my electricity use has doubled compared to same period last year, seems odd to me, how do I check usage? I suspect a faulty fridge or freezer could be the cause.

Mine too more or less, energy prices have gone through the roof!!!

You can buy a plug in power meter from maplin for £12 that will tell you what each appliance is using. There are systems out there too that fit near the meter and will monitor your overall use

Tell me about I got a £60 last month for leccy and £420 rebate on my gas in febuary.

I got a free energy monitor for signing up to paperless billing and signing up for reading my own meter (which I don't as I forget!) That was with Npower.

It clips round the meter tails and revealed that I was using about 3p per hour all the time…turned off a few things like the Wii and DVD player and now its just 1p per hour. Doesn't sound much but by usage has gone from about £1.50 a day to about £1. And when I get home from work I can tell if we've left an upstairs light on all day as the reading has doubled.

We bought a plug in one last year that tells you how much an appliance is using but its a bit crap and nothing like as good as one that does the whole house. (Edit: It was that maplin one!)

I got a free energy monitor for signing up to paperless billing and signing up for reading my own meter (which I don't as I forget!) That was with Npower.

I'm with npower on paperless so will see if I can get one.

energy prices have gone through the roof!!!

Its use thats almost doubled not price

nickjb – Member
You can buy a plug in power meter from maplin for £12 that will tell you what each appliance is using. There are systems out there too that fit near the meter and will monitor your overall use

I got one of these as a freebie from British Gas. Can't say I keep an eye on it all the time, but have noticed that the usage and costs rocket whenever the cooker's on. 😯

More details / other models here… http://www.currentcost.com/products.html.

I've got one of those BG meters and it tells me my house is bleeding electricity day and night, but I'm just too idle to go round switching things off one by one to find out where the culprit is 😳