Powerhouse Dynamics eMonitor Bring Uber Power Usage Monitoring to the Home

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.energycircle.com/shop/emonitor-energy-monitor-powerhouse-dynamics.html' target='_blank'>http://www.energycircle.com/shop/em...e-dynamics.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The cutting-edge feature of the eMonitor is its capability to display electricity use by individual circuit so you can see real-time and historical information on major appliances, entertainment centers, and specific rooms. The service keeps you continuously up to speed on your home's energy usage by providing you with alerts if circuits are overloaded, if there are problems with appliances or your renewable sources, if your electricity usage is unusual, or if your energy bills are approaching a threshold (set by you)."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1268612001.usr10.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></em></p><p>This unit looks pretty neat. &nbsp;I've been tracking our home energy usage for years using just the numbers from our house's power meter and a Kill-a-watt unit, and while I've been able to make a lot of improvements, the lack of granularity in the data is a huge issue in getting the most out of our conservation efforts. &nbsp;You may scoff at the $799 price tag, but then you are missing the value of good information. &nbsp;We looked into adding solar power to our home a few years back and after doing a lot of research I decided that conservation was a whole lot more cost effective. &nbsp;Plus, this should help you focus on the real energy hogs in your house, instead of worrying about turning off the light every time you leave the room, you really should be worrying about your old, inefficient dryer. &nbsp;As an example, I roughly calculated that our dryer was a big chunk of our electricity bill. &nbsp;Switching out to air drying a bulk of our laundry eliminated more electric usage from the grid than many thousands of dollars worth of solar panels would have. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

[John London]

Actually for most homes it looks like the cost is $799. Providing the panel does not exceed 22 circuits.:) Otherwise, yes the cost is $1500. Cool device. Thanks for bringing to my attention!

[Soleus1111]

I'm glad you brought up the cost, which I'm glad g35a corrected on (that's for 2 of them by the way, if you have more circuits than your typical house.) I've been working with Energy Circle, the exclusive seller of the eMonitor, and asked them about the return on investment, since they've been using it in their own home.

In the first year, $489. This is purely through awareness of what uses what, before taking action on unusual things they've spotted via the eMonitor (ie the clothes drier using identical energy on regular and low heat settings) It also can work in conjunction with solar, solar thermal and wind systems, monitoring their output, efficiency, spotting potential problems, etc. And when it works with smart thermostats and home control systems (which it's built ready to do, when they are) that will further increase its value.

[Chris Gohlke]

Thanks, the page I'd originally linked to (and the one I read for the post) only mentioned the higher priced model. I've updated for the lower priced model (which suits what most people would need) and linked to a different page.

Thanks again for the sharp eyes!

[Jason Dunn]

I really like the idea of this, but $799 is a bit too steep for me. If they can get it down to a sub-$500 price point, they'll sell a lot more. Hopefully once they get past the early phase and sell a bunch, the price will drop.

[Soleus1111]

Jason, I hear you re cost. I've been working with Energy Circle on getting people aware of the eMonitor, and I, knowing people would bring this up, asked them how to address this. Simple: They've been using energy monitors for the past year, and calculated their savings, which was $489. This is previous to doing anything about what the eMonitor helped them spot, i.e. their clothes drier using the same energy on regular and low heat settings.

