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| Thread ID: 119025 | 2011-07-01 07:53:00 | Measuring the power usage of home appliances | braindead (1685) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1213849 | 2011-07-06 03:11:00 | I saw a thing recently saying that the likes of a MySky box is bad news on the power consumption when not in use. Anything on standby is bad news on the power consumption |
gary67 (56) | ||
| 1213850 | 2011-07-06 03:43:00 | Anything on standby is bad news on the power consumption Yes but they were saying that the MySky type box was particularly bad. |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 1213851 | 2011-07-06 05:02:00 | The problem with MySky is that even when you aren't watching anything it will be storing pay per view movies on the hard drive even if you never watch them. | PaulD (232) | ||
| 1213852 | 2011-07-06 05:16:00 | The problem with MySky is that even when you aren't watching anything it will be storing pay per view movies on the hard drive even if you never watch them. I didn't know it did that and we have never watched a pay per view movie. I will have to learn how to extract them then so their effort and our power hasn't been wasted.:devil |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 1213853 | 2011-07-06 05:39:00 | There are a lot of power munchers in a home, and to track down usage takes a few days of measurement (using an individual appliance measurement meter) and some inferred usage info for lights etc. As convenient as they are, the clip-on ammeter types of devices can normally just measure the main incoming cable. To estimate the hot water cylinder usage, you use 4.2kJ per kg per degree of heating achieved (with Joule=Watt sec, so 4.2kJ=1.167Wh). So for a 180 litre tank, which is about 180kg, and assuming the inlet is 15 deg C (groundwater average), and the water is heated to 60 deg C, that gives 45 deg of heating: 1.167Wh x 180 kg x 45 deg = 9.45 kWh if you are heating one lot of water from cold once a day. It is just an estimate for actual use though, because the cylinder will lose some heat and the power will turn on, throughout the day, on top of what water you use and is replaced and reheated. |
ellpow (16400) | ||
| 1213854 | 2011-09-03 06:32:00 | My mother has an under-sink hot water cylinder from which she takes enough hot water to do one sink-full of dishes a day. The she turns the cylinder off. The water cools down to around luke-warm and next time she has to heat the whole caboodle from scratch. So which is more economic? To heat from scratch or to leave the cylinder to cycle? I say it's the latter but I haven't tested it. |
braindead (1685) | ||
| 1213855 | 2011-09-03 10:05:00 | Peter H - Just wanted to let you know I settled on this one: MAINS POWER MONITOR WIRELESS (wattsclever.com) from Jaycar. What does that actually do? Does it measure the power consumption of single appliances or the total amount of electricity being used in the house? I am also interested in reducing our electricity consumption. Our power bill is $30 to $40 per month more than a family member's, although we do have an extra freezer, kitchen and bathroom extractor fans, dishwasher (used every two days, not daily) and we use the electric jug a lot more. It is hard to believe that those appliances are costing us that much more to use, especially when our hot water cylinder is on night rate and their one isn't. |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 1213856 | 2011-09-03 10:12:00 | For example, how would we measure the consumption of a hot water cylinder which has no mains socket? Have you checked your electricity meter? Our hot water is on night rate so we have two meters, one of them being for the hot water cylinder. |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 1213857 | 2011-09-03 10:24:00 | It also pays to check who you have as your power company. Some of them are quite simply rip off merchants. We have just switched after doing a few sums and to say it was a shock is an under statement. We were with Empower :mad:, then after going through powerswitch (http://www.powerswitch.org.nz) doing a bit of to and throw, have now changed to genesis -- at first we didn't believe the amount, but they looked at the usage we did over a year, gave us a figure which was close to what powerswitch worked out on line. Using our current usage per month we are going to save just over $1600 per year (thats no typo) They gave us their charges, and we compared them to what Empower were charging for the same amount used and it was close enough to half each month .:clap |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1213858 | 2011-09-03 11:41:00 | FoxyMX: What does that actually do? Does it measure the power consumption of single appliances or the total amount of electricity being used in the house? It measures the total amount of electricity . One part of the device sits in the meter box with a clamp around the main feed wire to the house . The other part is a wireless receiver that sits in the house, almost instantly recording the power usage . It's sensitive down to a few watts and you can watch the display change as different appliances in the house switch on or off . The cumulative power used is recorded to memory and gives you the cost per Kw/Hr over various time periods, ie day, week, month . This amount is based on the power plan you have chosen in your contract with the power retailer . |
braindead (1685) | ||
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