It's hard to lose weight without a scale. That's more or less the idea behind Google's
PowerMeter program, enabling users to view real-time power usage and unplug things accordingly to both reduce their demand and increase their feeling of eco-cockiness. Before today you needed to be getting your juice from one of a
very few utility companies to audit your infos, but now you can break free thanks to a partnership with The Energy Detective. That company makes a line of straightforward power monitors that simply plug into a power outlet then connect to the internet via Ethernet to dump your kilowatt gluttony online. The TED 5000-series devices start at $200 and go up from there with optional displays and packages that allow the detection of solar or wind generation, and while they previously allowed online monitoring of power usage, this Google partnership ups their hipness by a factor of at least 10. And, if you were so cool you already bought one of these trackers before they went mainstream, you're just a firmware update away from tracking it with the Googs.
posted October 6th 2009 7:32AM
Another green gimmick.
So you need a $200 investment for every outlet in your home? No thanks. I like the idea, but I'll save more money not buying into this.
If you had actually looked into the product, you would know that you do not need multiple units, one of the $200 packages gives you everything you need to monitor your power meter.
Excellent. Been waiting for this sort of thing, I'm in.
Does this work in Europe?
Think how smug I can feel as I reduce the watts!
If I save the planet any more, a new one will magically appear. I really am that good.
Or you can figure out what's sucking power in your house (or office), fix it, then make money magically appear in your wallet. That is the point of this device.
It isn't always about saving the planet or being green.
My electric bill is generally $250-300 per month. If this could help me shave down some of that bill by making it easier to see what leaving those lights on and bathroom fans running was costing, it could quickly pay for itself.
$0.18 per kWhr. Ouch.
The problem is, they're limiting the number of people that get into the Google PowerMeter program.
Good thing macs are the greenest computers....
fail.
Do your homework.
Well, as a start for going green, I guess you could start by not plugging one of these in ;-)
I only care a tiny bit about "going green" but I care a very large bit about saving money, so I seriously want one of these. Someday when we finally get a house, one of these is definitely going to be in the budget.
Heh, my meter would be over in the red zone.
Actually, the device does not just plug in, it is a bit more complicated. It involved placing a device over the incoming power lines inside of your breaker box and wiring it into a couple of breakers. So if that kind of stuff scares you, you might need help from a friend with some electrical background. All in all, it is a great system. I just finished installing it yesterday and today they announced this, I am quite happy!
Hey:
Have you tried installing one of these? It's a bear, and then you have to keep reading numbers all day long to know what is going on. So it's a bear to install and a bear to read and understand. Two days into this and you would be yearning that you never spent your money on something like this. I know, I am a victim! There are better things coming in to the market. Just wait and you will instinctively know what you really should put your money into.
SS
Steve, it sounds like you have some idea of something coming. The TED system is designed to monitor a whole house so it seems to make sense that it needs to be installed at the panel (where all the power fans out to the rest of the house). What sort of system do you see coming that has advantages over this one? I'm ready to drop my $200 for TED but am really curious what's around the corner.
Is there a version of this that doesn't blast your usage across the netz?
Some of us has ZERO interest in what we do at home being put in public places.
I would suggest being careful. I bought the upgraded first gen, with computer interface. Seemed nice, until I started using it. I was promised by the company that it could deal with my billing schedule (2 month billing, 2 tiers) This never happened. In fact one of their techs said it was not possible with the hardware. Next it crashed so often that I could never get any real data, my computer was always on, software always crashing. It very quickly became an expensive paperweight. Was useless.
They have a new version, promises everything the first did. How true is this? Call in, they say on it absolutely works this time. Great, care to give me an upgrade path since I bought your first gen paperweight? No, because its useless to us, we would end up eating the cost. Great, so now they expect me to eat it and hope that they can deliver the second time on what they promised to give the first time?
Not sure I care to go down that road. Shame, I install home automation systems that this could work well with. If it does as promised. I am sure there will be other options soon
I bought a TED 5000 unit about 6 weeks ago. Largely it works as advertised though I have had some issues with the graphs locking up Internet Explorer (which happens on my PC on other things too) and about 2X/week having the readings get stuck. The Google tie-in should be great IF they are storing granular data (like in 1 minute intervals). If they are just keeping hourly or daily - not so much if you are trying to use this to identify areas of electrical waste in your home.
The downfall of this approach is in the name: Energy Detective. You have to do some detective work to actually figure out what is causing any particular activity you see on the device. That might be walking around turning things on and off, but more likely the true culprits are harder to find and coming on when you don't even know about them. You CAN wire this to an individual breaker, but that involves getting BACK into the electrical panel - something most people are not too comfortable with. I'm pretty handy and had no problems with it, and have already identified a couple things that will pay for the device in the next year. Studies show that just being aware of your usage on a regular basis saves most people 10-15% - so do your own math.
I think the bottom line is that this is not an ideal solution for making your home energy efficient. But it is probably the best thing current available to the average person short of spending a lot of $$ to have a pro come in and do things for you.