Just bought 2 of these and were only £6.98 each. Saw 1 on Amazon advertised at £43!

If "I do wonder what world this person is living in that he (?) thinks that incessantly capitalising the middle of a word in a particularly ugly way furthers his cause rather than makes him look a bit silly" is "hitting home," then yes.

I assume it hits home then? I don't like environMENTALists [usually] because they cost the planet's poorest the most and they are usually very very comfortably off. So comfortable in fact, they don't even know it and many of them have nothing better to do that design crap like this and invent blue wheely bins made of petrol waste products (environMENTALly friendly use of waste!).

And when someone posts something at 0110 it's best to take it with a pinch of salt. Organic salt of course as we don't have much salt. OK, we have ocean salt, sea salt, lake salt, flat-bed salt and rock salt, but we might still run out. One day.

Fuel tax (added by the last Torry government) is usally 5% for mains electric/gas (dunno about people stuck with gas oil etc) and that should be removed for households as -like I said- having heat ain't much of a choice. You need it, there's not much point metering, monitoring and peering at a dial or LCD display. Maybe the new environMENTALly friendly coalition government could send these out (must skip loads of them at the back of every B&Q) to poor people to help them "Lower their heating costs". How? Burning them on a makeshift fire in their livingrooms.

Make sure you remove the blister packaging first as it contains radionuclide carcinogens. It's OK though cos it's helps you save energy.

The anticipated reaction. Actually, that childish [email protected] of the word sticks in the craw, so I spent 10 seconds on Google finding out how often you use it and thought it was worth quoting you to show you.
That is self-evidently not true, from my example about tumble driers given earlier, not to mention all the other examples people have given in this thread.

I used mine to check the energy used to run the 3 freezers we have here of varied ages. Reset the total watts used and leave plugged into the freezer for a week and see the real cost of running. As they age they may get short on gas and run much longer than a new model. With the info gained you can see if its time for a replacement.
The wife wants to know the cost of the washing machine on a 40 deg wash in relation to a higher temp wash.
The dishwasher is next on the list for a real cost check.
My last 2 quartery electricity bills were over £200 so I really want to know where its getting used.
Background stuff thats always on including items like dect phone chargers, clock radio's, dvd players, pvr's etc mean a total of 200watts 24/7 here and anything I can do to trim the costs I will do.
200w x 24/7 is near £50 a quarter before you add on all the other stuff being used.

The kids need education on the cost too, bedroom tv's, hair straighteners, curlers and dryers all go on daily and for longer than needed it seems to me. Phone chargers left plugged in and on even when the phones are charged. Enter a bedroom, turn on the light, go downstairs and just leave it on...grrr.
I also use a current cost classic energy meter connected to my laptop to graph the daily/weekly usage. Thats an eye opener.
Once my ordered Envi meter arrives I will also be monitoring my gas use to see if I can make any savings there.

Who said I was trying to be green? I just don't want to be stung by a massive electricity bill - this device helps weigh up whether it's worth the cost of leaving something on.

energy monitor`s wont reduce your bill thats the catch, the real solution is to reduce the TAX we pay on these services thats the real killer i mean 80% tax of a litre of petrol should tell u the problem.....
all these do is tell u that your plasma is sucking energy well u didnt need a tool for that did u? so wot next u go spend more money trying to reduce the bill with a new energy efficient plasma? if there so bothered by all these non energy things why dont they stop selling them?...lol

Wow, you've got a lot of free time to go looking (stalking) back my posts. There's a lot of life left in it anyway so keep counting unless you get a new interest in life.

The reason these are silly is because we use electricity because we either need to or really really want to. Choice doesn't come in to it and when it does it someone who is struggling to pay the bill. This ain't gonna save that person money unless they turn it off. And they don't need this tatty device for that. It's a meter, energy saving is only part of the printed packaging and marketing.

"Energenie" -Even the name is a scam. "Genie" (genius) -I don't think so.

Great designer toy for those who can afford it and with nothing better to do but a rather expensive (and electricity consuming) toy for those who have no money or common sense.

I have to agree with this. These devices are great way to measure the amount of electricity a device uses (I have a energy meter similar to this one, already), however, they don't actually save any energy.

3kW - it will only jump 3kWh if you leave the kettle on for an hour. :smiley:

Kettles have unity power factor, so that inaccuracy is eliminated. The other inaccuracy - an estimation of the voltage - is not, however. If your voltage is close to the figure the device uses, that inaccuracy won't be present either.

