Smart Plugs & Saving £££s With What I Found

I've installed some GivEnergy smart plugs that also monitor energy usage and over time they've highlighted some easy changes to reduce energy consumption and therefore my bills!
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#savingmoney #home #smartgadgets

[@jezw1138]

I’ve used smart plugs to switch stuff off overnight (like AV kit) and other stuff on for off-peak rates (like a dehumidifier for laundry) for a while now. I thought I was on top of things until I went on holiday. Octopus showed the house was still using 4kWh per day with no one home. I am on a mission now to identify what vampires are draining my cash.

[@timoliver8940]

Thanks to my Myenergi car charger’s app I’ve managed to get my base load down to 0.1kW. Even as a kid in the 60’s we were always told to unplug any electrical appliances that weren’t being used, to switch off lights when we left rooms and never to leave anything on standby mode. Todays sunshine made enough PV to run 3 Fischer Future Heat electric heaters for 4 hours this after noon for nothing meaning a toasty lounge hall and bedroom for this evening

[@nadtz]

Your audio thing reminded me of when I realized how much my old printer used to burn through. I had an old HP laserjet something or other and it was amazing how much power that thing ate up on "standby". Saved something like $10 a month by only turning it on when I needed to print something. Ran into this video while hunting down recommendations on smart plugs to use with home assistant in the near future but the whole audio equipment burning aa ton of power without realizing it definitely brought back that memory.

[@briangriffiths114]

Yes, I keep a similar close watch on my energy consumption and have done so for decades. I used a basic plug-in energy monitor plus smart meter data and real time figures from my EDDI solar energy management unit to reduce electricity consumption to 560 units per year in 2021.

[@otm205]

Just a little twist to the story if I may. It's not all just wasted energy what these appliances use. It's heat. So when the weather is cold it is adding to the heat inside the building, whether it is a TV set or an aquarium or whatever. And that saves some money in the heating proper. How much it saves depends on the efficiency of your main heating source. For example if you have a heatpump with 3:1 efficiency, then every kWh 'waste kWh' in the house is only 2/3 waste energy but if you have ordinary electric radiators there is basically no waste at all. And then again if you use air conditioning in the summer it's a completely different story...

[@peterbee8892]

The Drayton wiser repeater/ smart plug integrates to Drayton insights plus which takes data from your smets meter and all the thermostats and radiators and stores it in the cloud. Worth a look if you have underfloor heating.

[@ched999uk]

Data is King!!! Added a few smart plugs to AV kit and computer kit and it's quite shocking how much older things pull on standby!

[@ianev5544]

Check your TV settings. A 65 ins TV can use as little as 80W in eco mode compared with 200 with max brightness enabled. Horses for courses but if you're heating a single smallish room such as a snug I'm finding infrared panel heaters are most efficient. They run at about 400W for a panel the size of a small radiator but unlike blow heaters running at 2KW, convectors and radiators the heat produced by infrared feels like the winter sun on your face and it heats anything infront of it such as yourself and the chair your sitting in. When turned off you and your surroundings retain the heat longer than convected heat which just rises and dissipates.

[@FoxInClogs]

I've just bought an EV and now I'm searching for a smart charger. (A Zappi, maybe?) In the meantime I'm using a granny cable. That's where smart plugs are handy. I've set up a smart plug (for the charger) to only switch on when my PVs are delivering 1.2kw or more to the grid. The plug switches off again when this drops below 1kw. Hopefully the 200w difference will stop it switching on and off like traffic lights. 😉 This way half of my charge (or more) will hopefully be delivered by the PVs.

[@rbdogwood]

I don't think many people do it now, but I know of a few who ran old freezers and fridges in the garage for a bit of extra storage. Beer etc. Well worth checking because you don't often hear them. Smart plugs would point out just how much they use. We had a chest freezer inside the house which had developed an ice bridge. Quietly gobbled £200 of electricity.

[@SirHackaL0t.]

