Product Description

Now the fight against rocketing electricity bills and climate change just got even easier with the new improved OWL wireless electricity monitor. The stylish portable device can help save hundreds of pounds off your electricity bill by providing up to the second information on the exact amount of electricity you are using in pounds and pence. This means you can see the exact financial gain of turning off electrical devices at home. Whether it's turning off at the plug rather than just using standby or simply turning off a light, the OWL shows you the exact cash impact of changing your behaviour, which can be hundreds of pounds for the average home. Building on the success of original OWL, new features include the following: An accumulative function which lets you see your cost accumulate over any period you choose, be it daily, weekly or monthly. You can then start to track changes over time which allows you to fine tune your energy saving strategy even better than before. The new multiple tariff function means you can set your OWL to factor in a range of tariffs (Economy 7, Night-time etc) to create an even more accurate picture of your usage. A much improved battery life now gives up to 24 months with the transmitter & 12 months on the display.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1452 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Owl
• Model: TSE003-001
• Released on: 2008-10-29

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Essential.
I agree with everything Paul Ell (above) has written. Like Mr. Ell, I found that the two main cables (apart from the green/yellow earth) from my electricity meter were grey; according to the instruction leaflet one should be red, and the sensor attached to that. I attached the sensor to the right-hand cable, and it was correct. Incidentally it is a very tight fit, a snap-shut fitting which only just fitted the cable; I assume the designers intend this.

In general, I think the booklet could be improved upon; it is in very small print and did not seem particularly easy to understand at first reading, although there is also a fold-out 'idiot's guide' included with the box. Also you MUST have a really small cross-headed screwdriver to hand (like a jeweller's) to get access to the battery compartments on both sender and receiver units. (Batteries are included thankfully).

Having said all this, once up and running, I have found it invaluable. You can set the display for Cost, Energy (kW) or Greenhouse Gasses. There is a problem with the Cost function, as if like me you are on a tariff which decreases once past a certain kWh useage, the Owl cannot be set to automatically adjust, although it can be set to adjust to different tariffs at different times of day. So I have mainly used - as I suspect most people will - the Energy display. This shows how much energy is being consumed at any one time and is a real eye opener. I found that a 3 bar electric fire which had all the bars turned off was still using approximately 700 Watts! This turned out to be a convection heater which is built in and which I had, until now, assumed to consume negligible current. Also, like another reviewer, I found that despite turning off/ unplugging everything in the house, there was still over 100 Watt consumption taking place. Is that the meter itself.....?!

Seriously, it really is worth every penny, and I am sure will rapidly repay its cost given today's energy prices.

Recommended strongly.

Don't buy this toy!
Excellent and curiously engaging toy.

It arrived the next day and was up and running within 5 minutes.

Do not buy this toy - otherwise you'll find yourself running round the house turning everything on and off. My only topic of conversation now is the relative power consumption in standby of the toaster and PC.

Setup was straightforward. You just clip the meter around your electricity cable, and tell the monitor to search for the meter. Was up and working in just a few minutes.

The handheld monitor works all over the house so you can see exactly how much electricity you're using - and work out what's using it.

In some ways it's not really necessary. We all know to turn off our TVs at night and that halogen lights are expensive to run. The difference is seeing the impact of every device. It really drives it home.

In my case, it's going to save me £30 a month because I know the equipment that's driving up my electricity bill.

Buy one!

Delivers in spades.
It has had exactly the effect that it promised: at a glance we can tell whether we have left lights, computers, or even a cooker ring on somewhere unnecessarily, and we go and turn them off. It is cutting our electricity use by at least 25%.What gets measured gets managed. And my husband is addicted: he has even been known to produce it when we have guests, no doubt boring them to death with his chatter about how much electricity we used to use!