Wattson Energy Meter
Wattson Energy Meter
Find out more about the Wattson Energy Meter from DIY Kyoto
shopping | energy efficiency | carbonThe
Wattson is a stylish new
energy meter from
DIY Kyoto designed by three graduates of the Royal College of Art in London.
Wattson Energy Meter
The
Wattson is a souped up and restyled equivalent to the
Efergy homeCO2meter and
Electrisave.
All three products use a electricity sensing device which is clipped onto a cable coming out of the electricity meter. That sensor is then connected to a battery-powered
wireless transmitter which sends data to a display unit located up to
30 metres away.
Electrisave, Efergy, and Wattson can all display the current electricity usage in
Watts, but whereas Electrisave and Efergy display equivalent daily
carbon emissions and financial cost, Wattson displays the equivalent cost per
year. Therefore, when the kettle is on,
Wattson will display £3,000 - the amount it would cost if the kettle were left on for a whole year.
Wattson Display Unit
The
Electrisave and
Efergy display units are very plain battery-powered gadgets with a standard LCD used to present data to the user. The
Wattson on the other hand is a beautiful object in its own right and makes a fascinating coffee table or mantlepiece ornament.
Electricity usage is displayed both as a numerical value on the top of the Wattson (as is standard with Electrisave and Efergy) but also using
colours projected from the bottom of the device. When little electricity is being used the light is blue, moving through darker blues and purples until a lot of electricity is being used and the light glows red.
It is possible to select between
different modes - display colours
and numbers, display just colours, display just numbers, or an energy-saving
low power mode in which the device continues to collect data, but it does not display numbers or lights.
Connect Wattson to a PC or Mac
The truly innovative feature of
Wattson is the ability to connect the device via
USB to a personal computer or Mac. While the new
Efergy model collects and stores daily data (and the soon to be released new
Electrisave will do likewise),
Wattson's computer linkup enables stored data to be transferred electronically and used to draw graphs of energy usage patterns and aid analysis.
Basic
software is provided with
Wattson to enable energy consumption to be plotted and analysed with ease. In addition the designers hope to build an
online community of Wattson users who can compare
energy savings.
Powering Wattson
The disadvantage of
Wattson is that it draws up to
7 Watts of power itself necessitating a
mains power supply and an adapter.
Electrisave and
Efergy are completely portable since their display units are powered by a couple of AA or AAA batteries which last for months.
Wattson however has to be permanently plugged into a mains socket, uses an inefficient adapter 24 hours per day which
wastes energy as heat even when in
low power mode, and trails an unattractive power cord. At £0.13 per kWh the
Wattson would cost
£8 per year in additional electricity usage if used in numbers and display mode constantly.
Wattson does have an inbuilt
back-up battery, but this will only power the device for a few hours when it is unplugged. It is a great pity that Wattson could not have been designed to be far less
power hungry and therefore could have been exclusively powered by a
rechargeable battery.
Buy a Wattson Energy Meter
Click here to
buy a Wattson Energy Meter now for
£99.95 (
£149.50) from
Ethical Superstore.
A handmade
limited edition is also available built to order using
bamboo and acrylic for
£350 and is available for purchase directly from the
DIY Kyoto website.
More Information
For more information about
Wattson click here to visit the official
DIY Kyoto Wattson website.
REUK.co.uk reviews of both Electrisave and Efergy can be viewed here:
Electrisave Review and
Efergy Review.
Article Last Modified: 10:26, 31st Mar 2009Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
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