When Engadget wrote a piece, this is what the CEO responded about this:

~~~

"On price: for circuit by circuit monitoring, this is the price at the moment. Yes, there are cheaper solutions, like the TED products that produce a whole house reading, but don't collect or display data by circuit. As to ROI, we started monitoring starting last May, and since have reduced our usage by 29% (with our admittedly astronomic ME electric rates of $.159/kwh, we've saved $490 over that period.) No major actions--just awareness, engaging kids, smart strips, efficient lighting. Decent ROI by our measure, but we confess we're energy geeks.

It's also important to point out that eMonitor is an extensible system, which will accommodate future add ons like controls, smart thermostats, smart plugs, displays and integration with home automation systems. It's really more comparable to systems like Agile Waves which run to $10K or more. In that sense, $800 is reasonable.

There's lots more info on Energy Circle, including my installation video, several posts on our personal usage, and a growing FAQ.

http://ecpro.energycircle.com/shop/emonitor-energy-monitor-powerhouse-dynamics.html

If you like data, and are serious about understanding the electricity use of your home at a granular level, the eMonitor is great. But if you want to run around the house and test each appliance with a $49 kill-a-watt, that can work too. All of the options are a lot better, and more informative, than waiting for the monthly bill."

[Reid Kistler]

Well, am in a Contrarian Mood this evening, and thus will say that although I believe that power usage meters can be useful, I doubt that they are very cost effective, at least for most households.

A bit of relatively simple research can allow you to discover what the likely high consumption electrical appliances are in your home, as well as what the common solutions might be: although one of the most effective - replacing an old appliance with a new energy efficient one - also tends to be the most expensive.

Simply turning things off can be a great energy saver - but one hardly needs a meter to know that "On" consumes more energy then "Off." Although Phantom Usage rates might be revealed by a meter, research, again, can show you what products are prone to such 'invisible' electricity usage, and what (if anything) you can do about it.

Once you have taken care of all of the known / likely culprits, the odds are good that any additional savings to be found would be relatively small, thus making it difficult to recover the cost of more than a modestly priced meter.

Also, potential savings claims seem to be all over the map, and ideally should be expressed in "Probable % Savings for a Household with the following typical electronic devices...." as opposed to "Achieve Total Year Savings of $XXX."

The danger of the latter is illustrated by a sales rep who was trying to sell us a new High Efficiency furnace a few years ago: He came out to the house, measured it, looked at our windows & doors, and said "If you install this furnace you will save $XYZ every year!"
To which I replied "That's Great! Will you put that in writing for us? Because if your company promises $XYZ savings every year, not only will we be HEATING OUR HOUSE FOR NOTHING, but you'll owe us $NN at the end of the year!" :D

Needless to say he was not willing to commit in writing to the cost savings. :rolleyes:

Nor did we buy a furnace from him.....

[Chris Gohlke]

I hear what you are saying Reid.

I think my original research just using the numbers from my electric bill and a Kill-a-watt were very cost effective because it helped me pick out all the easy stuff and I knocked 20-25% off my usage. I'd guess the savings quoted are based off of someone who hadn't already done some optimization, so I would not expect to get the same level of results. If this device helped me pick up another 5-10% it would pay for itself in around 5 years.

Ideally, I'd like to see this built into a standard panel box. If mass production could cut the costs down to say $100 more than a standard panel box, it would be an entising option for builders to add to new construction to have another "green" option on their sales sheets.

[Reid Kistler]

Ideally, I'd like to see this built into a standard panel box. If mass production could cut the costs down to say $100 more than a standard panel box, it would be an entising option for builders to add to new construction to have another "green" option on their sales sheets.


That sounds like a winning idea!

One factor I had not considered: Using a meter - kill-a-watt or otherwise - just might provide a psychological incentive to find things to turn off, whether because it adds an element of fun / excitement / challenge to the task, provides a more-or-less readily measurable result for one's labor, and / or simply in an attempt to recover the cost of the meter.

There are many things in life that we know we "should" do - but it often takes some sort of prompting (incentive...) to actually DO them.... ;)

[Chris Gohlke]

Reid, sort of off topic, but very relevant to your comment.

For years I've needed to loose around 20 pounds. Doctor keeps telling me to eat better and exercise more but it never seems to happen. This time she is making me keep a log of what I eat and what exercise I do along with tracking weight, BP, and some other things. I have to turn it in after 2 months. I've found that actually having a deadline, and having to record data daily has been a huge motivator and 3 weeks in, I'm 1/3 of the way there.

So yes, for so many things, having a record is a great motivator, the power of data!