Home energy monitor
Encyclopedia
Electricity use may be measured with an inductive clamp
Current clamp
In electrical and electronic engineering, a current clamp or current probe is an electrical device having two jaws which open to allow clamping around an electrical conductor. This allows properties of the electric current in the conductor to be measured, without having to make physical contact...
placed around the electric main, via the electric meter (either through an optical port, or by sensing the meters actions), by communicating with a smart meter
Smart meter
A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...
, or by direct connection to the electrical system. The display portion may be remote from the measurement, communicating with the sensor using a cable, network, power line communication
Power line communication
Power line communication or power line carrier , also known as power line digital subscriber line , mains communication, power line telecom , power line networking , or broadband over power lines are systems for carrying data on a conductor also used for electric power transmission.A wide range...
s, or using radio. Online displays are also available which allow the user to use an internet connected display to show near real-time consumption.
A possible means to reduce household energy consumption
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...
is to provide real-time feedback to homeowners so they can change their energy using behavior. Recently, low-cost energy feedback displays, such as the Efergy elite and e2 monitors http://www.efergy.com, Green-Eye http://www.greeneyemonitor.com, WiSmart, PowerCost Monitorhttp://www.bluelineinnovations.com/, Cent-a-meter, The Energy Detective, Sailwider-SmartPower http://www.sailwider-smartpower.com, Eco-eye http://www.eco-eye.com, Envi http://www.currentcost.com/, Flukso http://www.flukso.net, PowerWatch http://www.powerwatch.com, Silk http://www.silkamr.com, Wattson http://www.diykyoto.com, Wattvision http://www.wattvision.com or ECM-1240 http://www.brultech.com have become available. In 2010, UK based Current Cost announced a partnership with Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, to help consumers track their home electricity usage. The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce...
, a free online tool that connects to Current Cost devices, enabling users to receive real-time energy information on their customised Google homepage, wherever they are. Real-time data on how much energy is being consumed in the home is sent directly to the Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, to help consumers track their home electricity usage. The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce...
. The free software tool then visualises the information for users to view on their own iGoogle homepage, a personal web portal which enables individuals to create and access a wide range of customisable information, web feeds and Google Gadgets.
CHtech http://chtech.co.za have taken a different approach in that high resolution data is logged and displayed in real time.
This is useful in identifying the fingerprint of each appliance.
The data can then be used to plan for efficient upgrades of appliances where required.
By applying this method it has show improvements from 1599KWh to 430KWh per month in just 1 household.
This is a saving of over 1.2 Tons of CO2 per month which indicates residential can contribute significantly to reducing emissions if they chose too.
A study using the PowerCost Monitor deployed in 500 Ontario homes by Hydro One
Hydro One
Hydro One Incorporated delivers electricity across the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a Corporation established under the Business Corporations Act with a single shareholder, the Government of Ontario....
showed an average 6.5% drop in total electricity use when compared with a similarly sized control group. Hydro One subsequently offered free power monitors to 30,000 customers based on the success of the pilot. Blue Line Innovations also indicates 100,000 units in the market today.
Another study carried out in the city of Sabadell (Spain) in 2009 using the efergy e2 http://www.efergy.com/index.php/default/products-uk/electricity-monitors/e2wirelesssmonitor-uk.html in 29 households during a six-month period came to 11.8% on a weekly comparison between the first and last weeks of the campaign. On a monthly basis, the savings were 14.3%. Expected annual CO2 savings for all households is estimated to be 4.1 tonnes; projected CO2 emissions savings for 2020 are 180.6 tonnes http://www.managenergy.net/resources/1416.
In January 2009 the government of the state of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
began offering wireless energy monitors as part of its ClimateSmart Home Service program. By August 2009, almost 100,000 homes had signed up for the service, by August 2010 that number had risen to 200,000 homes.
Cent-a-meter
The Cent-a-meter, known as the electrisave and the Owl in the UK, is an electricity usage monitor featuring an indoor wirelessWireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
display. The user can monitor ongoing energy use, or switch on electrical devices and observe their power consumption and energy cost. The device can be configured to sound an alarm for excessive energy usage.
Displayed Measurements
- WattWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
- TemperatureTemperatureTemperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
and HumidityHumidityHumidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,... - Cost per hour (centCent (currency)In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
s per hour or pence per hour) - Greenhouse gasGreenhouse gasA greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions
See also
- AlertMeAlertMeAlertMe is a UK company that provides energy and home monitoring hardware and services. AlertMe produces hardware and software to enable users to monitor and control their home energy use....
- Energy management softwareEnergy Management SoftwareEnergy Management Software is a general term and category referring to a variety of energy-related software applications which may provide utility bill tracking, real-time metering, building HVAC and lighting control systems, building simulation and modeling, carbon and sustainability reporting,...
- Google PowerMeterGoogle PowerMeterGoogle PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, to help consumers track their home electricity usage. The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce...
- HohmHohmMicrosoft Hohm is an online web application by Microsoft that enables consumers to analyze their energy usage and provides energy saving recommendations.Announced on June 24, 2009, Microsoft Hohm is built on the Windows Azure cloud operating system...
- Home automationHome automationHome automation is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC , appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and...
- Kill A WattKill A WattThe Kill A Watt is an electricity usage monitor marketed by P3 International. It features a large LCD display and it enables cost forecasting. It measures the energy used by individual appliances plugged into the meter, as opposed to in-home energy use displays, which display the energy used by...
- Nonintrusive load monitoringNonintrusive load monitoringNonintrusive Load Monitoring , or Nonintrusive Appliance Load Monitoring, is a process for analyzing changes in the voltage and current going into a house and deducing what appliances are used in the house as well as their individual energy consumption...
- Smart meterSmart meterA smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...
- Universal Metering InterfaceUniversal Metering InterfaceUMI is a set of 3 free open specifications for smart metering and smart home products. The UMI specifications define; a module interface based on SPI, an optical communications interface based on EN62056-21 and a security interface based on ECC-256 and AES-128...
(UMI) - WattmeterWattmeterThe wattmeter is an instrument for measuring the electric power in watts of any given circuit.An instrument which measures electrical energy in watt hours is essentially a wattmeter which accumulates or averages readings; many such instruments measure and can display many parameters and can be...