Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.

I have in mind a small adapter that plugs in between the appliance plug and
the wall socket that measured the current drawn, or something like that. If
it was really clever, you could put in the rate you pay for your electricity
and the device would tell you how much per hour the appliance costs to run!

I don't know if this is possible, or if it has been done, but I reckon it
sounds like quite a nifty gadget. Anyone fancy designing one?

xena wrote:
Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.

I have in mind a small adapter that plugs in between the appliance plug and
the wall socket that measured the current drawn, or something like that. If
it was really clever, you could put in the rate you pay for your electricity
and the device would tell you how much per hour the appliance costs to run!

I don't know if this is possible, or if it has been done, but I reckon it
sounds like quite a nifty gadget. Anyone fancy designing one?

There's a thread up there somewhere, expired on my server but no doubt
available on google, about such a device. Maplins sell one at a
relatively low price but its accuracy depends on what type of load is
being measured.

Colin

Lidls were selling one for a tenner I think about a few months back - seems to
work
adequately

Nick

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 10:12:42 -0000, "xena"
wrote:

Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.

I have in mind a small adapter that plugs in between the appliance plug and
the wall socket that measured the current drawn, or something like that. If
it was really clever, you could put in the rate you pay for your electricity
and the device would tell you how much per hour the appliance costs to run!

I don't know if this is possible, or if it has been done, but I reckon it
sounds like quite a nifty gadget. Anyone fancy designing one?


It is very wise to monitor both gas and electric useage these days.
There is a greater margin of error due to third party meter
readers,switching suppliers and all the other complications of a
"competitive" fuel industry. For example, I have been locked in a
battle for nearly a year with Powergen. I get dual fuel from them
though it is more like Duel fuel !!. For nearly 8 months they didnt
send any bills. I contacted them constantly telling them i wanted
quarterly bills,i emailed them,no sense,no reply,i was eventually told
they were upgrading their computer systems and couldnt send any bills.
Fine, but they were doing this for months. I wrote and suggested that
they must be nearly bankrupt as if they couldnt generate bills,they
must'nt be getting any income!!. When they did start sending
bills,they might as well have been in Hebrew because i couldnt
understand them and they came thick, fast and incomprehensible. No
sooner had one been paid than another arrived,then another. I've had
them to energywatch and ive now swtiched supplier but they are still
hounding me. I will be seeing them in court soon as i have refused to
pay their latest bill.

The open gas and electricity market is one of the biggest fiascos to
hit this country for a long time..

"Colin Blackburn" wrote in message
...
xena wrote:
Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.


There's a thread up there somewhere, expired on my server but no doubt
available on google, about such a device. Maplins sell one at a relatively
low price but its accuracy depends on what type of load is being measured.


Thanks Colin, I've found the thread you're referring to. It doesn't seem to
be quite as straightforward as I had imagined!

The Maplin one has had a price hike to £25, and I was in both aldis and
lidls yesterday but didn't see one.

Thanks for the tip about ebay, btw, I've got my eye on a couple now.

I think it will be worth getting one, as we will shortly be moving into a
place that runs on an economy 7 tariff, and I need to make sure that we use
our electricity as economically as possible, particularly during the
daytime! I will also look out for a load of plug timers so I can set the
dishwasher to come on overnight / charge mobiles for 2 hrs overnight etc.

Many thanks for everyone's help.

xena wrote:

SNIP

I think it will be worth getting one, as we will shortly be moving into a
place that runs on an economy 7 tariff, and I need to make sure that we use
our electricity as economically as possible, particularly during the
daytime! I will also look out for a load of plug timers so I can set the
dishwasher to come on overnight / charge mobiles for 2 hrs overnight etc.

Many thanks for everyone's help.




I'd agree with running the DW overnight, but do you think you would
_ever_ pay for the timer in the mobile charging scenario?

"tarquinlinbin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 10:12:42 -0000, "xena"
wrote:

Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.

