There is no appliance in my house that consumes more than the air conditioner, I already knew that before measuring consumption. But how could I know exactly how much electricity is consumed? Well, I found a way that works in any house. Yes, in yours too.
Controlling your electricity bill becomes very difficult when the weather is extreme, especially if you use electricity to counteract its inclemency. It’s very cold? Turning on an electric heater is the most helpful solution. It’s hot? Air conditioning, equally obvious. And inFinding the balance between adequate consumption and comfort It is not exactly easy, the first step is to know how much the appliance consumes.
The simplest solution: access the electricity meter
Access to the electricity meter from the E-Distribution app
To find out how much a particular device consumes, you just need to measure its electricity consumption before and during switching it on. For example, you can use a smart plug with a consumption recorder, but you would have to buy an accessory for the task. And you don’t need one, your electricity company already offers you an energy meter.
With the digitalisation of meters came the universalisation of access to instant readings from smartphones. All electricity distributors offer this service, and some retailers even include it in their applications. To ensure what we are looking for, to know the specific consumption of the air conditioning, we will look at the first ones.
The electricity distributor is the company that manages your access to the electricity grid. It doesn’t have to be the same one you pay your electricity bill with.that is the supplier. Below you have a map of Nexus Energía with the location of the main electricity distributors:
Location of the main electricity distributors in Spain. Image by Nexus Energía
With the map above you can determine your distributors at a glance. To find out, just go to your last electricity bill and look at your CUPS (Universal Supply Point Code). Look at the four numbers after the “ES”:
The above are the five main distributors in Spain along with the web address where you can request registration. They are not the only distributors: if your CUPS does not correspond to them, look on your bill for the name of the company that supplies you with energy and access your registration web page.
To access the meter you must have a registered user in the distributor’s service. You will need to send them your personal data to obtain this user: the process takes a few days.
Once you have access to the distributor’s private area You will be able to read the counter in real timeMost have mobile apps, though you may have to use a website. Your mobile phone will work just as well.
Turn the air conditioning on and off while accessing the electricity meter
Access to consumption reading in the E-Distribution app
With the user at the distributor it is very easy to see the electricity meter in real time: in my case (E-Distribución), the reading is found in the “Supply Management” menu. It is enough to order the reading without turning on the air conditioning and when it is working at full capacity.
After calculating the consumption, the result was an average consumption of 0.8 kWh, which translates to about 8.8 kWh per day. With the rate I have contracted, the total is approximately 1.3 euros per day. Fortunately, solar panels reduce this consumption to almost zero.
By comparing how much your air conditioning consumes at maximum power and at minimum you can find the adequate electrical consumption for the level of comfort you need in your homeAnd the good thing is that you don’t need to buy any accessory to know this data: you already have access to the electricity meter.
Cover image | Ivan Linares