Date post: | 14-Jun-2015 |
Category: |
Devices & Hardware |
Upload: | alliance-to-save-energy |
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Witty and/or Corny Title Related to Knowing How Much Energy Your Home Uses
What’s Your Watt?!?! (sorry…)
Home Energy Monitors with Tom
April 22, 2010
Three Ways I Play ‘The Energy Detective’ – ‘TED’- Proprietary ‘Footprints’ web browser-based
‘dashboard’
- Standalone display Viewing data with Google’s PowerMeter- Same data, different portal
Pepco’s online ‘My Account’- Based on a guy coming out and reading the normal
old electricity meter on the side of our house
The Energy Detective From Energy, Inc.- http://www.theenergydetective.com
Not very cheap - $239.95 for my setup A challenge to install, though can be DIY- I managed it myself, barely
Has its own interface software, but also compatible with Google’s PowerMeter
One second data intervals- Nearly real-time
Fridge from CEE Super-
Efficient Home Appliance
Initiative list
Toaster
Dehumidifier
Fridge
Google PowerMeter Public API, so in theory any clever IT
engineer can make devices work with it- Two commercial stand-alone devices
presently work with it One in US (TED), one in Europe
- Several utilities have smart meters that work with it
Teething problems, like providing old data
Still in development- Some quirks, some bugs
Ten-minute intervals
Budget function a bit odd…
Also at home vs. not at home
Can’t see refrigerator
cycling on and off
Pepco’s Online Tools Based on regular meter-reading data- Either guy comes once a month to read it or
someone occasionally reads it and it’s otherwise extrapolated.
- Basically a one-month interval Limited functionality, buggy Requires you to turn off some browser security
settings Some utilities provide more info- OPower, an Alliance Associate
Lessons Learned Resistance heating uses a lot of energy, but
not often - Toaster, electric kettle (lots of tea), hair dryer, hair
straighteners- We have natural gas water heater, air heater, and
cooking – which none of these systems measure The refrigerator uses a lot of energy, though,
in theory, a lot less than most- We already did what we can realistically do
The dehumidifier uses quite a lot- I need to clean gutters and regrade the yard
Lessons Learned So have I taken any particular action
based on this data?- Coming soon to ase.org! ‘At Home With Tom!’
High-tech guilt-trip? Popular appeal?
Thank You! Questions?
You know where to find me