Powering Google's PowerMeter: testing TED 5000 and AlertMe Energy

There are plenty of ways to be green these days, but without some sort of feedback it's hard to know just what shade you are. Enter Google's PowerMeter, a service that tells you how much current you're responsible for consuming. Why, it even shades its bar graphs in green, getting more pale the greedier you become. Google has partnerships with some utility companies in the US, Canada, and India, meaning a select few of you can do this sort of tracking by default. The rest of us were left out -- until now. Two devices on the market let you track your usage in PowerMeter regardless of just how backwards your utility company is: The Energy Detective's TED 5000 and the AlertMe Energy. We've been experimenting with these two for about a month now, finding that they serve the same purpose in very different ways and at very different costs. Click on through to see which one can best help you get greener.

Installation

We'll start with the more daunting of the two: TED. Its website describes installation as being "simple and quick," but then goes on to warn that "serious injury / death could occur if you are not familiar with electrical components and operation of the circuit breaker panel." If you're not the type who is comfortable taking apart your circuit breaker and wiring in the TED's measuring transmitter unit (MTU), don't want to pay an electrician to do it for you, or can't handle working in the dark in your basement while surrounded by cobwebs and other icky things, this isn't the one for you. This also precludes usage of this device for folks living in some apartments or shared living spaces that don't allow unfettered access to the building's coppery bowels.

We soldiered on, heading to the basement, flipping the main power switch, and removing the face from the circuit breaker box while somewhere in a distant corner of the house a UPS beeped in its death throes. Four screws removed we were in, standing in the dark and shining a flashlight at a daunting collection of wires -- some still very much alive. Installation of the MTU entails wiring it directly into two breakers, grounding it, and then placing two clamps around the large wires that power the box (and the house). All went well for us and within about 15 minutes we had everything buttoned back up, lights on and UPS silenced, but we can't encourage strongly enough that you call an electrician (or electrically-minded friend) if you're at all uncomfortable with this. It is complex, but this installation gives the TED 5000 the definite advantage of being able to track not only power consumed but power generated, useful if you have a spinny turbine in the back yard or sunny solar cell on your roof.

TED 5000 unboxing and installation

It's an entirely different story for the Brits with their AlertMe Energy kit: for starters, the safety notices reassuringly tell you that "there should be no need for a qualified engineer", and they aren't lying -- we didn't have to cut any wires or even unscrew anything throughout the entire installation. The first step was to simply power up the hub and connect it to our router, in order to authorize the connection with our online account. Once done, we then powered up the MTU which only involved popping open the case to pull out the battery isolation tab, and then connect the meter reader clamp to the MTU. Finally, we attached the clamp to one of the four meter cables and then left the two components inside the meter compartment. Voilà! At this point we just had use AlertMe's web interface to register the meter reader, and a minute later the system was already minding its own number-crunching business.

Our AlertMe review kit also came with a SmartPlug -- not dissimilar to a socket extension brick but with just one socket -- which provides individual appliance power monitoring, as well as the ability to remotely switch a device on or off. Ignoring the temptation of pranking your flatmates or family members, this SmartPlug can become quite handy for identifying the 'vampires' in the household, or reducing hazardous risks if the system alerts you of abnormal electrical activity while you're away. Like the meter reader, installation of the SmartPlug is also done easily by a simple click on the web interface. It's the same easy procedure with other wireless peripherals available at AlertMe's online store -- lamp, keyfob, motion sensor, camera, etc. This makes AlertMe a gateway into a proper home automation and security system.

AlertMe Energy kit with SmartPlug

Usage and data

Both devices export their usage stats to Google's PowerMeter service, which at this point is only visible via a simple widget on your iGoogle homepage. It gives daily, weekly, and monthly bar graphs of your power usage and... that's about it. It's about all you need to know if you want to just track your overall energy usage, but both solutions offer their own ways to let you dig a little deeper.

For TED 5000 it's the Footprints website, served up by what's called the Gateway. It looks like an economy-sized AC adapter, decoding the signals sent by the MTU that we earlier installed in our circuit breaker and connecting to your home network via Ethernet. Anywhere on your home network you can go to http://ted5000/ and get a faceful of data, including the cost of your consumption (if you configure your utility's current rate), amount of CO2 generated, a comprehensive suite of reports and, most interesting, a little tachometer looking thing that swings further into the red the more current you pull down. Flip on a single light bulb, even a CFL, and you'll see it here. You can also export your data to spreadsheets, and who doesn't love spreadsheets?

