Homeowners: Your Bill Is One Number For The Whole House. Here Is How To Turn It Into Six Things.Homeowners: Standby Alone Is 5 To 10 Percent Of Your Bill. You Have Never Seen Which Things It Is.Homeowners: You Cannot Cut What You Cannot See. 74.90 Euros Shows You Six Things, One Socket At A Time.
SHWritten by the Shelly teamPublished by Shelly Europe · 14 September 2026
Who this is for
Anyone whose bill went up and who cannot say what did it
Anyone with a media wall, a home office or a second freezer
Anyone who has tried "turning things off" and could not tell if it worked
Your electricity bill tells you one thing. How much. It does not tell you what.
So everyone does the same thing. They turn the lights off when they leave a room, they feel virtuous, and the next bill is the same. Because lighting was never the problem, and the thing that is the problem was never on the list.
You cannot cut a cost you cannot see. The first job is to see it. The second job is smaller than you think.
This is how to do the first job for 74.90 euros.
Between 5 and 10 percent of a home's electricity goes to things that are switched off. Standby. The television that is waiting, the printer that is waiting, the games console that is waiting.
At the EU average price that is 50 to 100 euros a year, per home, for nothing. And that is only the part everyone agrees on.
The bill will never tell you which things. A metered socket will, in about a day.
Here is how the numbers break down, and what to put where.
You cannot cut what you cannot see. That is the whole of it.
A home has forty things plugged in and one meter, in a cupboard, that adds them all up. Nobody has ever cut a bill by staring at a total.
Put a meter on the things instead. Four sockets and two plugs cover most of what is worth knowing. It costs 74.90 euros and the first surprise arrives the same evening.
Here is what people find.
The short version
A home's electricity is a total. You cannot act on a total. You can act on a thing with a number next to it.
Standby is 5 to 10 percent of the bill and it is the easiest cut there is, once you know which things.
A metered four-socket strip plus two metered plugs show you six appliances, each on its own line. 74.90 EUR.
Nothing is wired. It all goes into ordinary sockets, and it cannot see anything that is wired in. We say so up front.
What the bill hides
Take a typical European household on the EU average price. About 3,500 kilowatt-hours a year, around a thousand euros. The bill shows one number. Here is roughly what is inside it.
50 to 100 EUR
Standby. Things that are off but plugged in. Television, set-top box, console, printer, chargers, the coffee machine's clock.
100 to 150 EUR
Cold. The fridge and, if you have one, the second freezer in the garage. An old one can be double.
Unknown
The appliances nobody checks. A dehumidifier in the cellar, an electric heater in the office, a tumble dryer used every day. Nobody knows these until a plug is on them.
The rest is the big wired loads. Heating, hot water, the hob, the oven. This page is not about those. A plug cannot see them and we will not pretend it can. They need a meter in the consumer unit, which is a different job and a different product.
The first two lines alone can be 160 to 270 euros a year, and both are things you can see and cut from a socket. Start there.
Why "turning things off" does not work
Because you do not know what to turn off. So people turn off the things they can see, which are the lights, and leave on the things that cost money, which are behind the television.
1
The lights
Satisfying, and small. A room of LEDs is twenty to forty watts. Turning it off for an hour saves about one cent.
2
The media wall
Invisible, and not small. A television, a soundbar, a set-top box and a console on standby draw fifteen to thirty watts all day and all night. That is 40 to 75 euros a year for a wall that is off.
3
The second freezer
The one nobody meters. A ten-year-old chest freezer in a warm garage can cost 120 to 150 euros a year. Nobody knows, because nobody has ever put a meter on it.
4
The chargers
The one everyone worries about, and it is nothing. A phone charger with no phone on it is under a euro a year. Stop unplugging it.
The pattern is the same in every home we have metered. The thing people worry about costs nothing. The thing costing money is one they never think about.
How to see it
Two kinds of meter, for two kinds of place.
The things that plug in
A four-socket strip that meters each socket on its own
The Power Strip 4 Gen4 shows each of its four outlets in watts and in euros, live and over the month. Move it around the house for a week at a time. Media wall first, then the freezer, then the office.
The appliances on their own
Two plugs that meter one thing each
The Plug M Gen3 goes between the socket and one appliance. Put one on the freezer in the cellar and one on the dryer, the dehumidifier or the heater. After a day you know what that thing costs, and you can switch it on a schedule too.
What it switches
Each socket, on a schedule or by hand
Media wall off at midnight and on at seven. The printer off at six. The strip does it every day without you. That is the standby cut, made once.
What it cannot see
The wired loads
Water heater, hob, oven, a heat pump. Anything wired into the consumer unit is invisible to a plug. If that is your question, you need a different product and we would rather say so here than in a review.
This is the plug. It goes into the wall socket and the appliance goes into it. It shows that one appliance in watts and in euros.
What a first week looks like
Plug the strip into the media wall on Monday. By Tuesday morning the app shows the night. Four outlets, four lines. The soundbar is the surprise in most homes: it draws almost as much waiting as playing.
Mon 23:00Media strip: 27 W, all four outlets, nothing playing
Tue 07:00Media strip: 27 W, eight hours, 0.22 kWh
Tue 07:05Schedule set: outlets 1-3 off 00:00-07:00
Wed 07:00Media strip overnight: 0.02 kWh
MonthSaving on that one wall: about 1.70 EUR
One wall, one schedule, set once. About 21 euros a year: 0.20 kWh a night saved, 365 nights, at 0.29 EUR a kilowatt-hour. That is only the seven hours it is switched off. The same 27 watts is still running the other seventeen, which is the next schedule. Meanwhile the two plugs have been on the freezer and the dryer all week.
