EnergyHub minds your electricity, saves you cash

We've seen electricity-monitoring / controlling devices similar to the EnergyHub before, but few have provided such a handsome interface or modular, expandable options. The device uses a touchscreen control panel (familiarly referred to as a "dashboard") to help gauge and adjust energy levels for satellite outlets that it communicates with. The data will be accessible and adjustable online, and users will also be able to compare their stats with other eco-tweakers or neighbors. The company claims the devices could reduce energy costs by 20 percent for homes that employ the system. There's no word on a release date or pricing, but we'll keep you abreast of any exciting developments.

[Via Inhabitat]

[KyleB171 @ Aug 15th 2008 7:34PM]

Looks very cool, PS. I'm first!

[GatgetMan @ Aug 15th 2008 8:00PM]

Hmmmm, looks here like my son it using far too much power with those dual 4870x2's.. Better turn down the watts from here, what's he need 1kw for anyway!

[Bleck @ Aug 15th 2008 7:43PM]

This would be veery interesting to me if I could manage the amount of watts (sp?) something could use per day/week/month. It would also be awesome if it could shut things down (or in this case, make it so no power comes out of that jack) at certain times and such. Too bad something like this probably would cost alot.

[The Dude @ Aug 15th 2008 7:51PM]

I'd rather save even more money by turning things on/off myself. Thanks anyway EnergyHub. The only advantage I see is that it can tell you in real-time how much you're spending at a given moment. You could curtail energy wasting behavior just the same by looking at you utility bill and using judgment. It takes more thought but I'd rather do that than blow money on something to save money that I could very well do if I made a conscious effort. Not to mention that this ironically does draw energy (minimal, but still.)

[paul34 @ Aug 15th 2008 10:21PM]

You do know this thing obviously monitors each linked plug or whatnot, right? The utility bill is the equivalent of looking at your meter outside. At least with this, you can find out (for example), one specific device that you're wasting electricity on that you otherwise don't have to.

[Hellios @ Aug 15th 2008 7:53PM]

Why the sad faces?

[juniormint4u @ Aug 16th 2008 3:54PM]

Cause they are horses' asses...

[BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 8:30PM]

How much electricity does thing use? I see a powered screen and a powered outlet.

[grant @ Aug 15th 2008 8:43PM]

Yeah, kind of like how much energy is wasted by the consulting firms that calculate how much energy a company wastes?

Cool looking device though

[BigD145 @ Aug 15th 2008 9:32PM]

No, that's short term investigation. In many cases you can simply look at the logs at the electric company.

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 16th 2008 1:51AM]

Yah because I'm certain the screen stays on all the time and the outlet is constantly sending data back to the screen. Why is it that people on this site always jump to conclusions without even the most basic of data?

PS- I have a battery operated weather station in my house that runs on 2 AA batteries for the station and 1 for the sensor. That lasts months. So I HIGHLY doubt this thing is going to hit the meter hard.

[BigD145 @ Aug 16th 2008 1:34PM]

That outlet bit is always plugged in. I doubt it runs on 120V which means it has some form of transformer in it and that means it is always ON when plugged in.

[darkroom @ Aug 15th 2008 8:46PM]

how much energy does it take to produce cute gadgets with touch screens? how much energy does it take to light up and operate a cute gadget with touch screen?

[oshawapilot @ Aug 15th 2008 9:05PM]

Useless website - doesn't even list where I can buy this stuff.

This is an interesting system that I'd look into so long as it didn't cost me $1000-$2000 to equip my house (and it's many receptacles, etc) with the necessary monitoring hardware. Using this sort of technology to save money is great so long as I'm not spending so much on the initial upfront expenses that even 10 years worth of savings would never pay it back.

Then again, sometimes geekyness wins out, savings or not - I've always loved X10 hardware and have always been interested in "realtime" electricity systems like this. If my local utility would just provide me with an interface to my wonderful new electronic interval power meter on the side of my house that would be great as well, but no game apparently.

[hank94jp @ Aug 15th 2008 9:15PM]

Teehee...he said "abreast"

[Microswirl (MKWii:1676- 4270-3674) @ Aug 15th 2008 9:39PM]

A) Why would I want to manually adjust power consumption when the alternative would be to simply install a modern electrical system that adjusts it own power as needed?

B) Devices that monitor electricity already exist. They're called electricity meters. They're those things on the side of your house. Duh. What is the point of this thing?

[Samuel @ Aug 16th 2008 2:47AM]

A) Because unless you're custom building your domicile, retrofitting your existing electrical infrastructure will cost substantially more than this device in contractor fees and whatnot.

B) The meter on the side of the house is only for the entire household -- it does not monitor on a plug-by-plug basis.

I mean, c'mon now. You can read! I'm pretty sure you can comprehend what you read too. What part of, "The device uses a touchscreen control panel . . . to help gauge and adjust energy levels for satellite outlets that it communicates with." do you NOT understand? Jeez!!

[Dave @ Aug 16th 2008 2:29AM]

Yes, several devices like this do already exist. I believe they are priced in the 150 to 250 dollar range. I can't recall any product names but I originally found them with a quick Google search. I believe actually realizing just how much money I waste running electronics that don't need to be turned on will help me conserve energy and save money. Not that I actually concern myself with the whole crazy energy consumption mindset of people like Al Gore and the libs. My reasoning for thinking it would change my actions is linked to how my driving habits changed when gas prices rose and I started actually calculating gas prices for trips across town that I really didn't need to be taking.

[Samboini @ Aug 16th 2008 5:19AM]

Or you could just turn items off at the switch.

[The_Steven @ Aug 16th 2008 8:53AM]

So... How long does it take for the energy savings to offset the cost of the thing.

[frogbat @ Aug 16th 2008 9:44AM]

I've been wondering about the existence of products such as this - i reckon some sort of centralised computer controlling and adjusting the electricity in future households will help reduce waste (obviously said system would have to consume less electricity than is being save and probably perform other server tasks.) knowing where electricity is consumed and by what... also having the house go into sleep or shutdown modes or cutting access to devices like consoles during homework time. ah well

reminds me of a couple of movies from the 80s where a super intelligent home automation system goes HAL 9000 on the occupants

[Max @ Aug 16th 2008 11:37AM]

To me, devices like this are most useful for determining the standby power usage of various appliances/electronics (i.e., which electronics do you REALLY need to unplug when you're not using them). And for that, I got a Kill-a-watt which can tell you how much power an appliance is using instantly, and it has a crappy little (low-power) lcd screen to tell you so. If the appliance is more than a watt or two (or even less), just unplug it when you're not using it!

[Seth @ Aug 18th 2008 11:57AM]

Well,
If you want to not get the 'dashboard' model but still want to see which outlets serve hogs or vampires, you can pick up the kill-a-watt for like $50. If you want to spend triple that you can get a power use monitor for your meter. This way you can also test items that are difficult to get to (i.e. AC, or other appliances).

[Johan Webber @ Aug 20th 2008 10:36PM]

I just read on Greentech Media that EnergyHub is about to roll out its first test deployment and is raising at least $2 millionin venture funding: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/energyhub-seeks-funding-plans-trial-1302.html.