Has any considered buying an electricity monitoring device so you can check the power consumption when back in England ?
( You would need a router with a permanent internet connection and a spare Ethernet port to plug a network cable into)
At home I have a Current cost EnviR with the netsmart device plugged into our router so the data is uploaded. ( No PC needed)
An example screen grab attached:
Ignore the blue line as that is temperature in the room where the device is located. Temperature scale is on the right of the graph in degrees C.
The orange spikey line is power consumption with the scale on the left of the graph in watts.
This was from Sunday and the graph starts at midnight on the left and you can see the overnight background continuous consumption was about 500 watts due to fridge, freezer, outside lights, router,network drive etc, etc, I put the kettle on at about 07:40
( look at the spike) and we where out in the afternoon from about 14:00 to about 19:00 hence very low power consumption for a few hours in the afternoon.
This graph is also available on a mobile phone browser so when I am working away I can see what is on at home as I have the website bookmarked on my phone.
Individual appliances can also be monitored but that gets a bit more complicated. You can see from the second graph below my PC uses about 45 watts and was switched on at the same time I put the kettle on
I am a Geek and proud of it
Some links.
Current Cost - Reducing your energy bills so you can live a greener life
The Schuko version would be needed for those fortunate to have property in Spain as most of these devices have UK plugs etc.
EnviR:
Current Cost - Reducing your energy bills so you can live a greener life!
Netsmart:
Current Cost - Reducing your energy bills so you can live a greener life!
Also often found on ebay as people get them for free from energy companies and then sell them.
A villa owner that rents out could easily monitor power consumption to see just how much guests use each hour or day etc.
Hope that helps someone and its not an advert and if anyone needs help or links just ask.