Where is my electricity going?
Discussion
We have an energy monitor sitting on the desk in the study. It measures in real time the electrical energy the house is using at any given time.
I was sitting there the other day and I noticed it was registering 420 Watts...
So I turned off the desk lamp, and it went down... then I turned off the alarm clock, the TV, freesat box, Computer... and it went down again.
Then I turned off the cooker and microwave (digital displays) and it dropped even further... but not to zero. I then hunted around for other stuff that was on... In the garage my bike was on an optimate, so I turned that off... It was still not on zero, so I turned the central heating boiler off completely... it went down further... but again not to zero...
I hunted around, room by room, and noticed the electric piano switched on, with a standby light... off that went. still showing 40 watts...
Then I thought you prat, the monitor itself has a transformer! But I thought that's still a lot of watts for that transformer.. So I fired up the portable generator (yes I do have too much time on my hands!) and plugged the monitor into that. The monitor dropped to 30 watts...
If I turned the electricity off completely (with the monitor still powered by the generator) the display drops to zero...
This got me intrigued... so I took the monitor to my brothers house, switched everything off apart from the monitor itself, and the display showed 9 to 12 watts, which is the consumption I would have expected... so its not the monitor.
So where is my 30 watts going!
I was sitting there the other day and I noticed it was registering 420 Watts...
So I turned off the desk lamp, and it went down... then I turned off the alarm clock, the TV, freesat box, Computer... and it went down again.
Then I turned off the cooker and microwave (digital displays) and it dropped even further... but not to zero. I then hunted around for other stuff that was on... In the garage my bike was on an optimate, so I turned that off... It was still not on zero, so I turned the central heating boiler off completely... it went down further... but again not to zero...
I hunted around, room by room, and noticed the electric piano switched on, with a standby light... off that went. still showing 40 watts...
Then I thought you prat, the monitor itself has a transformer! But I thought that's still a lot of watts for that transformer.. So I fired up the portable generator (yes I do have too much time on my hands!) and plugged the monitor into that. The monitor dropped to 30 watts...
If I turned the electricity off completely (with the monitor still powered by the generator) the display drops to zero...
This got me intrigued... so I took the monitor to my brothers house, switched everything off apart from the monitor itself, and the display showed 9 to 12 watts, which is the consumption I would have expected... so its not the monitor.
So where is my 30 watts going!
voicey said:
Fridge? Fire Alarm?
If you really want to know you can figure out which circuit the draw is on by flicking each circuit off one by one at the consumer unit - should give you a direction to go hunting in.
yep thanks, I should have mentioned that, Its on the socket circuit...If you really want to know you can figure out which circuit the draw is on by flicking each circuit off one by one at the consumer unit - should give you a direction to go hunting in.
cjs said:
Telephones or other stuff on charge? Tv distribution amp? Modem? Water softener? Washing machine & dishwasher, switch off at the wall they use power in 'standby'.
nope, all off. had to empty the cupboard to get to the dishwasher switch...My wife is saying this is becoming an obsession....
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