How does it work?? Plug-in home power consumption meter...

[Audio Advent]

I had something done to my elec meter yesterday (didn't pay attention to what it was) and was given a plug-in device which gives you a read-out of power consumption..

How does it work from being plugged in to a socket? Is it a plug-in multi-meter of some sort measuring current in a circuit or something and does it only work if you have a single mains loop (I'm in a flat)?

It's interesting to note how playing my meagre current set-up relatively loud (integrated amp, Caiman II, laptop) doesn't make any difference to the cost/hr reading compared to when all switched off (whilst anything that heats; kettle, hot water etc, shoots it up 20 fold) . When I say no difference, I mean less than half a pence/hr difference so that the reading rounded to the nearest pence doesn't change.

[struth]

A class A amp does.. My light used to blink a fair bit faster. Lol..... But yes heaters of any kind are the big costs.

[Macca]

Reminds me of a friend who was always getting astronomical electric bills and he was giving the power company grief claiming that something must be wrong as he was a single bloke in a small house. I'd noticed in his bathroom he had a portable electric radiator and I asked him if he used it much. 'Oh that, yeah it is on all the time, I never turn it off. But it doesn't use much power, does it?' ....

[Audio Advent]

Got me thinking about the cost of big class A amps.. Leaving it switched on as I would must add a few hundreds of pounds per year on to the running costs! Over a few years the running costs would pay for a new amp at secondhand prices..

My rough in the head calculations would have a 150W output Class A amp drawing about 200W at the socket whether playing music or not and cost 2p/hr. Over a whole year that would be an extra £175 per year for the amp alone. Is that about the same power draw for valve amps too? Not too bad perhaps.. but over 4 years would be £600, maybe the cost of the amp..

I never think about running costs .. perhaps some hifi bought as investments are best left unused!

[Audio Advent]

Reminds me of a friend who was always getting astronomical electric bills and he was giving the power company grief claiming that something must be wrong as he was a single bloke in a small house. I'd noticed in his bathroom he had a portable electric radiator and I asked him if he used it much. 'Oh that, yeah it is on all the time, I never turn it off. But it doesn't use much power, does it?' ....

haha... I bet that would be about 30p per hour by my meter (as per the 1200W kettle) *wizz bang!##Clatter*! .. £2600! ??

I'm going off this meter thing already! It's like having a tyrant in the house telling you not to turn things on... how much will my expresso coffee cost me now? Could send me into paranoia..

[spendorman]

I don't want a smart meter:

https://youtu.be/eQXQsu9XOcU

A bit disjointed and long.

[Audio Advent]

OK... so they installed a smart meter? I wasn't in and I rent.... and of course that's how the power meter works...

Shit. I didn't know that!

Good conference weekend that - have watched many lectures from it before. I'll get stuck into that one, thanks.

[Light Dependant Resistor]

Hi
I am mindful of power costs, as mistakes means unnecessary expenditure.

here are some suggestions:

Do not use incandescant bulbs anywhere in your house, instead use LED types
In my case with over 6 years not one bulb has stopped from working,

At night ideally use sensing type globes that turn on when you approach
or use low watt night globes - mine is a 3 watt.

Turn your hifi and computers and screens off when they are not needed.
A amplifier of valve or Class A type will generally settle, ( as if it had been left on )
within 20 minutes. Solid state amps usually within 15 seconds

If really watching pennies, have a switch for your hot water service.
With the savings you could treat yourself.


Cheers / Chris

[Audio Advent]

Hi
I am mindful of power costs, as mistakes means unnecessary expenditure.

here are some suggestions:

Do not use incandescant bulbs anywhere in your house, instead use LED types
In my case with over 6 years not one bulb has stopped from working,

At night ideally use sensing type globes that turn on when you approach
or use low watt night globes - mine is a 3 watt.

Turn your hifi and computers and screens off when they are not needed.
A amplifier of valve or Class A type will generally settle, ( as if it had been left on )
within 20 minutes. Solid state amps usually within 15 seconds

If really watching pennies, have a switch for your hot water service.
With the savings you could treat yourself.


Cheers / Chris

hot water is manual at my place - is an old flat - but that means I leave it on by mistake, especially if leaving on for a bath. I leave my hifi on but can see that it makes hardly any difference to the energy consuption when playing compared to when switched off.... I would also leave an expensive class A amp on if I had one - all that heating up and down to such comparatively high temperatures is going to make things fail much much faster.

Still, I'm moving to class D ncores when I get around to finishing putting them together! They'll idle at hardly anything I'm sure. I could even get a low power Class-D, connect to a battery and recharge that with a solar cell.

[Audio Advent]

I don't want a smart meter:

https://youtu.be/eQXQsu9XOcU

A bit disjointed and long.

That was quite interesting - and now I'm less worried about privacy etc too! Especially as mine has a SIM card and I can hardly get a signal myself where the meter is, haha! I'm sure much of the privacy aspect could be sorted out with a UPS - it would only see a battery cycling up and down, not the brightness changes of your screen to see what you're watching, and I don't have a TV anyway.

Apparently if the meter looses connection too often it ends up as being set as a dumb meter.

[walpurgis]

Apparently if the meter looses connection too often it ends up as being set as a dumb meter.

Is that like a dumb waiter. Just goes up and down? ;)

(loses?)

[spendorman]

These are good, I fitted one about a year ago.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Timeguard-TGBT4-Boostmaster-2-Hour-Electronic-Immersion-Heater-Controller-/121170035109

Perhaps you could get the Landlord to fit one, or something similar.

My Hi Fi is on all day, so I don't generally use amps such as the Radford STA25 much. An A&R 60 is being used at the moment, uses about 8 W ticking over. I have a Class D TPA3116, it's consumption with an efficient power supply is very low.

I bought a plug in power meter a while back. Tested quite a few of my amps and other stuff. Found that my PC tower was using 80 W. Got a newer faster processor and it went down to about 60 W. LCD screen took about 17 W.