Not only do I turn off my amp and sub at the wall when not using it I also turn off most of the smart plugs when not in use as they use a couple of watts each. Having many soon adds up. Try plugging a smart plug into a smart plug to monitor it’s consumption.

[@yvonnewiggins4209]

I have just started switching off areas of the house at the fuse box. The only thing I leave on is the fridge/freezer. Even that will be switched off when I have emptied the freezer. My biggest outgoing is the standing charges. I watch the things I want to watch on my iPad which I keep charged so the other thing that is going to go is my cable TV provider!

[@Muppetkeeper]

I have Hive smart plugs, no power reading. Something in my house is putting base load at 350W, so i've invested in some smart plugs with energy monitoring to see what's going on. My Mesh WiFi are brilliant, 4 watts each when actually running!

[@TheDarylSharp]

You can never have too many smart plugs. I have one on the dishwasher, washing machine, fridge freezer, heated airer and tv/Xbox. Like you say data is power but also when you have an off peak rate you can control when those devices come on to take advantage of the low cost electricity.

[@mastweiler22]

I borrowed a thermal imager to have a look around my house, the Sony amplifier just pumps out heat on standby... Thankfully it's been on a smart plug for a while! The sky set top box also looks bad but less straightforward to power off 😕

[@stuartburns8657]

Brought 8 the other day. Some useful insights, but despite having my Givenergy linked to Alexa, can't seem to do the same for these plugs. No ability to schedule a shutdown and startup for plug collections either?

[@markchip1]

My first reaction was "just how much will it cost to get a dozen or more of these" - but then, you only need to run a couple at a time for a day or two or two on key equipment to make your assessment!

[@mattmecham]

Used a tapo plug in my sons bedroom to monitor the energy his TV and PS5 uses. It uses just over 350watts when being used.

[@TiberiusDarkforge]

Another great video. I recently picked up some TP-Link Tapo plugs. Our bedroom TV, in addition to having a DVD player and Chrome Cast, has a signal booster for the aerial. Leaving the whole lot on standby may only be 3wh, but when that's 22 hours a day, 365 days a year, it soon mounts up! Have now got the Tapo scheduled to come on and go off as needed.

[@stulop]

About 9 quid a year if my maths is working today. I've found with the small stuff it's not worth it individually, but when you start adding all the small stuffs together it becomes so.

[@MrKlawUK]

I'm doing similar with Home assistant. I use Tado plugs, and I found my Wemo ones do monitoring too. So along with solar generation and grid import, you can see all the plugs as separately tracked. I was surprised how little the microwave and kettle used (big power but short time)

[@David-bl1bt]

Would you mind sharing where you got the tado plugs from?

[@gchecosse]

I was surprised how much the microwave used, having naively thought that the wattage was input not output.

[@MrKlawUK]

@@gchecosse that’s true - you’d think it should be really. Still relatively low overall consumption

[@stewartburnett7303]

Yup, but my "ambient" power is so low I can see when we boil kettle for coffee in the morning

[@uk_assassin8684]

Good video to teach people to take simple steps to save enery. 👏🏼👏🏼

[@yellownev]

From my days of work - if you are not measuring it you are not managing it !! I have plenty of smart plugs, call them overnighters that come on 12.30 - 4.30 to charge laptops, ipads, dehumidifier.... Planning my own battery and small solar set up... I've reduced my electricity use by a third in the last year. Have you investigated Ripple yet ? Our co-operative turbine is being installed as we speak.... very exciting !!

[@barryhaeger4284]

Yes, when I bought some TP_Link SMART plug adapters last winter. When I did, I bought one energy monitoring one to use as a SMART power switch on an occasional use panel heater. Prove valuable in that I realised that it wasn't using as much as I thought it would and at the same time it enabled me to schedule OFF times just in case it was forgotten and left on. BUT! something I must do is work out how much all these SMART adapters and SMART bulbs are costing me 24/7 when in Standby - I bet that adds up and I've never seen it actually specified on the outside of the box!

