I'd like to be able to see easily and exactly how much specific devices cost to run and was thinking of getting one of these:
https://www.jaycar.com/productView.asp?SUBCATID=1003&CATID=8…
Are there anything better/cheaper around? This has $7 delivery.
Do they sell them at the local bunnings/masters for a reasonable price?
Thanks for that, you've just convinced me not to buy it. Why are they so unreliable i wonder?
I don't think a lot of these things take into account power factor, which messes things up in measuring certain loads (motors etc.), there was a discussion on OzBargain previously about this. http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/90173 and http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/71904 By the way, Aldi were selling a plugpack power meter recently, you might find them for around $15 in the clearance bin if you are lucky. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1916078
I got this exact same model and used it to monitor my fridge. I found it to be completely unreliable, and nowhere near accurate. Some simple maths showed that the numbers were so far off that according to the meter my fridge was using about 2 times the entire households electricity consumption. There are some discussions on whirlpool forums about this model and how unreliable all the cheap meters are.
In the end I ended up buying one of these: http://store.smartnow.com.au/product.php?id_product=101
Much more expensive and requires installation from an electrician (even more expense!), and works for the whole of house instead of a single power point - but you can easily determine how much things are using by turning them on/off. It is very reliable and accurate. I know it's not what you want to hear, I didn't want to spend so much either.. but despite the cost I haven't looked back. Already saving a lot of power.