Electricity Usage Meters..

[JonnyFive]

Anyone know much about these?

I've seen them on the TV adverts, think British Gas give them out for free for new customers.. I'm with EDF though.

Do they work? I don't need exact measurements, or plots and graphs.. Just want to know really how much the house is using at certain times etc. And how do they work? Just plug in the wall or is there wiring (I know nothing about electrics! )

Thanks!

[Laurel Green]

I have an Owl monitor (about £35) which lasted about a year before going on the blink. Now using a free one that came from my provider(Npower). One part clips on to the power lead to the meter, the other plugs into any socket. They both seemed to give a realistic reading of power being used.

[XDA]

I was given one of these monitors when I had my meters replaced with these new smart meters. I'm with british gas.

My monitor communicates with my gas and electic meters via some sort of wireless connection. It tells me at any given time how many kwh of gas/electricity I'm using. It also tells me how much it's costing me per hour.

It also has graphs which shows my usage over the day, week and month.

[dickymint]

Got mine off SWALEC free. great bit of wireless kit. It saves me having to go up stairs every morning to check if the Missus has switched off the iron and curling tongues!

[JonnyFive]

So everyone is getting them for free but EDF are being tight bds?

I've read about that Owl one and apparently isn't very good at picking up individual things, such as TVs/lights etc?