[@jeta1f35]

TP-Link users forum suggests that power used by Tapo P100/105 smart plug is

[@ecok]

Just seen a later reply from EV Man : "I plugged 6 in a chain and it said 0.1W"

[@stulop]

​@@ecok That is a very dangerous thing to do. I heard that if you chain 10 it will open some kind of inter dimensional rift.

[@thetwistedsock3253]

I've got a rental house and when I went round to check something in the loft as soon as I opened the hatch it was apparent the lights were on. The tenant had last been up there to put Christmas decorations away. I calculated the wasted energy would have cost about £80. I didn't want to worry the tenant but I said make sure they're off. Incidentally the loft lights are on a plug in the airing cupboard - marked loft lights.

[@jeta1f35]

Great presentation, there's nothing like having a bit of extra data to crunch !! I've homed in on the TP-Link Tapo range of accessories, and now have several smart plugs and smart bulbs helping me to monitor and control usage. Looking for all the standing loads is key to controlling costs.

[@01mememememe]

Tapo - I gave up on them as had to reset the plug back to new to reset power settings data, has that changed now?

[@Joe-lb8qn]

I've just bought one of their energy monitoring plugs (having three of their smart plugs already) have been pleasantly surprised to find that my tropical fish tanks usage is much lower than i expected from this video, as in around 0.5kWh/day or about 15p so £50/year. Was expecting it to be 2x that. Regards Tapo, their products seem to be well priced and reliable.For energy monotoring i also think its more convenient to see usage on a smartphone than a much bulkier smart plug that has a small screen

[@cnjelly7876]

I didnt like tapo for any kind of energy reporting, for live draw its fine but any historical data is useless, after an 8 hour gaming session with a TP plugged into a dumb energy monitor it was 500-1000w total draw off of the dumb energy monitor and the peak power draw was nowhere near what it actually got to. Even with tapo plugged into a receiver that has a minimum power level of 30w it recorded a peak of 29watts, I don't know how it calculates things but any energy monitoring plug imo should have live info all the time being collected and transmitted whether it be locally or cloud or collect live info and send it at intervals. Taking interval readings then doing math to estimate usage is 100% useless.

[@davidlei6930]

@@01mememememe Yes, now they have upgraded a lot, you can reset the energy information in the app, you can enter the TOU rate to calculate your daily electricity bill, and you can also email the energy information to you. Tapo's energy monitoring smart plug is the best on the market.

[@RB-lt8kt]

Interesting video with good information. Most people don't read specs of equipment. Many home desk top PC's, games consoles etc. use power when switched off via windows / shut down. Always switch electrical items off at the wall when not in use. BT tv boxes draw power when "off" as well as SKY boxes. Older TV's can be very power hungry when in standby mode. Which cheap smart plugs are any good ?

[@ndudman8]

And I thought the fish would have to go when you started... ... best way to save energy... put those plugs on all appliances and if anything use's 90% of the previous day then just turn it off.

[@eddyd8745]

Precisely why I sold all my Sonos kit. It was always on and was therefore always warm. Practically drove me mad thinking of the waste of money and energy.

[@danpaul4975]

Ironically I've unplugged two of my smart plugs. They had lamps plugged in that aren't being used at the moment so the smart plugs were consuming energy for nothing. My tumble dryer packed up a few weeks ago so I'm using a clothes airer since even in these cooler months, the sun coming through my windows puts the lounge temperature above 20c. I haven't even switched on the heating yet, and won't need to for easily another month or more.

[@bordersw1239]

I just use my smart meter, glad I got the wife to change her marine and tropical tanks to cold fish - saving about £580 per year! My new TV 47” uses 60W when being used. Our old one (40”) used 160W. Our base load is now 89W, most of that is the fish tank pumps.

