Of the 100 electrical appliances tested in this Marketwatch survey, 18 of them turned out not to be compliant with EU ecodesign laws. Whilst some of these products were using more power when running than they claimed, others were found to be sapping energy when they were supposed to be in ‘off’ mode.

“While this was a targeted sample, we suspect that as many as one in 10 household appliances sold today consume more energy than the manufacturer states. This could be misleading for consumers and result in higher energy bills – and true product cost – than they would anticipate.” – Dr Fanoula Ziouzia (Head of Products at Energy Saving Trust).

How do you know if your products are using more energy than they should be?

Maybe you have a funny feeling about your dishwasher’s energy use – or perhaps you’re slightly suspicious of how many kilowatts your TV uses? An easy way to find out if your electrical appliances are in fact guzzling too much energy, is to get yourself an energy monitor – we’d recommend either our best-selling Minim+ electricity monitor or our Solo II home energy monitor for the job!

1. Using your Minim+ electricity monitor

The great thing about Minim+ is that it shows you real-time energy use in both kWs and ££s on its easy-to-read colour display. This means, the next time you turn your TV or microwave on, you’ll be able to see just how much energy your appliances are using – and whether this stacks up with what was advertised.

2. Using your Solo II energy monitor (+ energynote)

If you’ve linked your Solo II with our online data platform energynote (if not, you’ll need a bridge to do so) you can then connect a Smart Plug to the appliance in question to see (via energynote) exactly how much energy your appliance is using – and how much it’s costing you. Those energy-guzzling gadgets will have nowhere to hide!

Now it’s over to you. Will you be testing how much energy your appliances use to see how this tallies with how much you thought they were using? You’ll have to let us know if you think you’ve caught out any energy offenders! Pop your comments in the box below – we’d love to hear from you.