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Warentest checks power meters – it’s that easy to track down power guzzlers
Consumption can be checked with special measuring devices. They even convert consumption into euros (symbol image).
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Power guzzlers are easy to spot. A good electricity detective is available for as little as 9 euros. Smart devices can do more than just measure, but are significantly more expensive.
Everyone is moaning about high electricity prices – but how are you supposed to recognize the power guzzlers in the house? This is easy to do with an ammeter. This often looks like a small socket. One side goes into the mains socket, the plug of the consumer is plugged into the other and the consumption is displayed. The good news of product tester: You only have to pay 9 euros for such a helper, who then also has the grade “good”.
15 power meters were tested, including classic and smart models. One smart device scored “very good”, ten with “good”. The devices that did not measure low currents correctly performed poorly – but this function is important for determining stand-by consumption.
Easy and cheap
With the classics it was “NZR stand-by energy monitor SEM 16+ USB” front. The device measures very accurately, at a price of 193 euros it is more suitable for the professional sector. Second place is the “REV energy meter Control-Line” for a manageable 17 euros. Cheap and good is also the “Revolt Digital Energy Cost Meter” for only 9 euros.
Smart gets complicated quickly
With the smart sockets with current measurement function, the “AVM FritzDect 200” With a very good grade in first place. The costs here are 78.50 euros. It’s clearly too expensive to just measure the household appliances. A smart socket only makes sense if you want to use it permanently. For example for the Christmas lights to time. You also have to pay attention to the special features of operation. The “AVM FritzDect 200” can only be controlled if it is integrated in the network of a Fritz router. If you have another router, you can’t do anything with it. Even if If you want to measure the power consumption in another building without a Fritz router, it has to fit. So it’s difficult to rent it out. It’s similarly complicated with other providers. Some only work in an Apple world, the device from Gigaset also needs a Gigaset base station for the WLAN router.
Regardless of the test results, you have to find out beforehand whether the device will also work at home. Smart sockets allow devices to be switched on and off via app or voice assistant. In this way, you can time the lighting and reduce the standby consumption of devices to zero. It remains to be seen whether this will save you money. A socket controls only one unit of consumers. If you want to control a TV, kitchen radio and several lights in this way, you spend around 80 euros per switching unit in the case of the FritzDect. The most common application is probably the control of lighting and here you cannot achieve any standby savings at all.
You can take the whole test for a fee here see.
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