mending things

Common themes across most of my posts are energy conservation , its monitoring and technology. This post sort of combines all three in one. We have a Sky+ satellite unit with integral hard disk recorder. In the UK this is known as a Sky+ box. The unit can be programmed to easily record programmes 24 hours per day and record complete series at a repeating time. It has lots of features, including OnDemand  services where a wide range of channels are recorded on the off chance you might want to watch them. My specific Model Sky + HD unit is made by Amstrad We also have a 46" Samsung LED TV which is hooked up to the Sky+ unit . I use a CurrentCost household energy monitor, which is hooked up to the internet via a unit called a netsmart, also from CurrentCost (see my other post on currentcost). I can see on a web page a graph of my household energy consumption in close to real time. A 3rd type of device from CurrentCost is the Individual Alliance Monitor (IAM) which is a unit whi...

Inspired by the success of my bridged energy monitor which enables me to publish to and access data from the web, I decided to also get an IAM. CurrentCost is a household energy monitor, which uses wireless technology to communicate with an inductive 'clamp' installed around the mains electricity cable in my meter box (see other currentCost post). Recently the bridge enables the display to post data to the web. The IAM is a small unit resembling an electrical plug with a socket on the back. Basically you unplug a piece of equipment in your house, plug it into the IAM and plug the IAM into the wall socket. What it does is enable you to monitor individual appliances in your household using the CurrentCost display, in addition to the whole household. My Display supports up to 9 IAMs in addition to the primary function of displaying the total household consumption. I've always been a bit mystified as to why my background usage never falls much below 300 watts. Even while...

I just got a 'bridge' for my current Cost CC128 device enabling me to publish data to dashboard etc. Early days but here is my currentusage Works well, and meant that I could monitor my household energy use from abroad while on holiday ! The currentcost dashboard at my.currentcost.com has a mobile browser version which worked on my Android phone.

I am on an Economy 7 electricity tariff. E7 , as it's abbreviated, offers lower cost electricity at night, but with slightly higher day rate and standing charge. The original reason for E7 was so the Electricity providers to reduce the peak demand. In very general terms, the electricity we are using now is being generated now. This means that the grid has to anticipate peak demand, fro example the ad break in the middle of "Coronation Street" , when millions of viewers get up and switch electric kettles on. By encouraging people to use electricity during off-peak times i.e at night, less generators have to be bought online. Also the mix of generators determines the amount of CO2. For live CO2 data from the grid see http://realtimecarbon.org/ You can see that the mount of CO2 released in grams per unit is at it's lowest at night. Also lowering peak demand means less power stations needing to be built The biggest household use of electricity is heating water and space ...

My latest gadget, which I have had for a few months is the Current Cost CC128 . This device displays how much electricity we use , in real time. It also gathers historical data which I can download to a computer for analysis. There are quite a number of these type of devices from Owl, Wattson and others and they all work in broadly the same manner. The device has a display unit , as seen in the picture. It communicates with a sensor which you install alongside your electricity meter via a wireless connection. The sensor unit has a clamp which loosely attaches around the cable leaving your electricity meter. That's it ! Takes about 2 minutes to install and does not require an electrician. Nor does it interfere with your electrical supply or wiring in any way. Completely non invasive. I had previously had an Owl device which worked very well, but did not record historical data. I passed this unit on to my mother-in-law who is using it in France, where it also works well. I chose the...