Electricity Monitor

sarah861421

Hi

I would like to buy an electricity monitor ( my Electricity provider does not give them away for free ), and wondered if anyone could recommend what is the best at the moment.

I have used them in the past and found them very effective, especially to encourage other members of the family. My library was lending them to members but only for 2 weeks, and it was a very basic unit

OWL seem to be a popular brand but is it worth paying £40 for a monitor.

Any thoughts and advice welcome

Thankyou

penrhyn

What about asking your supplier when they are going to fit Smart Meters, they have the advantage of being both accurate, which monitors are not, and monitor your gas as well.
PS the Owl micro is £25 on Amazon.

GingerBob_3

penrhyn wrote: »

What about asking your supplier when they are going to fit Smart Meters, they have the advantage of being both accurate, which monitors are not, and monitor your gas as well.
PS the Owl micro is £25 on Amazon.

And they come with the added advantage that the company can remotely disconnect you (of course they will never, ever, make a mistake in this respect), and, depending on the data collection rate, they disclose a large amount of information about your household to the supplier (and their 1000s of employees); such stuff as when the house is unoccupied.

penrhyn

Good to see the tin foil helmet brigade are alive and well.:rotfl:

GingerBob_3

penrhyn wrote: »

Good to see the tin foil helmet brigade are alive and well.:rotfl:

Yawn. If that's the best you can come up with (and I think it's you that always comes up with this banality), I wouldn't bother participating in the discussion.

lstar337

GingerBob wrote: »

And they come with the added advantage that the company can remotely disconnect you (of course they will never, ever, make a mistake in this respect), and, depending on the data collection rate, they disclose a large amount of information about your household to the supplier (and their 1000s of employees); such stuff as when the house is unoccupied.

Must be fun to live in total fear, of everything. :j

GingerBob_3

lstar337 wrote: »

Must be fun to live in total fear, of everything. :j

Why should I be fearful of a smart meter? I'm not going to get one.

penrhyn

You have until 2020 to go off grid then Bob,

sarah861421

Sorry to drag people back to the point, but is the £25 owl monitor any good? Is it worth paying any more for it, will I save £25 in my electrcity bill ( objective opinion I know ). My company will not be introducing a smart meter for a while

Norman_Castle

penrhyn wrote: »

What about asking your supplier when they are going to fit Smart Meters, they have the advantage of being both accurate, which monitors are not, and monitor your gas as well.
PS the Owl micro is £25 on Amazon.

Plug in monitors are accurate. Cable connect monitors are inaccurate at lower power.
I use one of these http://smartgreenshop.co.uk/index.php/powerplus-energy-meter.html bought cheaply, when on offer, from Maplins. Unfortunately they no longer do this exact one. I've used another similar one which gave more information but was difficult to read and understand.

Plug in monitors sell well on ebay so you could use one for a few months to find your high energy use items then sell it. Very MSE.

lstar337

sarah861421 wrote: »

Sorry to drag people back to the point, but is the £25 owl monitor any good?

I does the job it was designed for.

sarah861421 wrote: »

will I save £25 in my electrcity bill

Not just by buying a monitor, no. It will help you monitor what devices are using what power, and possibly persuade you to change your usage habits.

Whether it is worth the money is down to you.