- Joined
- 27 Jan 2008
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- Llanfair Caereinion, Nr Welshpool
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I could turn it off, but my hunt for why we are using so much background power is on going, so I am trying to work out why background use is at moment 416 watts, we are both sitting in our bedrooms, wife playing on phone and myself on laptop.
So I have three plug-in energy monitors, one manual, one monitor only and one monitor and can also switch on/off. The main background use has to be freezers, and fridges, we have 5, the chest freezer has the remote monitor on it at the moment, and average use is 25 watt, run power 65 watt, and this is likely the most power hungry of the 5, so if all running together 325 watt, average 125 watt, so this does not explain the background use.
The peak was when I had a shower, but the software seems to smooth out some spikes, as it is not showing the 3 kW when making coffee, and have made 3 cups of coffee today. For a year now I have been moving my energy monitor around hunting for why background is so high, we have had power cuts, so any computer would have closed down, so two printers on line, one inkjet, one laser, there are SkyQ boxes, the router, three hubs, clocks, including smart central heating control, but these should be no more than one watt each, 4 TV's the same.
Clearly not worried about cooker, microwave, washing machines etc, we know when they are running, we are actively reducing stuff in the freezers, but the main aim is to reduce background use so we can from sun down to 1 am run on 2.88 kWh, this is how much my 3.2 kWh battery will allow us to use, it holds back 10% for UPS use.
Using my clamp on meter, 1.8 amp approx, whole CU, (414 watts) turn off the 16 amp RCBO to immersion drops to 1.5 amp (354 watts) and the solar display did not change, 325 watt, until I returned to PC when it jumped to 493 watt. So it does seem there is a large delay with the solar panel display,
However, before going down to measure with clamp on the iboost+ said "Water tank hot" and on return also "Water tank hot" which means the thermostat on the immersion has turned off. So something on the DHW RCBO is using around 90 watt. So switched off next to tank, when down to measure 1.34 amps, (308 watt) so it does seem the iboost+ may well be using 90 watt even when tank is hot, clearly 90 watt 24/7 x 365 is a lot of power. Specially in the winter months, when the iboost+ never turns on.
So two things, one has anyone else measured what the iboost+ uses when reporting tank hot, and if I turn it off in Winter, will it loose connection to the CT coil?
Note:- The solar panel software is likely monitoring three freezers and central heating, but the clamp on is not, as they don't come from the CU but direct from inverter. It does seem a large delay with the solar software, but the smart meter display is useless, just shows exporting.
So I have three plug-in energy monitors, one manual, one monitor only and one monitor and can also switch on/off. The main background use has to be freezers, and fridges, we have 5, the chest freezer has the remote monitor on it at the moment, and average use is 25 watt, run power 65 watt, and this is likely the most power hungry of the 5, so if all running together 325 watt, average 125 watt, so this does not explain the background use.
Clearly not worried about cooker, microwave, washing machines etc, we know when they are running, we are actively reducing stuff in the freezers, but the main aim is to reduce background use so we can from sun down to 1 am run on 2.88 kWh, this is how much my 3.2 kWh battery will allow us to use, it holds back 10% for UPS use.
Using my clamp on meter, 1.8 amp approx, whole CU, (414 watts) turn off the 16 amp RCBO to immersion drops to 1.5 amp (354 watts) and the solar display did not change, 325 watt, until I returned to PC when it jumped to 493 watt. So it does seem there is a large delay with the solar panel display,
However, before going down to measure with clamp on the iboost+ said "Water tank hot" and on return also "Water tank hot" which means the thermostat on the immersion has turned off. So something on the DHW RCBO is using around 90 watt. So switched off next to tank, when down to measure 1.34 amps, (308 watt) so it does seem the iboost+ may well be using 90 watt even when tank is hot, clearly 90 watt 24/7 x 365 is a lot of power. Specially in the winter months, when the iboost+ never turns on.
So two things, one has anyone else measured what the iboost+ uses when reporting tank hot, and if I turn it off in Winter, will it loose connection to the CT coil?
Note:- The solar panel software is likely monitoring three freezers and central heating, but the clamp on is not, as they don't come from the CU but direct from inverter. It does seem a large delay with the solar software, but the smart meter display is useless, just shows exporting.