Energy Monitoring

[AlanHo]

I have been with British gas for gas and electricity for almost 2 years - having changed to them from Staywarm after using the Energy Watch website to find alternative suppliers when Eon or Npower took over Staywarm and hiked the prices to try and drive customers onto their standard tariffs..

After being with British Gas for 6 months I did another Energy Watch check and found that I was no longer on the cheapest British Gas tariff - they had introduced another one - but did not let existing customers now about it. I phoned them in high dudgeon and got put onto the lower tariff. This taught me a lesson and since then I have used the Energy Watch site to get alternative prices every couple of months - to date British Gas have not always been the cheapest but have remained low enough for me to stay with them.

A couple of weeks ago I read in the press that British gas were handing out free energy meters to new customers. It is an instrument you have in the house at a suitable location (plugged into the mains) that receives the electrical consumption going through the meter in real time via a wireless link. The sender is a small battery operated unit that clips around one of the cables leading to the meter. You can select the readings in kWh or cost per hour or carbon emission. It shows the current real time figure, the aggregate for today, the last 7 days or the last 30 days.

I telephoned British gas asking whether it applied to existing customers and after some umming and aarring it was decided I could have one - but on condition that I notified them monthly via phone or web of my meter readings. Fine - I went ahead.

The monitor arrived 4 days later, it was easy to install and set up (without the need for any electrical work) and I have located the display alongside the computer monitor. It is interesting to be able to see the electricity consumption at various times of the day and I intend using it to check the average elec consumption of various household appliances one at a time.

My first check has been the computer - which has a 22" LCD monitor, two speakers, laser printer, scanner, cable modem and router attached. During boot up the consumption averages 0.74 kWh - but this drops back to a steady 0.48 kWh after a couple of minutes. The difference seems to be mainly the laser printer warming up - perhaps the fuser unit. So I now know that whilst I am sitting here typing this missive - doing my daily "Thought for today" or reading the forum posts - it is costing me roughly 5p per hour. I probably spend an hour a day on forums - hence the annual cost is about £20 - a small price for lots of fun.

[catgate]

..... So I now know that whilst I am sitting here typing this missive - doing my daily "Thought for today" or reading the forum posts - it is costing me roughly 5p per hour. I probably spend an hour a day on forums - hence the annual cost is about £20 -

Any small contribution to defray expenses will be gratefully received?