Energy monitors: Compare features & prices Owl CM160 review http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/reviews/energy-monitors/owl-cm160/review/

We originally bought one to monitor our consumption and as a visual reminder to keep unnecessary appliances and lights turned off, and for this it is very good. It is fiddly to setup, and if you want to check the data file on your PC, the data is very 'raw' and needs converting to make any use of it, e.g. to turn into peaks a troughs of KWhs consumed over the course of a day. Also the display can be fiddly - you almost have too many options with how to display your usage... Watts or Amps or cost, varied with each tarriff. I also suspect that at low watts it's not very sensitive - we have a small (600w) wind turbine and this seem to always output 70 watts or 88 watts or similar multiples... never any other amounts in between.

Admit to not using most of this product’s features but nevertheless found issue with some of the basic ones. The sender clip doesn’t fit the primary power cable (prior to EB fuse) as the cable is too thick, it’s bulk prevents fitting to the live cable between the EB fuse and meter (the proximity of the neutral cable prevents that), so had no alternative but to fit after the meter, after my supply splits into two. Nett result is the Owl doesn’t measure all my consumption.Also… It may well have a large display but it uses a floating decimal point the size of a pinprick. Spotting its location in anything other than good light and with perfect vision is nigh impossible, making the display of current and total usage a string of meaningless numbers. Finally and a bit trivial… You would have thought that a sophisticated piece of electronic equipment could automatically adjust for GMT/BST time changes.

I bought an Owl C60 in Nov 2011 and found it to be one of the most complicated devices I have ever had to set-up. Not bad from an IT engineer with 15 years programming experience behind me.1) The company states it will work on windows 7, it will if you have the 32 bit version. It will not if you have the 64 bit version, as there are no digitally signed drivers for it, and on contacting the the company, they are simply "Send it back, we are not going to solve the issue for you."2) The wireless feature is next to useless, as it keep dropping every few days, which means the data is skewed and incorrect.3) The install sheet looks like it could be easy to follow. It is not and omits several salient details which you have to work out for yourself. If you are experienced with installs of this type, then it shouldn't take you more than two or three hours to work your way around this, but inexperienced? Sorry.4) The drivers for window 7 are supposed to come on the supplied disk, well you should forget about the disk, it has nothing on it for windows 7 users no matter what version you are using. You MUST register the device, because if you do not, you will not receive the email from the company telling you to go to their website and download the windows 7 drivers. This is not detailed anywhere on the product documentation, you just have to soldier on and stumble across it.All in all, I am sorry to say I have wasted a lot of money. Rather than send the unit back, I continued to battle with the endless issues and problems in the hopes I could make something of it, but I am very sorry to have to admit that the Owl C60 just isn't up to spec, and should never have been put out for sale with such little field testing.