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Current Cost Home

This is a place to store good pointers and collections of information which are useful to people who want to get started with their new Current Cost. The basic are below but maybe you'd like to find out about:


What is it?


According to currentcost.com the Current Cost is "a highly accuratesecond generation home electricity monitoring device." To you and me it's a consumer device for finding out how much electricity you use and how much that's costing you.


How much does it cost?


RRP £45 (but currently discounted to about £30) from ecogadgetshop.co.ukHowever these have the older firmware, so buying the one from ebay is a better option.


How does it work?


The Current Cost (CC) has two parts:
  • a loosely-fitting clamp which you put around one of the cables leading to your electricity meter, the clamp is attached to a power pack which broadcasts readings from the clamp to
  • a display which sits on a desk or next to the telly in your living room. This plugs into the mains.

As far as I understand it, the clamp uses electromagnetic induction to measure the flow of electricity through the cable it is wrapped around, which is broadcast over (433MHz) radio to the display unit.

But such a clamp monitoring technique however does NOT show true consumed power (Watts) , responding to the load's apparent power ( Volt.Amps) demand, which can lead to significantly distorted readings on "reactive" loads.

Although most homes historically have resistive electrical demand, this power factor (PF) issue is of increasing importance domestically when measuring standby appliances, motors, computer power supplies etc- you will actually be consuming less energy than clamp based meters inform you about !

I have something to add. How do I share?


This is a wiki. Feel free to edit it via the 'Easy Edit' link above.



dalelane
dalelane
Latest page update: made by dalelane , Mar 13 2009, 5:18 PM EDT (about this update About This Update dalelane Edited by dalelane

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