Ive used one of these for the last year or so and found it interesting and accurate. you are able to programme it to the price charged by your utility company for each Kilowatt used. The first unit i had only gave an instant reading of power being used together with a cost per day and cost per month.
I since changed to another monitor which in addition to the basic information shows a bar graph of consumption for yesterday for the night(11-7), day (7-3), and evening(3-11). It also displays consumption totals for the last day, last seven days and last 30 days. In addition there is a clock and internal temperature monitor. Installation was very straightforward and easy. No need for any tools.
My biggest consumer of power is the compressor for the ground source heating system which warms the house and hot water and is using a lot of energy at the moment. Not surprising really as its the middle of winter
Thanks for the info Tin man seems like just what the doctor ordered. I'll let you know later how it went.
As I may have mentioned elsewhere my last power bill was getting close to $1500 bucks ($1,463 + change). I did get 12% rebate from one of those electricity provider's in the end but I got to ask what the heck am I doing wrong? One things for sure I will find out sooner or later where the juice is going as i'm just about to order one of those Clipsal "cent a meter" type devices to double check everything. But there's only one thing that's changed in recent times & that's more crunching. One things is for sure theses days & that is that Big Credit's = Big dollar$.
Any other hints or tips about power saving or these type of power monitoring devices would be much appreciated.
@ lawry www.currentcost.com for the company website.
the model i have is the enviR. Costings are in pounds but substitute $ for pound symboland you have your own costing. Doesnt take GST(VAT) into account
I dont use IAMs but you can buy them as extras if you wish if you want to check individual appliances, im happy just momitoring the overall usage.
Hope this helps. Mike