On Nov 16, 2:54*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
ant wrote:
I know the energy consumption monitor thing 'could' be a bit rubbish
but it does appear to be linear based on all the other things I've
tested...

Were all the other things you tested purely resistive loads (e.g.
kettle, incandescent lamps, heaters, oven etc)?

CFL lamps (and PCs, most phone chargers and wall warts) draw current in
a non-linear way, so are difficult to measure with the simple power meters.

I measured everything...even the kids plugin night lights..for the PC/
chargers/Sky+/Dreambox/PS3/Amp I was aware the consumption would
fluctuate..but the meter was also showing that, so I was able to
compare 'normal' use (e.g difference between the plasma screen showing
light scenes versus dark scenes of a movie)...PC consumption would be
all over the place but I figured my desktop and network which are 24x7
are generally in an awake/active but low utilisation state so took
readings individually for the PC/NAS/Router etc and then combined as a
'working environment' kind of measure to get a decent figure.

Now...for the energy efficient bulbs, are you saying that they may
fluctuate in consumption so rapidly, that the meter would show a bad
reading or just show their peak consumption all the time ? or that
they need to be left to warm up for quite a long time before they drop
back to the 11W/14W etc consumption ? (or both !)

I'm thinking of going round the house and totting up all the Wattages
for the energy efficient bulbs I have installed...and turning them all
on simultaneously to see if they average out to a more reliable
reading...by the time the meter is getting up to 1Kw I'd expect it to
be in it's comfort zone for accuracy and If I can do that with just 20
or so bulbs..would sugest the readings I'm getting are reasonable (I
could also take a meter reading I guess......oh my kids and wife are
going to love me tonight !....sorry, 2 hours, lights only..)

Ant.