady across the sine wave). Electronic devices with rectifiers etc will not be measured correctly. Any heating, refrigerating etc devices AND old incandescent bulbs should be pretty accurate. The mentioned 9W off a DAB radio is wrong as it is electronic. Some devices give silly readings (my induction hob on standy gave readings of ca.150W - bonkers). Look this up on the internet.

check your electricity bill to see how much 1kWh costs
on all your appliances the energy consumption is listed in watts or additionally a (euro)label
you really dont need to buy smart meters
ere is a handy guide

Should this start showing info as soon as its plugged in and the battery tab removed? I've even plugged our Dyson Vac into it no it's showing zero power usage (yes it is switched on!) ?

The particular one I use I was able to test and yes it's not 100% accurate, but since the radio says it consumes 9W, the meter says it consumes 9W and I have tested the meter on other low wattage devices, including those I already have known power consumption values for, I'm happy to believe if it says 9W, it's going to be between 8.5 and 9.5W. If the consumption doesn't change from powered on or off, the accuracy of the meter isn't that important, it's that fact that's most important.

I don't honestly think accuracy is that important so long as it's less than 10% and it's more a case of getting a ball park figure than accuracy. In the case of the radio it does get warm and the power supply used to stay nice and warm, so I wouldn't at all be surprised if a lot of the waste energy was heat.

mike

Thanks for the reply Mike. Interesting to hear that there are such devices that can use annoyingly high usage when in standby! When you say you switched to another power supply, do you mean you bought a different mains adapter for the radio and that fixed the problem? Cheers

I found out my "Worst energy offender"
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the children

Clas Ohlson may have them on clearance instore if you're nearby, saw a load for £2.99 a few days ago in the Kingston branch at the back far left.

​What do you do then? Turn the fridge off, hand wash the dishes?

Clearly, electrical appliances will cost money to use. To save money, use them less.

To know what is costing the most, look at the label, see how many watts it consumes, and then see if you can use it less.

Spending money on a device just to show you what you already know is not really money saving.

These can be quite inaccurate at low levels unfortunately. I doubt it is using 9w, that would be a surpassing amount of heat, think of how warm a 9w led bulb will get.
I find these give a more accurate reading if you plug a lamp in, say a 40w bulb,(anything that's a constant draw) and then add your appliance you want to test into the circuit and measure take away 40w. It's likely less than 2w

There is a sticker on every electrical appliance saying how much power it uses.

Just as an example I have a Pure DAB radio, it uses 9W when it's turned on and remarkably uses 9W when it's in standby. This means it burns a unit of electricity every 4.5 days or so, if it's not physically turned off at the socket, which considering it's also a clock radio would be a problem. Switching to a more efficient identical specification power supply means the consumption when it's not on, drops to 0W or so. That means over the space of the first year of ownership, the meter would recoup it's cost, but also the cost of the cheap power supply that was used.

Perhaps more usefully, this unit can then be plugged into other devices and you can identify all those wasteful devices that you normally ignore. Interestingly enough my old meter showed that my 32" CRT television burnt less electricity in standby than the DAB radio, which wasn't obvious and my stereo was using enough electricity to run a small fan heater, even when not playing music.

Of course it's entirely debatable whether knowing how much electricity is used is important or not, but for me it was but perhaps that's because I've got PV panels on the roof, and often it's the most surprising things that save you more than you'd think. I bought my original meter a good few years ago, so perhaps fewer devices are stupidly inefficient.

mike

I like the premise of these and may waste £7.80 but I too am put off buy some of the reviews and the fact that they date back to 2011

I seriously doubt that many people are actually that bothered about their carbon emissions - I certainly couldn't give a toss about what's coming out of my house!

The best way to save money is not to leave microwaves and ovens on constantly displaying a clock, turning off devices at the mains which you aren't using especially mobile and device chargers and investing in some LED bulbs.

20 main lights and lamps in our place allegedly only use 200 Watts if they are ALL on. Compared to traditional bulbs that used to be 100 or 60 Watt per bulb.

And also invest in a modern energy efficient boiler. We got half the cost of the boiler in energy savings in 2 years.

Realised that we don't really waste that much energy so just talked myself out of spending £7.80 - that's nearly a week's gas and electric right there!!

Thanks OP

Was tempted to buy one until I read the Amazon reviews about resetting it and battery life. Still voted hot for a potentially useful, good value deal.

These are incredibly inaccurate at times.

because some power supplies use a fraction of a watt when not used, others are more hungry. I can't be bothered to unplug some that have very very low drain but there are others that use a load more and will actually cost more than a few pence to leave switched on.

All well and good knowing which are the offenders....but can you really live without a device completely or limited useage
We all start off with good intentions but when you want to use some device...you might moan cost but you still do it... :wink:

No doubt she will 'educate' you on the use of the domestic appliances, just before she moves out..... Good luck..

Why would you be watching out for a 9w power supply? Surely that will cost you pence per month if on 24/7?

it’s a good product i have something similar which i purchased from eBay, great for calculating power consumption. I have servers located in a datacenter and needed one of these to caclucate my total consumption, gives readings in watts, amps etc. can also work out running cost when you add the cost per Kwh.

Mods - please unexpire. :wink:

[Thanks] :smiley:

Yup, back in stock. I too have ordered one.

I just ordered too @£7.80 Prime. Thanks.

Looks like its back in stock, well I've just managed to order one.

all these prime only posts should be in their own section - cold

Aw man, could've really done with this. Would love to prove to my Nan that running a hairdryer for 15 mins a week really isn't as expensive as she thinks!

Alternatives?

As above, it's sold out now so back to £12.99 :disappointed:

​turn everything off and turn on one at a time, check smart meter for individual running cost, just as easy as running round plugging this in to individual sockets all over the House and sitting looking at it down by the skirting

Looks to be out of stock now :disappointed:

Just ordered, been looking at getting one for a while. Thanks.

Great item. Worked out that the oven, fridge, freezer and tv were using all the electric so turned them all off.
Not sure where the wife has gone though, haven't seen her for weeks. Perhaps she is taking all the Pizza Hut boxes to the tip.

I have solar panels and I was advised to avoid smart meters as I fool my meter with a little home made device which reduces power to the water heater so I can still heat the water without using electricity when the sun is not shining much

CPC have this for £9.36 and have free delivery - I was going to get one but you can get one that transmits data to a android device to give you a daily chart, which seemed better and worth waiting for (can not remember make/ where or price but I think in the £30 range)

smart meters. less labour needed. people cant fool them either. some people excadurate readings in winter to keep the bill down etc

Funnily enough I was looking at this last night after a large energy bill and wanted to "educate" the wife on the cost of running the tumble dryer. :wink:

Did not buy it last night as was nearly double the price, but bought earlier this morning.

Thanks.

The Aldi meter I have runs without the batteries installed, worth a check.

Plugs into mains and still requires batteries? very odd.

Smart Meters won't be truly smart until they can tell you in real time how much electricity is being consumed at each outlet and allow you to control that remotely. That might require rewiring or hopefully just changing the socket plate but it has to be the way forward for a true smart home.

I have identified the "worst energy offenders" using my smart meter. it displays live data so simply by switching an appliance on, you're able to see it's consumption. hope that helps someone

Amazing! this has been the only item sitting in my basket for last couple of days while i shopped around for other things, and now its £3 cheaper