[@chrisjones6542]

I have a pond pump (outside fish!) it’s using 283 watts whilst running I’m paying 42p daytime rate on my Octopus Go fix. .. no I didn’t do exact sums but approx 50p every 4 hours Ooooooch! All the on line articles say don’t turn off the pumps…………. I bought a timer so they only run between 0030-0430 and 1100-1630 (Max solar generation for SW facing array)…. 🤞 hopefully the fish will be OK….,,,,,..

[@bordersw1239]

@@chrisjones6542 . I hope so to - at least you have the night time rate and solar - wish I had the spare cash - south facing uninterrupted large roof but not enough spare cash thanks to Covid!

[@richardsixsmith1945]

Do you find the givenergy smart plugs to be reliable? I bought a tp-link Kasa plug and a givenergy plug about 6-9 months ago to see which is best, the givenergy regularly crashes and needs to be unplugged and re plugged, or it doesn’t have the flexibility of settings and I have to do that via Alexa eg turn on at sunset for a lamp. The tp-link has been absolutely faultless. I’m just wondering if I have a dodgy givenergy plug or if others have the same experiences? Like you I’d rather have it all in 1 app…but not if it’s just going to crash and do my head in

[@terryrigden4860]

We used a power meter to monitor all our appliances and were shocked to discover that our elderly microwave used more energy on standby than in use. Now absolutely NOTHING is left on stanby in our house. This has brought our base load down to 3Kwh a day which is the fridge and freezer . They say that knowledge is power but in our case its ( using) less power

[@nickieredshaw7835]

Yes got 2 like this recently and yes supposed at the power draw of something’s ever thought we have turned next to everything we thought of off at the wall etc and love the data

[@matneu27]

Since I measured our TV I figured out that the brightness tuning can save lots of money. Anyway I have many sonoff based power meters in use that are all get flashed with a in house system (tasmota with iobroker) . I don't like to host my data on suspicious China servers and let others make money with the data analysis.

[@mil3761]

Where can you buy the Givenergy smart plugs? Couldn't see them on Amazon. Will the smart plugs work in the app even though I don't have any other Givenergy products

[@djtaylorutube]

I've done this exercise too, gone from around constant 700W load to 250 to 350W load. If we're thrifty, we can stretch the power consumption across the whole day from a solar battery charged at 11p per kWh. I'm tired of too many articles which state rubbish such as "unplug your kettle of not in use to save energy" or suggestions that your TV on standby is using lots of power. When I'm asked, my response is that there's no easy answer, each device needs measuring. Also, don't forget to use the ECO mode on the TV, that can substantially reduce the power consumption which for hours of viewing, does add up. Each of our TV's pretty much halves the power requirement.

[@onetwo2201]

Yes but picture quality sufers turning of stand by on tv will shorten life of power supply then you need new tv

[@djtaylorutube]

@@onetwo2201 I'd like to see statistical evidence of the scale of that. The only thing likely to suffer is the capacitors in the switch mode power supply. Some are wise than others but given TV reliability now compared with my childhood of the repair man coming out to change valves, it's a world apart. I've never had a TV power supply fail. As to turning to ECO mode, yes it's a decision to make but whether you notice it after a while, I would argue not. It's a choice though, compare the difference and decide accordingly.

[@lharris828]

I discovered today that my smart meter may *not* be giving true readings. We had a battery system installed and the s/m now shows export to grid of 20w overnight from panels!!!

[@jamesadams4605]

Could you advise where I can purchase them from please. Can any smart plug work with the Give Energy app?

[@DC84.]

Really enjoyed that. I have an Ohme EV charger. I think you do too? I would be interested to know how much power I'm wasting with that being on and not used for 20hours a day. If you find that out please send me the bill ;)

[@madonemt]

How on earth do u order these plugs? I can't find them on the givenergi website.

