The Energy Detective’s real time display is part of the package. Right now this unit sits on my kitchen counter, but you can remove it from the dock and walk anywhere in the house with it. (Energy, Inc.)
The Energy Detective
The Energy Detective is a device that lets you monitor the electric usage of your home. I bought one to track the energy usage of my dome-home and windmill. I was very surprised to find so much power in such a small device. According to the manufacturer of The Energy Detective (TED), just knowing what your house is doing and taking small steps to avoid using so much will drop your power bill 13% on average.
I have a windmill installed on the top of my dome-home, but I wanted to know exactly what I should do to track the amount of energy I was producing. I emailed the gentleman from whom I bought the generator and he referred me to TED.
Since I’m such a techie, this device is right up my alley! It monitors the electrical usage from the house, then factors in the amount of generation that I have done. But that’s just the start. The device also has a small web server that allows you to view this data from any device, such as laptop, iPhone, etc. I was even able to open a port in my router and see what my house was doing no matter where I was.
Load Profiling
One of TED’s features is load profiling. It allows you to teach the device to monitor the energy each particular device in your house uses. Then it can tell when that device is on or off. This helps you learn which devices are costing you the most, so you can find ways to reduce that need.
I have programed my hot water heater into TED and it was very enlightening. I have always been a little concerned that my kids taking showers all night were costing me dearly. Come to find out that the water heater is not as big a deal as I once thought. I was planning on putting some kind of solar water heater on top of the house, but now I can see that it would cost me more than it would save. That’s the kind of knowledge that can save you money.
Google Energy
Another feature of TED is that it can send your data to Google for tracking. Google sends me an email every week that describes my energy usage for the week. I can also use its dashboard widgets to see it every day.
Conclusion
I was surprised to find out how much differently my wife and I do things around the house. I’m talking about little things that save us money: hanging blankets outside to dry on weekends, or turning off lights more often.
I now know that paying attention to power usage makes you think about it more. I now KNOW what my house is doing and I like that.
Links:
Wiring diagram, from the installation manual, shows a typical installation for someone who wants to monitor both the house power usage and the electric generation from their devices. (Energy, Inc.)
I installed a box next to my panel, since the panel didn’t have room for all the devices. This box holds the CT (bottom left) and the MTU. I purchased the box and the correction blocks at Home Depot. (Michael South)
Here are the CT clamps hooked into the main leads of the panel. (Michael South)
An overview shot of the device installed. (Michael South)
The TED web interface shows real time usage, along with other useful information. (Michael South)
Load profiling of my water heater so far this morning shows that it has been running at night. I wonder why; I guess now I can investigate. (Michael South)
If you live in a Monolithic Dome, you may not get to see much when tracking your A/C units. (Michael South)
Google Powermeter is fun to watch. I have it on my Google home page so that I can see it throughout the day. (Michael South)