Electricity usage monitor

[minestrone]

Not even 3 full months. My gas portion was £560 , for a 5 bed house. And that's us trying to be economical with the hot water!

What's an '8 apartment' house?

Must be a Scottish description, number of rooms not counting toilets and kitchens.

Is your boiler temperature up too high? With the extreme cold the radiator temp might never have been acheived and the boiler was on full blast and running very inefficently. That is the only thing I can think of, other than your neighbours are piping it off.

[ctdctd]

My gas portion was £560 , for a 5 bed house.

My gas bill for the last three months was £60 for a 2 bed detached - but I was in a somewhat warmer climate for half that time.

[ctdctd]

What's an '8 apartment' house?

It's the YMCA

HTH

[ChimpMaster]

Where you estimating for a long time before getting the meter read?

I thought I was bad with 370 for gas over xmas and I have an 8 apartment house.

Not even 3 full months. My gas portion was £560 , for a 5 bed house. And that's us trying to be economical with the hot water!

What's an '8 apartment' house?

[minestrone]

Where you estimating for a long time before getting the meter read?

I thought I was bad with 370 for gas over xmas and I have an 8 apartment house.

[ChimpMaster]

Been using our freebie British Gas one since that original post and its good.

Does make a difference, we've been switching far more stuff off and have now identified what are the more power hungry leccy items in the house and been knocking them off standby. Got the meter in the lounge so if we see its high for some reason, thats a prompt to switch the kitchen light off etc whereas before we'd just have left the thing on all the time.

Sounds like exactly what I will be doing! My wife is the lazy/stupid one but I'm guilty of leaving the plasmas on standby (they don't even have an Off switch!) and the PC on at the mains all the time.

[Durbs]

Been using our freebie British Gas one since that original post and its good.

Does make a difference, we've been switching far more stuff off and have now identified what are the more power hungry leccy items in the house and been knocking them off standby. Got the meter in the lounge so if we see its high for some reason, thats a prompt to switch the kitchen light off etc whereas before we'd just have left the thing on all the time.

[AtW]

ATW - it's not the £20 difference that I see, it's the 300% difference. And the question was more directed at whether the more expensive ones are worth getting over the cheaper ones.

I bought one for £10 few years ago, it failed pretty quickly. Much cheapness, not much durabiliness

[ChimpMaster]

TW - thanks for that, I have now just ordered.

ATW - it's not the £20 difference that I see, it's the 300% difference. And the question was more directed at whether the more expensive ones are worth getting over the cheaper ones.

Plasmas, PC, underfloor heating, wife/kids home all day. Does my head in

[TimberWolf]

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...y-monitor.html

British Gas give them away free. They are simple devices with a high load and a massive heat sink. They make a big difference to your electricity bill

[AtW]

Some of these monitors cost £10 whilst others are £30+. Anyone here have experience/advise on which one to get and whether they are of any use?

You say you paid £950 over 3 months, and you hesitate over £20 difference in a device that can save you many times over that?

I'd advise you to check if readings were estimated - utilities treat their customers as source of interest free loans by overcharging them.

[EternalOptimist]

Aye CM, I am interested in getting one of these , let me know how you get on

[doodab]

How many plasma TVs do you have and did you watch them a lot over the christmas period and while trapped at home in the snow?

[ChimpMaster]

My bill for gas & electric has gone through the roof this past quarter. It was of course partly anticipated given the harsh winter, but not to the extent that it came out as!

The bill was over £950 for gas & electric, for 3 months. Electric was the biggest gainer and so I want to get one of those things that monitors the usage every time you switch an appliance on/off.

Some of these monitors cost £10 whilst others are £30+. Anyone here have experience/advise on which one to get and whether they are of any use?