1. Power is Money
Knowing how much electricity you use is the first step to using less. Here are three new products designed to give you more info about your juice use.
We all know that in this day and age money is power, but when it comes to the monthly electricity bill, a little knowledge can be a very powerful thing. That’s because you can begin to better save power by being able to analyze and closely track your electricity consumption. Millions of homes, offices, and factories do this by using smart meters that go beyond merely measuring how much power is sucked off of the grid but can apply different rates based on how much power you’re using or the time of the day. Some can even selectively turn off major appliances during peak electrical demand. Smart meters also allow utility companies to better manage supply and demand and to offer discounts for those who turn off their air conditioners on a hot day.
Some smart meters even let you watch your power use wax and wane on a computer screen with Google’s PowerMeter program. The software also predicts what your demand will be based on your past use. The best part is that Google’s PowerMeter is free.
But what about the rest of us who have old meters that do nothing other than measure power use? For instance, my unenlightened utility recently installed a digital meter, but it’s just as dumb as the one the house had when I moved in 15 years ago.
As a solution, there are several kits available that monitor your power use and let you keep an eye on how much juice you’re using. The best alternatives predict the cost and help you use less electricity. Far from perfect, they, unfortunately, only estimate the cost of electricity, while ignoring taxes, service fees, and surcharges.
I got my hands on three of the newest household power monitors and used them to keep an eye on my power use for several weeks of the hottest summer anyone can remember. Blueline’s PowerCost Monitor and Grossman Innovation’s Energy Owl have a sensor that fits over the outside of your electrical meter that relays its data to a desktop screen or to a computer via a USB cable. By contrast, PowerSave’s ENVI has inductive clips that wrap around the input electricity cables and the data is transmitted over the air to a desktop display.
Recently, a survey conducted by IMS Research involving 1,000 respondents--half of which were in the United States and the other half in the UK--revealed that over 50% of those surveyed considered monitoring their power use as something that was very important to them. In other words, a power monitor can change the way you look at an electrical outlet and your power bill.
Recent research from the University of Nebraska shows that once people can monitor their power use, they naturally start reducing it. By how much? On average, people lowered their power use by 15%, just by monitoring their use. That means that the average U.S. household, which has a monthly power bill of about $100, can pay for any of these power monitors in less than a year. After that the savings add up quickly. More to the "green" point, that’s the equivalent of more than 1,500 pounds of carbon that won’t be dumped into the air, based on the EPA’s carbon calculator. After all, when it comes to the environment and your electricity bill, a little knowledge can go a long way.
Just installed the Powercost Monitor w/wifi. Very cool device and integration with Microsoft Hohm is great to have a history of what is going on. However the issue with all of these is that it nearly immediately makes you want for more detailed information to understand where the power usage is coming from. If we could get something that could report by circuit breaker, that would be nearly ideal and not as crazy as having to pay for every outlet to be monitored.
One random note: Windows XP, really???
Sort of sad to see that it looks like not many people have bothered reading this...
(sorry for double post)
Even if you're not actually looking at buying one immediately, power savings are a good things for you and the environment and the stats and stuff in the intro were interesting to know.
I didn't know these devices were on the market. Thanks for the article. I will be looking into these myself.
I live in an apartment so the power meter monitors don't do me any good.
I have been interested in the single outlet monitor. Do you have any insight on these?
Audioee there are several devices like the Kill-A-Watt (sorry that is the only one I know by name) that can monitor power for a single device or power bar. I have had one for years and spent a lot of time checking how much each device I own consumes. Over time I have moved most devices in my home to power bars so I can switch them off or I have unplugged them.
I also have a Kill-A-Watt meter. Handy gadget.
I had one of these http://www.egauge.net/ installed with my pv system. It can monitor consumption and production (if you produce your own electricity) of multiple circuits.
Installation is similar to the PowerSaveENVI, but monitoring requires a web browser. Data transfer is over powerline ethernet.
I can't believe that this article doesn't mention the simpliest of devices that can be purchased anywhere. It's a wonderful thing to be able to test ANY appliance in your home or apartment to see where there may be ways to cut back. The "Kill-A-Watt" device sells on newegg.com for only $18.99 + $1.99 shipping. In an article discussing devices to measure power usage, it is pathetic to see that the devices that most people would actually be interested in (and can easily afford to purchase) aren't even mentioned in passing. Out of a score of 100 points, I would have to give this article a 25---just for being so totally incomplete. With the Kill-A-Watt meter, I recently discovered that my Apartment's refrigerator was using TRIPLE the power that it should be using. It's old and the compressor was running almost constantly. With the information that the Kill-A-Watt provided in hand, I was able to show management why my monthly popower bill was so high---and they gave me a new refrigerator. Most people want a simple to use, inexpensive and accurate device---not some high-tech expensive device that can be both difficult and dangerous to install. How about a new Article that is helpful to 90% of all people, not just the 10% that insist on the very latest high-tech units?
We recently purchased an Envi to monitor our 4.1KW solar PV panels. We have had the PV system independently tested, and the Envi innacurately reports realtime energy production (Energy Now) by about 1KW. We have followed Envi installation instructions and even repositioned the installation several times, but we still receive inaccurate readings.
I would rate the article at least a 90.
The article deals with whole house monitors, not individual appliances so the omission of the Kill A Watt is not a big deal.
While the Kill A Watt certainly has it's uses, it is also limited
to 120V monitoring, thus cannot check units that run on 240V such as air conditioning etc.
Kill a Watt is a waste of time if you want to see what your total usage is. Some of us are interested in the latest and greatest. To have data that your computer can monitor, will be invaluable especially with the smart meters. Using appliances outside of heavy demand times can save some of us cash.
i bought the Envi monitor and bridge on advice from this article. Easy to install and this is the best electronic advice I have received as the monitor works like a charm and the appliance monitoring is available (called an IAM) wirelessly as well. I have cut my electric bill by 10% now. Thank you for taking the time to review these products...saves me lots of time researching.
find a freelancer pleased to see the nice post!