Money
Getting the best deal
Pull the plug on high electricity bills
Even when your TV, hi-fi or microwave are not being used, they are costing you money. But now there's a clever device that can tell you how much, writes Paul Lewis
Dusk is falling and I am sitting here in the dark, the heating and television are off. But it is costing me £520 a year in electricity. A small monitor sitting on my coffee table shows me minute by minute how much electricity is passing through my meter. It tells me I am spending 6p an hour just to sit here doing nothing.
I search for the power leak. I turn off my computer. I push buttons to switch the TV and hi-fi off standby. That barely shows. The fridge! It is always on. And the microwave has an LED clock. And the cordless phone has a light. I turn them all off. That brings me down to 2.1p an hour.
I get desperate. I turn off the hi-fi and the computer at the socket - down to 1.2p. I turn off an extension lead which has a small light on it. My mobile phone charger is plugged in, getting warm - out it comes. The gas boiler light is on - though the boiler is off - but I am nervous about actually disconnecting that from the socket.
Eventually I reduce my consumption to about 0.5p an hour. I give up and spend about half an hour restoring settings, correcting flashing clocks and turning on the fridge. It makes me realise how very hard it is to turn off much of our stuff completely.
There is, however, an answer. The OWL wireless energy monitor involves clipping small magnets in a plastic collar round the mains cable from the meter to the consumer unit or fuse box, which you can do without an electrician.
The collar plugs into a device you leave by the meter and it transmits your usage continuously to a 10cm LCD monitor that you can put anywhere or even carry around.
I can see that turning on the kettle or the microwave, switching on the electric heater or doing the washing all send it zooming up. You can set an alarm to sound once usage crosses a particular level.
* The OWL costs £49.95 including batteries but it can save you money. Visit theowl.com online for more details and energy-saving tips.
* This article first appeared in the November 2007 issue of Saga Magazine