[@andrewdyson4255]

My 99p may have just saved me considerably more 😊

[@stewartburnett7303]

Decent savings to be had with smart plugs, I have around 10 of the Tado plugs - ancient chest freezer in garage monitored as using £10-15 per month, replaced and down to £3 per month. Virgin Media TV Box (a major power hog), Surround Sound and TV on standby now auto off at midnight, similar with laptops, PC's and associated speakers all aded up to £5-10 per month of wasted power. Will incoming GivEnergy (9.5kWh) battery and Octopus GO/Intelligent tariff kill my smart plug savings? Nope because all those kWh savings means I'm safely under 9kWh per day and very rarely exceed the 3.6kw it can supply the house, so that system means I'll be on 9.5 then (mid August) 7.5 pence per kWh for 95-99% of electricity, £80-100 per month in savings, payback around 6-7 yesars tho.

[@tonyfrewin4822]

Just made a similar discovery using my smart meter display unit. Kodak printer and 3 Sonos speakers that might only be used every 3 or 4 weeks wasting around 80p per day.

[@colinnich]

I got some monitoring plugs a few months ago. The biggest reveal was that my 15 year old tumble dryer is nowhere near as bad as I thought, and buying a new heat pump one is totally not worth it. Costs about the same over the month as my always-on internet hardware (that's using the dryer on Octopus Go off-peak, admittedly)

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

Data, data, data.

[@colingoode3702]

Snap. Apart from the cost I ruled out a HP dryer because it is in our garage which is too cold in winter for it to work. I have been looking at how to schedule our condenser dryer for off peak use at night because the dryer does not have a built in timer like our dishwasher. Apart from my wife worrying about the dryer bursting into flames overnight (because her mothers one did 25 years ago!), will it work via one of these smart plugs or just a simple mechanical timer?

[@suewhicker1351]

We average 20kwh per day. Shocked, so brought a smart plug and tested everything. Nothing was using much energy. The only thing l couldn't test is the Nibe heat pump, so it seems to be that that's costing a bloody fortune to run!

[@alltechinbox]

Our freezers current consumption was bang on but the historic energy use was 3x what it should be. Difficult to spot as you say without the historic data. Don't ask abut the £600 replacement freezer :-(

[@cnjelly7876]

wow 50 watts for an amp, I may reconsider getting one if it uses that much when receiver is on standby, my receiver is around 30w on idle (Denon x2600H 5 Speakers) and negligible when on standby, but amp using more than receiver wow. If I may ask do you have a dumb energy monitor and plugged one of these smart plugs into it to compare results for one device?

[@MultiKangaroo]

I did this and also found that my old amp/surrounded speaker connected to tv was draining 40w on standby, used smart plug to switch off automatically at night and if I want it on I ask Alexa.

[@lesterrobinson3169]

I may be being really stupid here but I have a few of these Givenergy plugs there seems to be a major flaw..... while my Givenergy battery is powering my house (which I charged at cheap rate) it is showing my unit price as the day rate and not the battery rate?!

[@michaelmatthews4605]

Link to buy these Give Energy smart plugs, please.

[@stephendavies3111]

Would be good if you could do a video on what Tariffs are available to people who want to add a solar batteries to their solar panels but don’t have an electric car

[@MichaelDoran23]

Yes I do enjoy the smart plugs, however I want to upgrade all the sockets in the house now as we can get smart sockets with energy monitoring. But at 25 pound each and as many sockets I have to replace, it could take a wile lol. But yes love the data. Fridge surprised me, it uses more than I thought and the kettle uses much less than I thought.

[@stuartburns8657]

Fridge 24/7. Greedy things especially if you gave the American double ones

[@phantomdevil6834]

We have 2 fridge freezers running, now that uses a lot. Thankfully with a 4kwh solar array and 14kwh battery we can keep the costs low

[@hyweljthomas]

I use an Alexa plug to turn on/off my TV and sound system, TBH it's a little easier than faffing with schedules on a smart plug. (I've just bought 4 though!) My second thought is: is it worth turning off the fridge/freezer for a few hours overnight? I can't help thinking food would not come to any harm!