Another problem with all these devices is their resolution. You may find some figures it displays become rather familiar, because it is only able to measure in steps which might be rather larger than 1W.

Ah man! Can you do it for me?
I'm a ladyee x

So the main effect of this device is to persuade you to leave 2 devices switched on all day? Turns out it's not very green after all..

You can get a free one from Npower if you are a customer.
But it looks like a bit of a pain to set up, so mine is still sitting in the box :-/
One day I'll do it...

Thanks. Fixed the link. I didn't think these clip on's where inaccurate, in fact when you turn on the kettle you often see it jump 3kWh though it does flucuate some what; so I see your point... next test is to compare the bills!

£7.99 for a similar product instore at Maplin - see here.

There's something about these that appeals greatly to me but there is a big drawback.

The big drawback is that all of your electronic items come with something similar built in. It is a little label on the back that says how many watts of power or amps of current the device uses.

Anything that heats will use lots of power, i.e. Kettle, toaster, tumble dryers etc.

Things like TV's, laptops etc use next to nothing compared to those bad boys.

Great price, HOT! Also, the "accumulative total electricity usage" is a very helpful feature.

Sigh... the idea is that you can use it to make an informed choice. For instance, there are people who think that running a tumble dryer uses about as much electricity as running a TV. When they see how much it gobbles up, they may make the effort to stick their clothes on the washing line instead.

Cheers, saved me the energy of bothering to install it. It does work lol.

I don't get this plug because if you put this device in the mains it still use up electric any way?!

Thankyou, I'd be using one of these with prospective buys & to see what old carp i'm currently using is inefficient & perhaps redundant to make an informed purchase, especially useful when shopping at places like John Lewis..

I think you've worn that pun (?) a little thin.

It takes a few steps, but they are quite quick.

The main problem with any "clip on" meter is that it cannot measure the power factor. So you only see VA (actually only A is measured, and even V is a guess), not wattage. Especially for electronic devices and for motors (washing machine) they can overestimate the electricity use several times.

Plug in meters are generally more accurate, although even then you should not expect too much precision for a few quid.

General features? I wonder what the other features might be.

No matter how you cut it these things definitely don't save energy and just a cash-in on part-time environMENTALists, the ignorant or the challenged.

Really daft idea unless of course you come up with it and then you'll make money from being [COLOR="Green"]Green™[/COLOR]

Freezing cold deal. Ah, wait a minute, yeah plug your fire into these and turn it off. It'll save energy after all.

I had one of the free wireless ones with a transmitter that clips onto the meter tails but it whistled all the time and gave me a headache so I sent it back. They didn't bother sending a replacement so I don't know if they're all like that.

That link seems to link back to this thread, for some reason.

The trouble with the ones that clip onto the meter tails (which is presumably what this does) is that they are unable to measure voltage or power factor, so that they are inherently inaccurate.

This is good for individual appliances or a collection hooked up on a multi socket, but don't forget this deal for a wireless electricity meter monitor: http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/692530/prolectrix-wireless-home-energy-mon
Either way - it pays to be green!

Hmmm, i'll have a closer look at this after for think its a very good idea. The wife needs to be put straight on energy consumption. That and i'm very curious about stuff like this. Cheers OP!

I bought one from Asda, "Ecopower Energy Meter" instore, out of stock online but you will get the details. £3.76, not had a chance to check it over yet for what it shows in use.

I doubt you will find one for a fiver, this is the cheapest I have seen this type of unit.

I need basic one, is there anywhere similar one for fiver?

sounds good, i can then send her down a mine to dig for gold to pay me back

30 minutes for a shower, I wish. Its only 9.somethimng kw after all:roll:

hot these are normally twice the price

I like the idea of plugging all the appliances in my daughter's room into this and then giving her a bill each month. But that wouldn't cover the TV in the living room left on and the fridge door hanging open while she has a shower for 30 minutes.

i like the idea of these as i can plug stuff in and show my 12 year old just how much things cost when left on when she goes out, does it come with a big bat to beat the kids with when once they have been shown how much they are wasting to deal with them

my fav is they come in, goto the bathroom and turn the light on, then when they go out they leave the light on as its broad daylight and so they dont see that the light is on when they leave thus proving they did not need the light on in the first place

Link to manufacturers site with full spec and pdf.

http://www.energenie4u.co.uk/ener007_powermeter.html