Basic Energy Saving BundlePower Strip 4 Gen4 and two Plug M Gen3
Shelly Power Strip 4 Gen459.90 EURFour sockets, each metered and switched on its own. Plugs into the wall.
Shelly Plug M Gen3, two pack19.90 EUR the twoTwo metered plugs for the two appliances you are not sure about. Each one shows what that one thing costs, and switches it on a schedule.
Both are made by Shelly and report to the same free app over your Wi-Fi. They go into ordinary sockets. Neither needs a hub or a subscription.
Member of the SDAXGermany's DAX index family, since April 2026
Awarded
CES 2025Residential Systems Picks Award
Works with
Speaks Matter, Zigbee 3.0, Z-Wave, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so it also joins whatever you already run.
What not knowing costs, against knowing
A typical home, on the EU average price
Standby across the house, per year, most of which a schedule can stop50 to 100 EUR
An old second freezer nobody has metered, which you can only find, not switch off120 to 150 EUR
What the sockets in a typical home cost to run170 to 250 EUR
Read the two lines differently. The standby is money a schedule can actually take back, so on the lower figure the kit pays for itself inside two years. The freezer is not a saving: it is a number you did not have, and what you do about it is a separate decision and a separate cost. These are socket-level figures only. The wired loads are bigger and are not on this list, because this kit cannot see them.
Introductory offer
See what six things cost to run, for 74.90 EUR
The Power Strip 4 meters four things at once and switches each one off on its own. The two Plug M go on the two appliances you are not sure about, like the freezer in the cellar or the dehumidifier. Together 74.90 EUR against 79.80 bought separately.
Shelly Power Strip 4 Gen459.90 EUR
Shelly Plug M Gen3, two pack19.90 EUR
Introductory price 79.80 EUR74.90 EUR
✓You see what each socket costs, in euros, on your phone. The strip meters each of its four outlets separately. Not the house. The thing.
✓Standby dies on a schedule. Media wall off at midnight, on at seven. The strip does it, you do nothing.
✓Two more meters for the suspects. One plug on the old freezer, one on the tumble dryer or the heater. Each shows what that one appliance costs over the month.
✓Nothing to wire. The strip and both plugs go into ordinary wall sockets and talk to the free Shelly app over your Wi-Fi.
✓14 days to change your mind. Sold and shipped by Shelly, the manufacturer.
Plugs meter what plugs into them; a hardwired water heater, hob or oven is not visible to them.
What buyers actually say
4.6★★★★★across 120 reviews of the strip and the plugs on the manufacturer's own store, pulled as written
★★★★★
"Finally got full control and power monitoring for all my appliances. Seamless Home Assistant integration with local control out of the box. Great dashboards, detailed energy flow data, useful automations, and precise metrics to make informed decisions."
O.K. on Shelly Power Strip 4 Gen4 Verified
★★★★★
"Great useful product for controlling, monitoring and customizing your appliances."
A. on Shelly Power Strip 4 Gen4 Verified
★★★★★
"excellent to track the consumption. the app is very intuitive!"
M.P. on Shelly Plug M Gen3 Verified
★★★★☆
"Delivers as advertised. Unfortunately the indication light can't be turned off without turning off the device -1 star"
O. on Shelly Plug M Gen3 Verified
★★★★★
"Excellent pack. I'm using one peace for scheduling the irrigation pump at our cottage house, one as switch off timer for a steam iron and one for monitoring a breadmaker."
A. on Shelly Plug M Gen3 Verified
★★★★☆
"Nice design, good features and easy configurability. Unknown if the switch knobs are moist resistant, unknown if the relays are dual pole ..."
R.K. on Shelly Power Strip 4 Gen4 Verified
Four stars and below are left in. The most common small complaint about the plugs is the status light, which cannot be switched off on its own. The most common one about the strip is a small reading on an outlet that is off, which is the strip's own electronics.
Questions before you buy
Do I need an electrician?
No. The strip and both plugs go into ordinary wall sockets. Nothing in this kit is wired.
Can it see my water heater or my hob?
No. Those are wired into the consumer unit and no plug can see them. This kit meters what plugs into it: four things on the strip and one thing on each plug. That is most of the small stuff and most of the standby, and none of the big wired loads. We say that plainly because it is what the reviews complain about when it is not said.
How much does standby actually cost?
The EU's own figures put standby at roughly 5 to 10 percent of a home's electricity. At the current EU average price that is 50 to 100 euros a year for a typical household. The strip is what finds out which of your things it is.
Why two plugs as well as the strip?
The strip lives where things are grouped, like the media wall or the desk. The appliances worth checking are usually on their own, in the cellar, the garage or the utility room. One plug each shows what that one thing costs, without moving the strip.
Will the strip switch things off by itself?
On a schedule, yes, per outlet. Media wall off at midnight, printer off at six, on again in the morning. You set it once.
Do I need a hub?
No. The strip and the plugs talk to the free Shelly app over your Wi-Fi. If you already run Home Assistant or Apple Home they join that too.
Sources. Standby share of household electricity: European Commission and national energy agency estimates, typically 5 to 10 percent. Household electricity price: Eurostat, most recent published EU average. Share of household energy going to space heating: Eurostat household energy consumption by use. Prices: shelly.com, 2 September 2026.
Published by Shelly Europe. This page is a paid promotion published on behalf of Shelly Europe, and the publisher earns from purchases made through the links on it. Prices are from the manufacturer's store and were correct at the time of writing. Nothing here is legal or insurance advice; policy terms, building regulations and platform rules differ by country and change over time.
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