[@rawdah786]

Great video 👍🏽

[@JohnR31415]

Lots of smart relays, not got much in the way of measurement though. GivEnergy plugs look good.

[@simonkeightley999]

Hi EVM have you had any luck getting a givenergy EV charger or diverter.

[@Sailorman6996]

A sneaky consumer can be an electric heated bathroom floor.

[@MichaelSmith-fn5no]

Brilliant, we've been turning stuff off ever since the Octopus challenges earlier in the year, but to know what is pulling what would help. Once thing did occur to me, how much does the smart plug draw? it still needs power to do it's thing. I'm sure it's negligible, however if you have multiples what does that add up to? Now that's really penny pinching :)

[@stewartburnett7303]

About 1w - I tried two back to back to check 😞

[@Sthilboy56]

Just done my meter readings for October and sent them to eon , £22 for electric and £41 for gas , not really anything to worry about at the moment considering we are getting £66 from the government

[@coolmonkey619]

How

[@Sthilboy56]

@@coolmonkey619 I just don’t use much of each and it’s been mild weather so far , I expect it to go up a bit when it gets colder but I have a wood stove and get most of my wood for free so i shouldn’t get too high a bill this winter

[@davidsworld5837]

yes right we are getting £66 my supplier put £20 in my bank which was listed as the payment no sign of the £66 or £67 we were meant to get

[@Muppetkeeper]

I love a channel run by a fellow Yorkshireman. Careful with money is the new sexy.... lol.

[@Mr_PL]

those givenergy plugs seem too good to be true with data and smarts. Do you have to have the rest of the system to use them or can you use them in isolation through the app?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

Just the plugs.

[@billweaver6092]

It must cost a small fortune to buy the kit that saves you money!

[@danpaul4975]

It does. It makes me chuckle when people spend thousands just to save hundreds, 15 years down the line! I could go out and spend £10k on solar and £40k on an electric car, then die crossing the road a week later!!

[@Lewis_Standing]

How many do you need? Once you've figured out the use of one device and adjusted your use, can't you just move the smart plug onto the next device to check?

[@David-bl1bt]

Of course but for accurate data you realyl need to monitor for at least a month so if you have many appliances to check it will take many months to get data for them all.

[@roypateman470]

My 800w microwave pulls 1.2 kw when heating my food up . Hows that work then surely it should be a 1200w?

[@gchecosse]

I'd thought the same before getting a smart meter, I guess it's output not input

[@bikeman123]

The energy isn't all going on cooking. There's the turntable, light and display for starters.

[@stephenlee5929]

I'm guessing its not overly significant, but how much energy do the smart plugs use?

[@ecok]

I've read that its a bit less than 1W on standby. Mounts up if you have plenty of them ... but presumably anyone who is well organised, by using smart plugs, will easily save that much with things not left-on :) Some of these devices are unable to monitor very low power consumption, so maybe this won't work, but I fancy piggy-backing one on another to log usage :)

[@vannicrider7953]

But most of your wasted energy would surely have been covered by the battery which was charged up at 7.5p per kwh?

[@emdotdee]

can you link to where you bought these from and what model they are etc?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

From a GivEnergy installer at the mo. I believe a guy on Facebook is doing them too. facebook.com/groups/5243922612384710/about/ CEF Electrical will be doing them shortly I believe.

[@stuartburns8657]

Usolarshop .co .uk 👍

[@wrightev8001]

Thanks again for another great video. Are the giv energy plugs out yet? Where did you get them from?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

From a GivEnergy installer. I believe CEF will be selling them direct shortly too.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@robinbennett5994 nothing suspicious, just rebadged I imagine and using their own backend.

[@TheFriskyBiker]

Very interesting product! Does it work with extension cables or would it have to be a single product in to a single smart plug?

