DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
Just invested in a set of those. Didn't come with an app, so just use a browser to display instantaneous and daily consumption.
Energy bill increases
- Thread starter GuyBoden
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DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
Does a smart meter tell how much power individual appliances are using ?
Genuine question, as I don't have one, nor any plans to change that.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
No.
It just tells you the total current power, incoming or outgoing (obviously the latter only if you have generation capacity). The device in your house is linked by WiFi toi the meter in the meter box, and that has no access to internal load data.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
A couple of Smart plugs are the easiest way to monitor what an appliance is using, or set of appliances - e.g. home office/printer plugged into one extension.
TP Link Tapo for example for a smart plug with energy monitoring (check you pick the right one, about £10).
TP Link Tapo for example for a smart plug with energy monitoring (check you pick the right one, about £10).
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
Here's an example of what I get from mine:
I'm still in the process of moving them around between appliances to see where the bad boys are.
cougie uk
Guru
Just turn off the item and turn it back on again. Or have it on and then turn it off. The meter can be unplugged and walked around the house checking things. Simple.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Most 'modern stuff' is pretty good on power down. My wife's home office 'setup' uses about 7w on standby... now that's laptop and hub chargers (2), two monitors, printer, the internet router (which is ON not standby) and two power transformers for led lights. Not bad. Things you do need to watch are old appliances like DVD/Video HD Recorders, and, wait for it, Playstations/Xbox's - they have a fast 'on' mode which uses quite a lot of power.
vickster
Legendary Member
Good 4K TVs use a chunk of power too when wanting UHD material (as the brightness cranks up)
lazybloke
Today i follow the flying spaghetti monster
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Well that contradicts my expectation of power factor being close to 1. Especially that laptop.
@presta might have more thoughts on the matter but i understand that power in AC circuits is volts x amps x power factor.
One of my meters has no visibility of PF so would overestimate power usage.
cougie uk
Guru
At least we can get through the colder darker months.
very true, but there maybe colder darker months ahead…..
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
In an effort to be able to determine total instantaneous domestic electric consumption, based on my elderly, non-smart meter, I arrived at the following formula:
kW = 18 divided by (no of seconds for the disc thingy to do a complete rotation)
In other exciting developments
:
a two smartplugs moved to dishwasher and Freesat receiver circuits (latter showing approx 22W when operating and next to nothing in standby).
b worked out how to get my backup PC to power on/off only when actually backing up, instead of just leaving it running 24/7.
kW = 18 divided by (no of seconds for the disc thingy to do a complete rotation)
In other exciting developments
:a two smartplugs moved to dishwasher and Freesat receiver circuits (latter showing approx 22W when operating and next to nothing in standby).
b worked out how to get my backup PC to power on/off only when actually backing up, instead of just leaving it running 24/7.
