OWL Full Review
Posted: 18 February 2008 by Adam Vaughan
Being first isn't all it's cracked up to be. The OWL was the first-ever gadget to show your real-time electricity consumption around the house, appearing first in Oz as the Cent-a-meter, then as the Electrisave in the UK and now reborn as The OWL.
Despite the new monicker, it's still essentially the same energy-monitoring gizmo that first appeared way back in 2004. It shows. There are three alternatives to the OWL -- DIY Kyoto's £150 Wattson, the £40 Efergy Meter and the £40 Eco-eye -- and each brings something more to the party, be it a slicker design or an ability to track your electricity usage and accompanying carbon emissions over time.
Getting the OWL installed is pretty simple. Take the supplied wireless transmitter and clip it round a cable coming out of your electricity meter -- trust us, you don't need to be a sparkie -- and switch on the main display unit. You now have a little monochrome screen showing how many watts, pounds or tonnes of CO2 you're expending at any given moment. So far, so easy, aside from the annoying quirk that you need your own tiny crosshead screwdriver to get the bundled batteries into the transmitter. And the cryptic and fiddly interface.
The transmitter on the left wirelessly talks to the main display unit on the right
Yep, the interface isn't great. The main problem is changing basic settings, such as the price you're paying for electricity or the currency (a delightful process that involves holding down the mode and alarm button simultaneously, using the arrow key to flip through the options, pressing mode again, and pressing mode a second time to indicate you're finished. It's not fun -- you'll need the manual to hand). On the plus side, the manual is fairly comprehensive and clear. Continue reading...
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