Well we all like gadgets in here....( if not GTFO! lol)

 

Ive just installed a "loop" energy monitor for the house..

 

For the last 6 months or so ive used imeasure to record energy use - which is ok apart from remembering to take meter readings every week.

I did also have a british gas elec monitor until it died which just gave basic real time readout.

 

Loop is a home energy monitor.. it differs from others ive seen in the fact its online only - the reciver unit plugs into your broadband and you log into a web portal to see your stats

In my mind this is good from a big-data analytic point of view as it can compare with other users as well as providing some good flexibility.

 

More interestingly - they can also monitor gas usage.. via a optical sensor that sticks onto the last dial and basically watches the meter dial go round, which i guess is the best we will get until smart meters are more commonplace.

 

Im interested in the gas usage mostly - given i have a weather-compensating heating system, im sure theres still a fair bit of scope to optimise fuel usage, especially as i fear this winter will be a bitter one if the last few weeks are anything to go by.

 

It has something like an achievements system to encourage you to reduce energy usage - although ive not got enough data to enable that function yet.

 

 

Anyway - have to log off now, as ive almost spent my electricity allowance for the day - currently set for a quid! 

 

Anyway - have to log off now, as ive almost spent my electricity allowance for the day - currently set for a quid!

In that case you need some solar panels!

Keeping an eye on your solar production can get quite addictive. I've now got a smart meter fitted as well, so I can see my month to date usage on my suppliers web page. Some more detail might be nice though. Will have to check out the one above.

Do you have a link for 'Loopy' please?

 

Sounds rather interesting.

Do you have a link for 'Loopy' please?

 

Sounds rather interesting.

 

the web-portal is www.your-loop.com

 

The kit is bought from amazon: Link

 

heres an example of what a day looks like for me. given ive only got a couple of days worth of data at the moment.

Nice, but the bit which puts me off is:

"Thereafter, an annual subscription will be available from only £4.99" (electricity)

"Thereafter, an annual subscription will be available from only £3.49" (gas)

 

I am sure there are some similar projects based around a RPi -http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/ which have zero subscription costs

Thank you Neo.  

Nice, but the bit which puts me off is:

"Thereafter, an annual subscription will be available from only £4.99" (electricity)

"Thereafter, an annual subscription will be available from only £3.49" (gas)

 

I am sure there are some similar projects based around a RPi -http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/ which have zero subscription costs

 

Thats interesting that, although its not exactly cheap to start off with looking at upwards of £100 for a elec-only monitoring solution.. I can possibly see the benifit for microgeneration guys for expandability and switching appliances/immersion heaters to maximise efficiency.

 

In hindsight i should have got a CH system that supported OpenTherm, that way i could integrate it with all this home automation stuff and would look at it in more detail. 

 

The value of Loop over and above its gadget value to me is bringing the ability to monitor and report on gas usage in near real-time. And reporting on elec is also a welcome advantage over the standard display-only boxes that energy companies provide.

Itll do me until smart meters come along!

 

Ill be able to start charging SWMBO for spending too long in the shower 

Well just a quick update.

 

Its still doing its job.. altho ive dialled back the overbearing emails to just daily summarys, which at this time of year is pretty much just constant "youve gone over your budget" now the heating is needing to kick in.

 

It does make me think twice about things.. pretty much every spike on the elec for example is use of the tumble dryer.. Normally i try to dry clothes in the conservatory but its getting too cold for that now.

On the attached chart for last month - you can see when i went on holiday, with the background usage being only two fridge/freezers and a youview box.

 

Also the old CCFL TFT panel i bought from Alex many years ago uses a fair amount of energy.. even in standby! lol. Time to upgrade!

I seem to have used 138 units in September and will be just over that for October.

Must check my current monitors for standby consumption

Just searched and found this thread as I got a free electricity monitor today when my electricity provider did a service on my oil boiler (the reason I went with them ) It's one of those battery powered magnet sensor on live from meter to fuse box plugged into a sender and then wireless to receiver box which gives me the numbers. How accurate are these things... I am not that fussed I am more looking to see what change I can make to give an idea of what makes the biggest difference. 

 

With normal stuff on and nothing else in house 0.322KW on current live read out thing then I play with stuff around the house, kettle = WOW , oven and 4 hobs on = FML!!!  (9.6KW). But the interesting one is the lighting as I have a mismatch of energy saving bulbs and old school have yet to blow ones. Old school makes a significant jump and my various generations of eco ones obviously less, but the £21 LED Jesus style bulbs don't show any difference at all when turned on! Yes they must use something, but hell it's more than dramatically less. With the darker time of year more or less on us now, I should really look at getting a few more I think. 

 

 

With both ovens on, 4 hobs and kettle  :peek:

My house's idle consumption is around 0.25kw/h.  That includes a Fridge/Freezer (when on jumps to .35), UPS (powering 24port gig switch, cordless phone, ADSL modem, Router/Wifi, SamKnows Broadband Monitor), burglar alarm and 8 camera CCTV HDD unit.

My house's idle consumption is around 0.25kw/h.  That includes a Fridge/Freezer (when on jumps to .35), UPS (powering 24port gig switch, cordless phone, ADSL modem, Router/Wifi, SamKnows Broadband Monitor), burglar alarm and 8 camera CCTV HDD unit.

 

With the house when I walk back in it's 0.18 odd on the reader thing, so that sounds about right then in comparison as I don't have cctv set up etc etc just the normal house things. 

My parent's house is around the .15-.2 mark.  They have a separate fridge & chest freezer, however they are devoid of most modern technology