Electrcity usage monitors - advice

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Kompete

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Anyone here have experience with electricity usage monitors?

I am looking for something that can 'map' to the switches on my DB board and can monitor usage in real time - so I can see and manage my usage.

Any advice on makes, suppliers, installers and so on will be useful

thx
 
We also have an OWL unit that we bought as a Body Corporate in our complex. We loan it out to units with high bills. Works every well. You can install it only for a single electric wire though. Generally we just put it on the main live wire into the board and people can then walk around with the wireless display and see what each appliance adds by turning it on and off. If you really want to check individual appliances then simply make a short extension chord that has a loop with the live wire available to clip the sensor. This is useful when figuring out what appliances cost you that change their power usage throughout a cycle. For instance washing machines and dishwashers draw varied amounts for varied times depending on what stage of the cycle it is on. With the special extension wire you could check what it costs you for any individual cycle independently. This would be hard to do if it was only installed on the main switchboard.
 
If anyone in southern suburbs CPT is looking for the OWL SE22 - which has the USB port, Plumstead Electrical has the best price of R811.10. Eagle Lighting wanted R1049 for the same unit.
 
Yep, same in JHB, if you get them at hardware stores you will pay over R1000. If you look up any decent electronic supply company you can generally get them 20% cheaper.
 
My Homebug is currently on a delivery vehicle on its way to me now...

I will update this thread once I've played with it a little bit.
 
Sinbad said:
I have an efergy. Love it. Definitely raises awareness of power usage in real time.
Click to expand...

I can't decide what to get there seem to be a lot of options, granted I've only looked at over the options at a high level. Certainly looks worthwhile to have a unit that can report centrally so you can graph data.

Sinbad said:
It won't tell you WHAT is using the power - it only monitors the main feed.
Click to expand...
Isn't that the case with most of these types of units? I did see one with multiple input "clamps" so you could single out geyser, plugs and lights.
 
morkhans said:
I can't decide what to get there seem to be a lot of options, granted I've only looked at over the options at a high level. Certainly looks worthwhile to have a unit that can report centrally so you can graph data.


Isn't that the case with most of these types of units? I did see one with multiple input "clamps" so you could single out geyser, plugs and lights.
Click to expand...

The efergy e2 supports 3 clamps, but that's for use with 3 phase power, not multiple consumers.
It has a usb interface, so you can download to your PC, and they have a little client that slices and dices the data to give you graphs etc.
 
I got some feedback from the CHTech guy. His system can monitor individual circuits, not just the main feed. So you could monitor Lights, Plugs, Geyser etc. separately. They also have Wifi, GSM or Ethernet modules if pulling out the SD card is to laborious :)

It measures Voltage and 3 current circuits.
The data on screen and in the database is realtime per second resolution.
The idea being that even from 1 monitoring point you can tell various appliances from there "fingerprint"

What works well is to first monitor the main feed and then based on the results put extra CT's on feeds to major candidates.
This is especially true once you have identified culprits and are looking to replace or make changes to improve efficiency.

For instance, a geyser would be an obvious choice but until you have detailed stats, you can't know if replacing it with a heat pump can be justified.
You would also be guessing how quickly such a device would pay off.
But once you have the data, you can make an informed decision.

The unit is also designed to measure bi directionally so if you 1 day buy your own solar system, it can measure what you generate and export/store etc.
Click to expand...
 
homebug.co.za is seriously scant on details. Are you paying the monthly site subscription?
 
I got a quote for the CHTech device. Exsolar now handle the sales.
Monitoring Unit: R1650 ex. VAT
10mm CT: R185 ex. VAT (need 1 per feed you want to monitor, so either just main feed like all the other systems or break it up for granular monitoring)
WifiModule: R650 ex. VAT (optional, you could just copy the data from the SD card).

Bit more expensive than some of the other systems it seems.
 
That is a bit more expensive....

I just like the way the Homebug does monitoring as well as basic control as well... makes it worth the money in concept for me. When I get it all installed, hopefully the concept will prove to work in reality as well.
 
Guys, my power power bill have been killing me for some time now.....
Finally got myself some time and a power meter, so that I can monitor my power usage more accurately and also trend it over time.

As I am using more than 600kwh units per month, I get charged R1.40 per kwh unit.
Under 600 units would be R1.10 per kwh.

Let me look at the following:
First suspect was the geyser. Allthough it is a 2kw element, it is only on for 2 hours max per day. Total cost = 2kw x 2h x R1.4 = R5.60 per day.
2nd was the pool pump. At 0.75kw it is not big, but it runs at least 8 hours a day. Total cost = 0.75kw x 8h x R1.4 = R8.40 per day.
Eventually started looking at my PC's and WUG stuff.
Wi-Fi mast and all other networking equipment = 100w (0.1kw)
Server with 10 HD's = 300w (0.3kw)
Gaming PC = 350w (0.35kw)
So total here is 750w (0.75kw), but as it is running 24/7. Total cost = 0.75kw x 24h x R1.4 = R25.20 per day.
That is R756 for 30 days!!!!

That totally supprised me, to say the least!!!

So if anybody else out there is struggling with high power bills, be aware.
It might not be the "big" loads that use so much electricity, but all the smaller ones combined running 24/7!!!
 
wetkit said:
Guys, my power power bill have been killing me for some time now.....
Finally got myself some time and a power meter, so that I can monitor my power usage more accurately and also trend it over time.

As I am using more than 600kwh units per month, I get charged R1.40 per kwh unit.
Under 600 units would be R1.10 per kwh.

Let me look at the following:
First suspect was the geyser. Allthough it is a 2kw element, it is only on for 2 hours max per day. Total cost = 2kw x 2h x R1.4 = R5.60 per day.
2nd was the pool pump. At 0.75kw it is not big, but it runs at least 8 hours a day. Total cost = 0.75kw x 8h x R1.4 = R8.40 per day.
Eventually started looking at my PC's and WUG stuff.
Wi-Fi mast and all other networking equipment = 100w (0.1kw)
Server with 10 HD's = 300w (0.3kw)
Gaming PC = 350w (0.35kw)
So total here is 750w (0.75kw), but as it is running 24/7. Total cost = 0.75kw x 24h x R1.4 = R25.20 per day.
That is R756 for 30 days!!!!

That totally supprised me, to say the least!!!

So if anybody else out there is struggling with high power bills, be aware.
It might not be the "big" loads that use so much electricity, but all the smaller ones combined running 24/7!!!
Click to expand...

My whole house averages around 800w - that's with my PC, laser printer, scanner, external drives, DVR, HP Microserver running, TV and AVR on standby... including fridges, freezers, etc etc etc.
I wonder how much of that is actually the PC and printers etc...
 
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