I have in mind a small adapter that plugs in between the appliance plug
and
the wall socket that measured the current drawn, or something like that.
If
it was really clever, you could put in the rate you pay for your
electricity
and the device would tell you how much per hour the appliance costs to
run!

I don't know if this is possible, or if it has been done, but I reckon it
sounds like quite a nifty gadget. Anyone fancy designing one?


It is very wise to monitor both gas and electric useage these days.
There is a greater margin of error due to third party meter
readers,switching suppliers and all the other complications of a
"competitive" fuel industry. For example, I have been locked in a
battle for nearly a year with Powergen. I get dual fuel from them
though it is more like Duel fuel !!. For nearly 8 months they didnt
send any bills. I contacted them constantly telling them i wanted
quarterly bills,i emailed them,no sense,no reply,i was eventually told
they were upgrading their computer systems and couldnt send any bills.
Fine, but they were doing this for months. I wrote and suggested that
they must be nearly bankrupt as if they couldnt generate bills,they
must'nt be getting any income!!. When they did start sending
bills,they might as well have been in Hebrew because i couldnt
understand them and they came thick, fast and incomprehensible. No
sooner had one been paid than another arrived,then another. I've had
them to energywatch and ive now swtiched supplier but they are still
hounding me. I will be seeing them in court soon as i have refused to
pay their latest bill.

The open gas and electricity market is one of the biggest fiascos to
hit this country for a long time..

Many companies that were given licenses were not up to it. They didn't have
the systems in place for billing and customer support. The government is
very cagey now and want to see positive proof you can run such an
organisation properly. Virgin applied and was turned down, that is how
strict they are now.

If Powergen have been negligent you should win, and it appears so by erratic
nature of your bills and lack of detail on them. You hav eto tell people
what you are biling them for.

Best of luck




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In message , xena
writes
"Colin Blackburn" wrote in message
...
xena wrote:
Looking at all the recent posts on high electricity bills has led me to
wonder if there's any way of checking the running costs of appliances
without having to try and work it out from the manufacturer's specs.


There's a thread up there somewhere, expired on my server but no doubt
available on google, about such a device. Maplins sell one at a relatively
low price but its accuracy depends on what type of load is being measured.


Thanks Colin, I've found the thread you're referring to. It doesn't
seem to be quite as straightforward as I had imagined!

The Maplin one has had a price hike to £25, and I was in both aldis and
lidls yesterday but didn't see one.

Tchibo have one for GBP7.99 - not easy to find on their site though -
search for "consumption"

http://tinyurl.com/6pgb9

--
dave @ stejonda

"dave @ stejonda" wrote in message
...
In message , xena

Tchibo have one for GBP7.99 - not easy to find on their site though -
search for "consumption"

http://tinyurl.com/6pgb9

Oh you beauty, that's the baby!! Does it come with UK plug as opposed to
the continental one pictured? Should do I guess. I found it difficult
searching for these on the net because as you've pointed out, they seem to
go by many different names!

Thank you, my order is in!

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:48:51 -0000, xena wrote:

I think it will be worth getting one, as we will shortly be moving
into a place that runs on an economy 7 tariff,

Storage heating? oh dear.

and I need to make sure that we use our electricity as economically
as possible, particularly during the daytime! I will also look out
for a load of plug timers so I can set the dishwasher to come on
overnight / charge mobiles for 2 hrs overnight etc.

Heavy loads like immersion, space heating, washing machines (clothes
and dishes), tumble dryer etc ceratinly shift into the off peak period
but remember the noise.

But mobile charging is going to take 5 years to pay for the timer, and
thats a =A32.50 cheapy that might not last the 5 years... Look at
lighting, particulary those that are on for longish periods and
consider switching to CFLs.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

"tarquinlinbin" wrote .......

The open gas and electricity market is one of the biggest fiascos to
hit this country for a long time..


Yes some of them are farcical but, even with all the errors and recent price
rises, you're probably paying half as much as you would have done if the
market hadn't become open.