Best Home Energy Monitors UK 2026

The Short Answer

For most people, the OWL Intuition-e is the best buy — it's simple, reliable, and shows your whole-house electricity usage in real time for around £60. If you have solar panels and want to track generation separately, get the Efergy Engage Hub instead. And if you've already got a SMETS2 smart meter, try the Loop app first — it's free and surprisingly good.

Why Bother?

You can't manage what you can't see. Most people have no idea how much electricity their heat pump uses, whether their solar panels are actually generating what the installer promised, or which appliances are quietly draining money. An energy monitor puts a number on it — in real time, not on a quarterly bill you've already forgotten about.

If you've just had a heat pump installed, a monitor answers the question everyone asks: "Is this thing actually saving me money?" If your monitor shows your heat pump drawing 5,000 kWh per year when it should be closer to 3,500 kWh, something's wrong — maybe the flow temperature is set too high, or you've got an insulation problem. Without a monitor, you wouldn't know until you got a surprisingly large electricity bill.

Our Picks

Best Overall: OWL Intuition-e

The OWL has been around for years and it's popular for a reason: it works, it's easy to install, and it doesn't try to do too much. You clip a sensor around the main cable in your consumer unit (takes about 10 minutes, no electrician needed), and it sends data to a web dashboard where you can see real-time usage, daily totals, and monthly trends.

It won't break down usage by appliance or circuit — for that you'd need something more expensive — but for knowing what your house is using overall and tracking changes over time, it's the sweet spot of price and usefulness. If you've just installed a heat pump and want to keep an eye on running costs, this is the one to get.

Best for Solar Owners: Efergy Engage Hub

The Efergy supports multiple clamp sensors, which is the key difference from the OWL. You put one on your mains supply and another on your solar inverter feed. The app then shows you three things at once: how much you're generating, how much you're using, and how much you're exporting to the grid.

This matters because exported electricity earns you 4–5p/kWh under the Smart Export Guarantee, while electricity you use directly from your panels saves you 24p/kWh. The Efergy helps you figure out when to run the washing machine, dishwasher, or charge an EV to make the most of your solar — instead of giving cheap power to the grid and buying expensive power back later.

Best Free Option: Loop

If you've got a SMETS2 smart meter (the second-generation type that's been standard since about 2019), try the Loop app before buying anything. It connects to your smart meter wirelessly, shows real-time usage, and compares your home to similar properties. It's not as fast as the OWL (updates every 10–30 seconds rather than every couple of seconds) and it can be a bit flaky if your smart meter connection drops — but it's free. Hard to argue with free.

Comparison Table

Feature	OWL Intuition-e	Efergy Engage Hub	Loop (free app)
Price	£50–£80	£60–£90	Free
Installation	DIY clamp-on	DIY clamp-on	App only (smart meter)
Update speed	Every 2 seconds	Every 6 seconds	Every 10–30 seconds
Solar monitoring	No	Yes (multi-channel)	Limited
App	Web dashboard	iOS and Android	iOS and Android
Subscription	No	No	No

What to Actually Do With Your Monitor

Track Your Heat Pump

A well-running heat pump in a well-insulated home should use roughly 3,000–5,000 kWh per year for heating and hot water. If your monitor shows significantly more, something's off. The usual culprits: flow temperature set too high (ask your installer to check), poor insulation letting heat escape faster than the pump can replace it, or the system running at times when it doesn't need to. Catching these issues early saves hundreds of pounds a year.

Shift Your Solar Usage

With solar panels, the golden rule is: use your own electricity instead of exporting it. Your monitor shows you when you've got surplus generation — that's when you should be running the washing machine, the dishwasher, or charging your car. Even shifting one or two big appliances into peak solar hours saves £100–£200 per year. It becomes second nature after a week or two.

For the bigger picture on cutting your bills, see our energy efficiency guide. If you're sizing a solar system, our solar sizing guide explains how to match generation to your usage.