Kogan Power Usage Meter

Good to have to know your Electric Energy Usage – I was planning for solar panels to be installed so I just wanted to know how the distribution of power usage around the home during the day. It happened that Aldi was selling the BAUHN power meters so I got a couple (~$15 per unit @ Aug 2018). It is just plug-and-play type, very easy to use. This unit displays most essential information such… Read more

as time of use, current,voltage (voltage does not change much), power (=current x voltage), energy consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh=power x time), Energy cost (need to enter cost $Unit per kWh). Since the display only allow for 3 lines, it does not display all you want in one go so, for me I like to see Power and kWh so I selected Power and Cost to be displayed and set Cost= 1 unit per kWh) to get Cost=kWh.

Summary:

- the unit is easy to use

- good if it can allow user to customize what to be displayed (instead of a set menu)

Just a matter of interest: the water boiling consumes lot of energy, also the cloth dryer. Washing machine per load & Good modern AirCon unit with sensible settings (eg low temperature in winter) does not consume as much as first thought.

Better than I thought for the price – This thing measures everything you might want to know about the power consumption of your fridge etc, even the mains frequency and the power factor! Really sensitive: I was able to measure the few milliamps drawn by the microwave oven on standby, for example. No split rates for off-peak though (I don't have it anyway), and it doesn't save the… Read more

tariff across use (I guess there's no NVM), other I would've given it a perfect 5. I was going to buy the Jaycar one, but never got a round tuit when DSE offered free delivery. I'm currently (pun not intended) using it to see whether I really ought to switch off those devices at the wall that are consuming "phantom power" (I will *not* switch off my computers, as I have servers here), and whether the fridge can be a bit warmer. In all: it's ideal apart from the fact that I have to enter the tariff each time. Additional note: I bought a set of CR2032 batteries as well as they were advertised with the same offer so I thought they were needed; no, there is no provision for a battery, and I looked hard, so it depends upon having mains power to save everything (although you do get a few seconds if you're quick).