How to measure electricity usage from JUST one device?

[OM2]

We're with EDF
We've got a smart meter
It says the usage for current and week
I can't tell if it gives any further helpful information

How can I use it to measure one single device?
I don't know for sure... but I suspect one fan heater, we bought from Lidl a few months back, is using more than its fair share - but can't be 100% sure

I did a search on Google, but can't get any answers

Thanks

 

[martygturner]

Smart meters only measure the total electricity usage of a house. Either unplug everything leaving only the heater plugged in then run it for say 1 hour, noting the start reading and end reading on the meter, that would give you the kw /hr of the unit.

But in all honesty why bother fan heaters are rated in watts, so 2kw heater will use 2000w per hour. They cannot use more than that as they are governed by the amount of resistance in the heating coil, which is a set standard based on resistance of the coil. If you want to measure the resistance of the coil plop a meter on the live and neutral of the plug and measure the resistance in Ohms...use any online calculator to work out the watts of the heating coil pack....but in all honesty if it varies by 1% from the stated rating I would be amazed.

If you really want to measure the leccy being used just buy a cheap hopimeter... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diymore-Mo...words=hopi+power+meter&qid=1677338525&sr=8-58

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

How can I use it to measure one single device?
I don't know for sure... but I suspect one fan heater, we bought from Lidl a few months back, is using more than its fair share - but can't be 100% sure

As @martygturner ove, except - If you have a smart meter, you should have an in house remote display. The display will probably allow you to see an instantaneous consumption value. If you first make sure that everything else is turned off, including fridges and freezers etc., apart from the heater, it should show the consumption of the heater in isolation.

As stated above, it is highly unlikely the heater will be consuming appreciably more than it's rated consumption, and if it did - you are still getting every watt of heat you are paying for. Note that a 2Kw heater will likely cost around 66p per hour to run, assuming it has no thermostat and runs flat out the entire period.

 

[jj4091]

As @martygturner ove, except - If you have a smart meter, you should have an in house remote display. The display will probably allow you to see an instantaneous consumption value. If you first make sure that everything else is turned off, including fridges and freezers etc., apart from the heater, it should show the consumption of the heater in isolation.

As stated above, it is highly unlikely the heater will be consuming appreciably more than it's rated consumption, and if it did - you are still getting every watt of heat you are paying for. Note that a 2Kw heater will likely cost around 66p per hour to run, assuming it has no thermostat and runs flat out the entire period.

I don't know anything at all about smart meters, but if they work as use suggest then it should be easy enough to work out the info the op. requires just by noting the increase/decrease in the reading when the fan heater is switched on/off without turning other appliances off.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I don't know anything at all about smart meters, but if they work as use suggest then it should be easy enough to work out the info the op. requires just by noting the increase/decrease in the reading when the fan heater is switched on/off without turning other appliances off.

If, and only if, that is the only item which is turned on - the problem with that theory, is that so many things can and do switch themselves on and off randomly, and some even vary their current draw constantly, such as TV's, plus of course - fridges and freezers switching on and off. The only certain way, is everything off, but the appliance under test.

 

[hllns]

Smart meter should be able to give you instantaneous consumption but if you want to measure the consumption where something is cycling on/off over the time a smart plug with monitoring in it or a plug-in meter will do it:

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They look quite cheap but they've got a clever chip in these days so they're quite accurate. I used one recently to arm-twist my parents into not using their ancient "second freezer" that was a bit eyewatering in terms of cost.

Edit: It is a cheap chinese device though so you might not want to leave it unattended for really long periods

 

[martygturner]

I don't know anything at all about smart meters, but if they work as use suggest then it should be easy enough to work out the info the op. requires just by noting the increase/decrease in the reading when the fan heater is switched on/off without turning other appliances off.

problem without switching off everything how can you be sure that its not the fridge kicking in or the tv goes from a moody slow film to showing football match...tv when still can draw only 45 watts when its mostly dark colours but kick up the brightness,action and sound and they can draw 200w. Instant consumption only works for a whole house not an appliance.

The problem instant consumption is getting a baseline and that can only be done accurately which is what the op wanted is by testing the heater in isolation.

Otherwise just used the watts on the back of the heater...that will be pretty accurate and far more accurate than a whole house instant consumption with varying loads.

 

[foxhole]

We're with EDF
We've got a smart meter
It says the usage for current and week
I can't tell if it gives any further helpful information

How can I use it to measure one single device?
I don't know for sure... but I suspect one fan heater, we bought from Lidl a few months back, is using more than its fair share - but can't be 100% sure

I did a search on Google, but can't get any answers

Thanks

The label on any electrical device tells you it’s power consumption.

 

[RandomGrinch]

The label on any electrical device tells you it’s power consumption.

No, it tells you the maximum power that can be drawn by the appliance.

 

[foxhole]

No, it tells you the maximum power that can be drawn by the appliance.

Same difference

 

[RandomGrinch]

Same difference

Ok, interesting, so my fridge states 200W on the label, that would be 1752kWh of energy usage per annum (currently costing £600/year! ).
I wonder why Hisense state it would use 226kWh/annum?