help buying an electricity usage monitors

redpandabear

I am am thinking of buying an electricity usage monitor, the one that clips on to the meter. does anyone know if these work and is any make better than the others.I would also like to know if these work with economy 7 as we have that.thanks for looking.

youravinalarrrf

First check with your current supplier to see which, if any, they are giving away free at the moment.

If not have a look on ebay and do a search for an Eon Energy Monitor or Eon Elecricity Monitor. Underneath the Eon branding this is a Current Cost EnviR (voted Which best buy January 2011) http://www.currentcost.com/product-envir.html I picked one up recently for under £10 but most seem to go for £15 - £20. Make sure it's the black one not the white one and complete with the data cable (so it can be attached to your PC) and the Eon software CD (this is very basic but can be used regardless of whether you're an Eon customer or not).

Be aware that these monitors are not as accurate as your electricity meter and currently only allow you to set one average cost per kWh for your electric. To get the most out of them they really need to be connected to your PC using some software so you are able to upload the data from the unit and view the results online of usage over time, savings made etc. Various software which can be used with these is listed here http://currentcost.com/software-downloads.html I'm currently giving the Meniscus software a try http://home-energy.meniscus.co.uk/Default.aspx This can cope with a number of different tariffs including Economy 7 and Economy 7 tiered and allows you to enter your own meter readings and makes automatic adjustments to the uploaded data from the unit so it more accurately reflects your actual meter readings and costs/savings.

HalloweenJack

i got the eon black one from someone on freecycle - scary to see the meter shoot up when the tumbler / washing machine/kettle are all on at the same time....