Energy bills are still the quiet stress in the room. A small, budget gadget Martin Lewis has long urged people to try is due to land in Lidl next week — the kind that can show you exactly where your electricity spend is leaking away.
Shoppers drift towards the jumble of box-fresh bargains, eyes scanning for that one useful thing that feels like a win. A grey-haired man in a flat cap mentions the price of kWh like he’s discussing the football. A mum in a parka nods, says she saw Martin Lewis talk about a little plug that tells you what your kit is costing you, and her friend replies, “If it’s in next week, I’m grabbing two.” A staffer wheels out a pallet and people shuffle closer, curious. The aisle has that hush of shared hope you get before doors open at a gig. Something small could make a big difference. The queue will be real.
The draw here is simple: Lidl is set to stock a plug-in energy monitor, the handy socket gadget that shows how much electricity an individual appliance uses. Martin Lewis has been encouraging households for years to get one of these and test their “energy hogs”. Spend a few quid, learn where the watts go, then act. It’s a small buy with outsized power because it swaps guesswork for data and turns vague guilt into doable tweaks. **You don’t need to become a spreadsheet person — you just need to see real numbers once.**
Picture this: a renter in Manchester plugs her ancient beer fridge into the monitor for a week. The display clocks a steady trickle, day and night. She does the maths and realises that quiet hum is anything but cheap. The fridge goes on Facebook Marketplace; drinks move to the main fridge. Or take a family who test their tumble dryer versus an airer plus a dehumidifier on laundry day. The monitor reveals the dryer’s true appetite. Two small changes later, their Sunday routine costs less and nothing feels like a sacrifice. On a smart day, it even feels like a game.
Why it works is part psychology, part physics. Electricity is abstract until you put a number on it in pounds and pence. The monitor records wattage as things turn on and off, totals it into kWh, and keeps running so you capture the full picture across a day or week. Standby drain becomes visible. Short, fierce bursts from a kettle or air fryer can be compared with slow, gentle heat from a slow cooker. Once you’ve clocked what a device actually uses per session, you can spot habits worth swapping. **Knowing beats guessing, and knowing leads to doing.**
Here’s a crisp way to use it. First, pick five suspects: the second fridge, tumble dryer, gaming console, heated towel rail, and the “always on” router corner. Plug each into the monitor one by one for a realistic window: five minutes for a kettle or toaster, a full wash-dry cycle for laundry, and at least 24 hours for anything that idles. Note the total kWh on the display and multiply by your tariff to get the cost. This little check takes five minutes and pays you back.
Don’t trip over the common traps. Testing a fridge for ten minutes tells you nothing; it cycles on and off across the day, so give it time. Motors and heaters spike when they start, so you want the average over a full run, not the peak. People also forget the vampire load — the TV box, soundbar, and console sipping power all night. We’ve all lived that moment when you see a tiny number and then realise it’s clicking 24/7. Let’s be honest: nobody actually does that every day. So build one calm “test evening” and capture the top wins in one go.
“I thought my bill was all lighting until the monitor showed my towel rail was quietly burning cash for hours. Flicked it to a timer and haven’t looked back.”
Slot this into a mini action plan you can stick on the fridge:
- Test: dryer vs heated airer + dehumidifier
- Audit: TV corner (TV, console, soundbar, set-top box)
- Check: fridge and freezer over 48 hours
- Time-box: kettle, air fryer, slow cooker per typical use
- Tame: chargers, printers, and hubs on a single switched strip
What lands in the middle aisle next week isn’t just a gadget; it’s a mindset trigger. It turns “I should cut down” into “this plug costs X when I leave it on” — and that clarity nudges behaviour without lectures. Lidl’s drop will likely be a budget-friendly model that shows live wattage, running kWh, and an estimated cost if you input your tariff. Paired with Martin Lewis’s long-standing “buy to save” mantra, it’s the kind of little spend that pays for itself in a month or two if you act on what you learn. **If you’ve been waiting for a nudge, this is it.**
| Point clé | Détail | Intérêt pour le lecteur |
|---|---|---|
| What the gadget does | Measures real-time watts and total kWh per device | Replaces guesswork with hard numbers |
| Best things to test | Fridges, dryers, media corners, towel rails, chargers | Find the quickest wins first |
| Why Martin Lewis flagged it | Small “buy to save” that reveals vampire costs | Simple route to lower bills without lifestyle pain |
FAQ :
- Is this the exact model Martin Lewis endorsed?He’s long recommended using plug-in energy monitors as a category, rather than one specific brand. The point is the habit of testing, not the label on the box.
- Will it work if I already have a smart meter?Yes. A smart meter shows whole-house usage; this monitor isolates one device at a time so you can target the culprits.
- How accurate are budget monitors?For resistive loads like heaters and kettles, usually very close. For motors and gadgets with odd power factors, expect a small margin of error, which is fine for spotting big wins.
- What if the Lidl stock sells out?Middle-aisle drops can be popular. If you miss it, similar monitors are widely available online and in DIY stores — aim for clear watt/kWh readouts and a reset button.
- What should I change after testing?Prioritise high-usage and always-on devices. Put media gear on a switched strip, add timers to towel rails, reconsider a second fridge, and compare drying methods by cost per load.