[@jeta1f35]

I use a couple of TP-Link Tapo smart plugs with extension leads with 4 sockets. As long as the total load remains within the capacity of the smart plug they work fine. (typically multi socket extension feed low power devices, i.e .not heaters) The maximum wattage for the Tapo is 2990w

[@tigerv88]

How much are they per plug and what would you advise would be the amount you would need? In an ideal world you would put them on as many outlets as possible but maybe a few to start and rotate them over time as you build up an understanding of where the energy is being lost? The cost of the plugs is prob a mute point, as the savings will prob pay for them in a year.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

More the merrier for me. Anything that uses more than a small bit of electric.

[@nxsynjs]

Been googling where to obtain the givenergy plugs. Any suggestions? Try and set up an affiliate link as I suspect they will sell a ton based on this video :)

[@stuartburns8657]

I only paid £9 each. Brought 8

[@robinbennett5994]

​@@nxsynjs If you look on Amazon for 'smart plugs with energy monitoring', you'll find lots of people selling very similar looking circular devices with the same blue on/off button on the side.

[@nxsynjs]

@@robinbennett5994 Yeah. I have some none givenergy ones, but seeing as i'm about to have some givenergy batteries I was looking for a fully integrated system. Thanks anyway :)

[@mil3761]

Can the Givenergy plugs be used even if you don't have any other of their other products?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

Yes

[@AndrewEbling]

As a GivEnergy battery storage owner and app user, I would recommend spending your hard earned cash elsewhere.

[@nilofido411]

Handy tool, however only for ad’oc spot monitoring, otherwise it defies the purpose, it is an electronic device and itself uses energy. It’s been common knowledge for more than 20 years that leaving electronics on standby it’s a waste of energy, and even my grandmother, poor soul, passed away 40 odd years ago, used to shouting at me for leaving lights on. The concept is simple, if you don’t use it switch it off, keep on looking for more efficient devices and keep them in good working order. The useful take away point has been totally missed i.e. carry out an initial survey, take actions ,and then at regular intervals of time spot monitor critical areas.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

It’s not adhoc monitoring, they’re permanent. Like I said, got weeks/months of data.

[@nilofido411]

@@ElectricVehicleMan thanks for clarifying... if it is permanent then it is a bit of a contradiction, what I mean is that after the initial survey and resulting benefits it’s just monitoring for the sake of monitoring whilst wasting energy doing it. There is a valid argument on being able to spot malfunctions, however like in the example of the fish tank a thermometer would have been more appropriate in the first place and this was however an odd situation as I presume the issue was with the thermostat. In general I would personally adopt using RCBO’s instead, this way the residual current side, the neutral, would start tripping and highlight issues, specially on resistive loads starting to fail, also after the initial investment there aren’t any running costs. Ultimately good practices are the key factor in saving energy, self discipline in usage and regular maintenance.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@nilofido411 There’s other plans in place too. For example, in the event of a power cut (where the battery takes over) the Giv system will turn off anything powered by a plug I deem necessary, so to not drain the battery backup prematurely. As well as normal smart plug functions of course, scheduling things to turn on at cheaper times for example.

[@andymacleod2365]

how much energy are the smart plugs using?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

I plugged 6 in a chain and it said 0.1W.

[@MichaelDoran23]

@@ElectricVehicleMan very clever, never thought about that.

[@andymacleod2365]

@@ElectricVehicleMan what brand are they and do they work with Z-Wave or Zigbee?

[@Chrom35kull]

Have you also considered all the energy use of all the smart plugs? yes they are extremely useful for the data however it could spiral once you get one on most devices.

[@bradleyarcher9840]

Maybe using a plug in watt meter would be more beneficial and cheaper? Checking items 1 at a time rather than a permanent stream of data.

