Using an energy monitor can give you the information you need to help keep track of your electricity usage, save money and be more energy efficient. It is also a great way for teaching everyone in the household, but especially children about the cost of electricity and the importance of energy efficiency.
You may be surprised at how much background electricity you could be using. Appliances in standby mode use electricity.
Spending even 5p an hour on this background usage could cost more than £400 a year and using an energy monitor will help identify where this usage is coming from.
What does it do?
An energy monitor is a device that talks to your electricity meter and tells you where and how you use electricity.
It can calculate the daily and monthly running costs of household appliances and lighting in real time. You can turn the kettle on and see how much it costs.
How they work
The setup can be done easily at home. A sensor fits easily onto your meter whilst the digital display unit will plug into a household power outlet that you can view. The monitor’s transmitter has a range of 30 meters. This range reduces a little through walls, but we have trailed these ourselves and even in older Guernsey granite homes.
One monitor works with one meter so if you have more than one meter, you will need multiple monitors.
The simple programming allows you to enter the date and time, standing charge, the tariff unit charges and the tariff time bands. Some households have different time periods for low and normal rates, so you can input your personal time periods on the setup.
The digital display will tell you how much electricity you are using and how much it is costing in real time. If you are a customer on Economy 12 tariff, it is interesting to see the savings from using appliances in low versus normal rate times.
What we recommend for Guernsey
In Guernsey, there are up to three different time period bands and many energy monitors only allow two to be entered. We recommend the Minim+ Home Energy Monitor.
As well as being able to take several time bands, they are simple to set up and program yourself at home. Data can be viewed as days, weeks or months which can help you see patterns of high and low usage, too.
You can also set a budget and watch your actual usage compared to this. You’ll be able to see it turn red or green compared your set budget, to help manage your bills and even try to reduce your bill.
