EON Energy Monitor

chambta

Received mine today from them.

Should I use it or sell it on Ebay for £20 or whatever I get?

Sell the idea to me....

chris1973

Well, Energy Companies are not charities or Santa Claus and so like most clever marketing the cost will be clawed back by them during the period you are with them, hidden in the 'unit' price, so really its not 'free', its just the age old feel good factor that makes it seem like it is.

I've no idea how much a company spends on toy gimmicks - the energy companies' version of the plastic crap which used to be found at the bottom of cornflake packets!, either way, lets assume that it spent £20,000 - wouldn't you prefer that money to go to better customer service or slightly lower energy prices - I know I would.

I wonder how many of these Energy Monitors are made in the UK by UK Manufacturers? is EON supporting UK Jobs with its product buys?. Probably not, although of course it is quick to increase Energy Bills to those UK companies - 2.3p / KWH more in our case!

Personally, i'd be selling it on, as no doubt you'll be needing every penny if bills continue to increase in the same manner over the coming winter as they have twice already this year.

chambta

My thoughts entirely. It won't likely affect my spend so a surer return is to sell the thing.

Yorkie1

Or you could keep it for as long as it takes you to find out where you are using electricity in the house, and then sell it. Best of both worlds.

rogerblack

I totally disagree.
Mine has helped me reduce my energy consumption by 20%, _easily_ paying for itself.
The existing meter is utterly useless for measuring moment-by-moment power draw.

It catching one silly 'oops' - I'd left the garage lights/heater on, and caught it as I glanced at it before bed, and seeing the much higher power draw turned them off. Paid for it alone.

fwor

rogerblack wrote: »

I totally disagree.

I'd agree with your disagreement.

I've got one on loan from the local library, and it showed that I was spending £300 a year running a pond pump 24hrs/day, and that a stack of hifi gear was consuming 200 watts in standby!

I also have a habit of leaving one light on at night - a striplight in the kitchen which I mistakenly thought did not consume much power. I now just need to glance at the monitor before going to bed to make sure it's not been left on.

victor2

I'd go along with the "use it for a while" approach.
They're not very accurate, particularly with small usage items, but do give a real time indication of roughly how much electricity you're using. Sudden changes are easy to spot. For example, I can see when my fridge compressor is running and when the anti-icing element is operating. If you want, you can download the captured data to a PC as well.
You may decide to keep it. If I'd paid for mine I'd feel I was ripped off, but as I didn't, it's handy to have!

knightangel900

Keep it, Christmas is coming up. Use it to monitor the electricity that is used in your house, especially for heating. Then try and reduce the electricity used for next year.

rogerblack

Also - there are unexpected uses.
I was just using it to see when the oven had come up to temp to put in the roast.
And yesterday, I used it to see when the hot water cylinder was up to temp again, so I could have a bath.

chambta

Not got round to selling it so will get it set up.