is their a gadget that I can plug into a power socket and then plug an appliance into that and it tells me how much power is being used?

excellent

Anyone used one?

They use too much electricity

We've got an Owl monitor. Attaches to your meter.

Excellent.

Owl measures total household use

But you can work out each electric item by putting them on and then watching how much it goes up

Kettle probably uses the most per second

Yes its called a meter

Yep. Stopped drinking tea now, beer's cheaper.

...and I wear my clothes wet, straight out of the washing machine.

Or you could check the power rating of the device by reading the label....

cheers guys

That doesn't help though. What if you have a 2kw heater turned on a low setting?

They tend to turn themselves on and off so you'd need a reasonably complicated gadget to not only measure the output but also average it over time.

Which is why I want one that plugs into the wall socket.

I used a lot of electricity last year. It was about 15% more than usual and far more than I should be using.

You could turn your computer off

I could.
My laptop is almost always on and I have a desktop and a printer which are always on standby power

I'm sure I've read that turning computers on and off user more power than leaving on, although guess it depends on usage

Bought a gadget today.
I will see where the usage is by testing a few appliances. My laptop uses next to nothing (about 50w an hour when in use).
An electric heater uses huge amounts.

This is a fact. My secretary has one and her other half has got a bit paranoid about use of the kettle

I haven't got a gadget but have switched off my second "beer" fridge. Seemed a waste being on and if I've got guests, I can power up the night before. It's 12 years old so if it goes kipput then so be it. I also tend to run the battery down on my laptop before recharging. Sounds like I'm being super stingy but those utility bills will hurt come Jan 12.

It's not so much the cost although it is a factor.
I thought about the thread groomy started about how much people are paying andlast night the guy from the energy company came to read the electric and gas meters. When I asked how much I was using he said gas was quite a way below what would be expected but electric usage was way over. Then I decided to investigate what I was doing that would use so much. Electric was 3589kwh in 2011 for a 1 bed top floor flat.

Always helps to turn off computers etc when not in use but they are a bit of a red herring when it comes to being green / stingy. Far better to turn your heating down a degree, have your heaters on a lower setting, shallower bath, shorter shower etc.

Shame the gadgets can't always be used on heating systems.

If you use any Electric heating the increase is probably due to last years extremely cold winter. I used our Electric radiator quite a bit myself to supplement the central heating when it was really cold. Don't normally have to use it at all most winters, only brought it because we had a problem a few years ago where the radiator in the kitchen was hardly working.

You can get an extension for the computer (I think) which turns everything off (Printer, speakers, modem etc) when you turn off the computer, which could save a bit in the long run. Thinking of getting one of them myself.

I bought a gadget and it will keep a record of kwh usage. When an electric heater is on it shows 1kwh or 2kwh depending on setting. When the heater switches off then it show 0.5w usage but keeps a record of total kwh usage. You can input prices for the electricity but I can't be bothered. It was useful just to see what I use and TV+decoder+recorder use less than i thought (around 150w per hour).
It's those electric heaters to heat a room rather than have the central heating on that does it. It can easily add 1000kwh over a winter

When I got my loft converted I got a new condensing combi boiler

As a result my heating bills are lower

Electric radiator thingys use shed loads of electricity. I've also got a gas hob whistling kettle which uses less energy than an electric one.

I've got an electric kettle and it uses less gas than yours

But not less energy

No idea (tips to be green - never put too much water in your kettle, whatever sort, just enough to use)

Which is cheaper per unit of energy? Gas or leccy?

Both cost around 18p a unit here but gas is more efficient.