[@johnafotheringham4266]

If you have two, plug one into the other for a few days. The difference in energy usage reported by the plugs will be the usage of the second plug. Personally I’d buy one or two plugs and cycle them round to find the main culprits, but that wouldn’t let me spot a sudden change in usage such as the aquarium in the video

[@Etacovda63]

They’re generally esp8266 based and will use around 1w

[@RussellVentura]

This one will spoil your day. Put the smart plug on your TV and watch for 5 mins. See that it might use 200-300w of power. Then work out around 4 hours a night over a year what that cost is. Then the kicker - change the brightness to movie mode (or lowest brightness your set allows etc) and check again. My TV went from 300w to 75w and is perfectly watchable in movie mode. Work out that price difference for just watching TV. You will cry. I did - but now I am laughing as I am saving a small fortune just to change the TV brightness when watching normal rubbish TV shows. Try this for a week and then try to watch your TV back in the usual mode you had it - you won't believe how bright it was and you watched that every day while burning money for nothing. I have changed all our tv's to this mode and save 100's of £ per year off our bill now.

[@davidkramrisch]

EVM - How is your Givenergy inverter and battery performing? Have you had any issues (vs. Software updates etc.?) or are you having no issues. Please let us know.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

Video up soon.

[@eddyd8745]

I'm having trouble. Non of my firmware will update. Doesn't seem to affect the performance much but is annoying.

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@eddyd8745 Send an email to support.

[@davidsworld5837]

I got some and they did not work, they refused to find themselves on the phone so were unusable think we need to have some fish and chips then you can remove that massive costs. why did you not turn off the sound equipment instead of leaving on standby. when I turn off items there off not ever on standby may be that is why my Oct electricity bill was £17 including the standing charge and vat

[@David-bl1bt]

I'm guessing that fish will becoming recurring signature dish on the ev man supper menu in the coming weeks 🤣 ** STOP PRESS ** the prices of fish tanks have just "tanked" on ebay as he speaks. 😂🤣😂🤣

[@neilmarshall2315]

We know who we are 😂😂😂

[@donincognito189]

Or just use the in-home display that comes with your smart meter for free....

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

And this do you know what’s using what over time?

[@markgaudie80]

Can I install one on my wife to see how much energy she wastes within the house? 😊

[@MetalDetectingTheUK]

Pointless putting one on mine. She doesn’t do much to waste any energy 😂

[@Denize...858]

Bulge men:)

[@TACADO1]

Its .8 of a kw for the fishtank , for god sake ! Live your life ! Your surviving not living All these tiny saving my add up but so does eating rice every day ! Live you live many people dont see tomorrow ☹️☹️☹️

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

It took about an hour to setup, the rest is just looking at an app. With that extra I can buy things to ‘live my life’. Assuming you can afford to waste it in the first place, which I’m guessing you can.

[@TACADO1]

@@ElectricVehicleMan obviously it a concern for all hence watch the vlogs but , going this far seem’s to promote Anxiety in people in day to day living in my view , iv witnessed friends who now live their lives obsessed that that spent 3kw cooking food and its came from the grid rather than their battery , yes its good being cautious but living life has be in the balance , its not nice watching people with Anxiety going through it watching 10p consumption when they are very wealthy individuals , just my observations of your Audience .

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@TACADO1 I don’t know anyone who has anxiety with that. They just try to avoid wasting money. Hardly a mental breakdown.

[@TACADO1]

@@ElectricVehicleMan think you missed the point ! Enjoy your day

[@TACADO1]

I less subscriber sad little man

[@mondotv4216]

I'm going to ruin your day. What about the extra energy smart plugs use? You might find turning all those appliances off with a smart plug saves you nothing...

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

They use next to nothing.

[@80y3r9]

I'm currently paying you 2 lots of 99p and have no idea which other account is paying it, not my wife's.. more videos like this and and I'll be enthused enough to find out n cancel!

[@tuc-dh4df]

EVM, what happens if a rolling programme of power cuts this coming winter? How your system cope?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

If I get the gateway then I won’t notice. The battery will take over.

[@tuc-dh4df]

@@ElectricVehicleMan How about a 4 hour power cut in the early morning?

[@ElectricVehicleMan]

@@tuc-dh4df Same. Power cuts are unlikely at worst, and even then it would be peak times only.