Where are all those watts going?

Late last Sunday when I was alone in the house I went round with the OWL energy monitor to try and track down what was using those 160-190 watts when, in the middle of the night, you think 'nothing is on' in the house. Well in this house, this is what is still using power in the middle of the night -

Alarm system; fridge; fridge/freezer; two house phones on charge; broadband modem (but see below re BT's helpful little app for this); Dustbuster on charge; clock on the cooker; photocopier 'standby' light; heating programmer display; electric oil-filled radiator; dehumidifier on standby; hi-fi on standby downstairs; and then the big batch of tv/audio stuff in our sitting room - TV, DVD, VHS machine, Digibox, TV/FM signal booster, Hi-Fi, pre-amp.

Some of this stuff such as the alarm system and the fridges you can't really turn off; OWL finds it hard to sense switch-offs of equipment less than about 11 watts, and most of these things (like cooker clocks and even dustbusters on charge) are probably using hardly anything, BUT - and you have probably guessed it - OWL burst into action when that whole bank of TV/Hi-Fi stuff was turned off.

Because they were all connected to the mains with an unhealthy assortment of trailing sockets and adaptors, I thought that it would be good to buy a new trailing socket that could be switched off at one go, onto which I could put all the hungry beasts. I bought OWL's own 4-socket Power Saver Strip directly from OWL for special price of £19.19 and re-wired all that kit and stuff that was using about 35-40 watts 24 hours a day is now using nothing. Slightly wondered had I just become the consumer of an unnecessary additional item when I found in my cupboard a 4-socket strip with a switch on it - and why could I just not switch the things off myself at the end of the day, but on reflection I think this thing will make it easier for me (and others in the house) to realise that all this stuff should be properly off unless you are watching/listening.

BT modem Power Save option - if you have a BT broadband Home Hub, there is a Power Save function you can access on-line through your account which allows you to choose a period in the day (or night) when some clever gremlin will switch your modem off.

Yes - I do now have a Power Monitor

Finally spurred into getting my own power monitor by reading in February Prospect how Brian Eno claimed to have reduced his electricity use by 30% using one. Found the Good Energy Shop had the best information about available models and went for The Owl. Cost - £33. This one has the advantage over the ENVI that you can take the monitor round the house with you to see how much consumption goes down by switching off items. Minor difficulties with set up but Owl customer services extremely quick to respond and get me monitoring. While on the subject of electricity, I discovered that Scottish Power (whom I am about to change as supplier) provide historical daily averages of your energy usage in kWh.

Energy Monitor Trial

Borrowed one of the 12 ENVI Real Time Energy Monitors (www.currentcost.com) from Edinburgh City Libraries. To find their stock of monitors on the online catalogue put 'Energy Monitor' into the Keyword field on the search page. Fascinated to see my electricity use spelt out on a screen in front of me. I duly logged for a week (maximum loan period) the major ups and downs. Most of us probably know that kettles and irons and tumble driers consume humungous amounts of electricity, but I didn’t find it made much difference knowing what this was costing me in pounds per day as few people run a kettle or a kettle or an iron for this long. So it was the daily totals that were of most interest and particularly the point when you think nothing is on in the house but the screen still says you are using 245W. I was alone in the house that week and my average per day was 11.5 kWh. I handed the ENVI back in to the Library a little reluctantly but not bursting to have my own.