Energy Wizard FAQs
Clamp Type Whole House Energy Meters
There are several remote whole house energy meters available on the market. They typically connect to your mains supply by a clamp which is fixed around your incoming live mains cable at the metering point. The clamp is connected to a small sender unit that transmits its information to an indoor receiving/display unit.
The clamp and sender actually pickup and send information about the instantaneous electrical current to the receiving unit. The receiving/display unit then accumulates this information over time, converting it to power through a simple formula and also usually making a convenient display of the approximately cost of your current or periodic consumption.
Such meters may display misleading information when an Energy Wizard is in use. The load within your house gives rise to the electrical current that the meter is collecting. This load will normally be inductive in nature, which causes the timing of the current waveform to be displaced from the ideal. It is said to be out-of-phase with the voltage. Energy Wizard provides a capacitive load which will help to bring the current back in-phase, making it closer to the ideal and improving efficiency. The whole house energy meters don’t typically measure this phase, and so the inductive and capacitive currents are just seen as currents in total. The net effect is that although Energy Wizard does not consume any significant real power at all, it may be shown as adding to the consumption of your house. This apparent increased consumption can be as high as 130W.
If you have a single appliance energy meter – one that is connected between your appliance and mains, use it as a check to measure the power being taken by Energy Wizard. You will see the consumption is approximately zero. These types of meter do correctly measure the phase of the currents and voltage and therefore give a true reading of power consumption. For further proof consider this – if Energy Wizard really did consume 130W of power, it would get extremely hot!
Ring Main
Energy Wizard is designed to be used in a domestic situation. In an average sized house, there will be a number of “rings” of power wired around the property, usually including a “ring main” for each of the upper and lower floor wall sockets, and also similar rings for the lighting on both floors. The recommendation for Energy Wizard usage is to connect it a close as possible to your distribution unit or “fuse box”, perhaps in a utility room for example. In such a location you do not need a separate unit for both the upper and downstairs rings.
