Prompted by seeing another thread asking “Will x use more or less power than y?”.
Over here, our electricity companies have started offering things like this http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy-savers/green-gadgets/Trec-energy-monitor.html (it says there that you have to buy it, but if you’re a customer they’ll give you one if you ask nicely) which has a unit that clamps onto your main power line, and wirelessly connects to the monitor, showing how many kilowatts your house is pulling in real time, as well as keeping 30 days of records so you can see how much you used yesterday, last week, or in the last month.
It even gives you a rough estimate at how much it’s costing you, you input the price per kwh to the nearest penny and it can show (roughly) how much an appliance costs to run.
I find it a great help in remembering to turn things off before I go to bed. If all is switched off bar the fridge and freezer, the meter reads 1p/hour. If the laptop, router and tv are all on standby, it shows 3p/hr. So, by flipping a switch before retiring, I can save myself at least 10p a night, or £3 a month. It’s not much, but when it takes so little effort, it’s gotta be worth it.
It’s also made me aware of just how much juice a shower requires, it shoots up to 90-odd p/hr, more than having the kettle, microwave and oven going simultaneously!
When I look through last years energy bills, I see we’re saving almost £10 monthly, compared to the same period. This seems to be purely through being made aware of how much we are using, we’ve changed no appliances, we just switch things off more, and only use them as long as we need.
So, is this sort of thing appearing in the US of A yet? If not, could anyone hazard a guess as to why not?
I think it depends on the particular utility company. Pacific Gas & Electric (west coast) is rolling out their SmartMeters, which is a networked digital meter that sends data back to PG&E wirelessly. You can then view your power usage online, but I think it’s averaged out by the hour – meaning it’s useless for seeing instantaneous power draw (you can still walk out to the meter and read the real-time numbers, though).
Energy monitors seem to cost a bit of money (around $100 and up from what I can see?), so it’s awesome that your utility provides them for free.
Have you tried Google PowerMeter – if your device/utility is compatible?
Wouldn’t the enviroment groups, consumer advocate groups and energy savings counselors be the first place to have this? I’ve seen monitors for power use - plug between outlet and device - for about a decade or so, from the consumer’s advocate group and from my city’s enviroment advisors office (disadvantage: having to pay a fee to lend it for 10 days). So the new aspect of it is WLAN and additional features.
utilities, environmental groups, libraries may have the appliance monitor (plug in, 120V, 20A) to loan. you may have to place a deposit and be a member/customer to use it.
it can be a help in helping you decide what replacement of older appliances could give you in energy savings. payback could be just a few years.
I’m a big fan of a brand of these called Kill A Watt and Kill A Watt EZ. Makes it very easy to see what something is drawing in “ghost load”.
We have a box in our house that shows how much money we’re spending per day given the current rate of energy consumption. It doesn’t actually show how much energy we’re using, though. We’re in AZ and have SRP.
they are less sophisticated than the loaner units i’ve seen. loaner units will record values over time.
Kill A Watt will give a total value for the time it is monitoring (i think up to 99 hours). an inexpensive way to get some important data, the Kill A Watt is about $20USA. i’ve got a pair and they both gave good data compared to sophisticated units.