The TED package we received also included a wireless monitoring device, a little rechargeable unit with an LCD that gives you a high-level view of your real-time usage; the AlertMe Energy fully relies on the web to log and display statistics. Both kits use Zigbee which opens the door for a variety of wireless monitoring solutions.

AlertMe takes a similar approach to display the same set of statistics as the TED offers but with a user-friendly, Internet-accessible interface, and yet there are extra functionalities such as identifying each device by light color coding, controlling SmartPlugs (as mentioned earlier) and setting up thresholds for email alerts and auto-off for SmartPlugs. Once you're logged in you're greeted by the above dashboard, giving you realtime power usage, cost of electricity used today, access to detailed charts and access to each component (to view signal strength, battery status and temperature). (You can see more screenshots in the AlertMe gallery above.)

If you're on the move you can still monitor your AlertMe kit via its mobile site, featuring the same speedometer-style indicator (which updates every ten seconds) and a breakdown of power consumption from each component, plus the option to switch SmartPlugs on and off. This site is also handy for quickly tracking down vampire appliances, as you won't need to keep going back to the computer screen when switching things off one by one.

Wrap-up

The TED 5000 provides a thoroughly comprehensive way to track every watt, letting you know exactly when it was consumed -- but not by what. You'll have to figure that out and then go turn it off yourself. The lack of any kind of mobile app or view to your data is a bit of a disappointment these days as well. Finally, the up-front cost is high, $239.95 for the package we tested (though we'd recommend ditching the wireless display to save $40), but it does have the distinct benefit of being a one-time cost. There are no monthly fees here.

On the other hand the AlertMe Energy goes for less intimidating interface to encourage wider adoption, as well as making good use of Zigbee to extend the package's functionality beyond energy monitoring -- with some extra investment it becomes a home automation and security system. Sure, each SmartPlug comes at a cost of £25 ($41), but it adds great value to the basic kit as it aids the product's main objective: to save your energy bills. The basic kit is only £69 ($113), but there's also an annual subscription fee of £29.90 ($49) for the web services -- such combination is still cheaper than TED's package. Well, for two years and a bit at least.

In the end, we were left with the lingering doubt that neither would ever pay for itself. Given the cost of electricity versus the price of admission you'd have to go all Buffy on some pretty serious energy vampires (maybe an electric foundry accidentally left simmering in the basement) for these to make economic sense. But it's not always about saving money, and the ability to monitor and control your home remotely (if you have AlertMe's option) can be hugely reassuring while traveling. Also, remember that with Zigbee these systems have much potential for future expansion -- something we hope TED will capitalize on to justify that initial cost. Even now, either provides you a good defense to to keep those monthly bill terrors at bay.

Special thanks to Richard Lai for additional work on this review.

[dcnoren Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:08PM]

oh boy, more "save the planet" stuff

[portlander Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:26PM]

@dcnoren

> oh boy, more "save the planet" stuff

Let me guess, you belong to the "drill baby drill" camp.

[dcnoren Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:37PM]

@portlander
Nah, just wanting to live my life in peace and not be harassed by politicians who ignore cow farts and volcanic eruptions but tell me my old clunker is killing humanity.

[ChazClout Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:10PM]

@dcnoren

I'm more interested in the "save the monies" camp.

[egress63 Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:12PM]

A wonderful initiative - a feedback on electricity consumption is always weclome. That said, no one in their right minds in India will pay Rs.10,000 for such an installation. Thats half my months pay!!

[Raptor Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:23PM]

I have been looking at htese for months,

the one i like is this :
http://www.brultech.com/index.html

ECM-1240

as it can do multipul sub breakers as well as the overall.

[Jeff Kibuule Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:23PM]

Too bad this doesn't work for apartments.

[elemenager Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:05PM]

@Jeff Kibuule if you have a moment check out Microsoft-Hohm.com you can use it for aparments. If you have any quesitons feel free to reach out here or at @elemenager or @microsofthohm

[duanes1967 Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:48PM]

@Jeff Kibuule

If the breaker box is in your apartment, then it will work. WARNING - you can be electrocuted and your first born sold into slavery and your landlord will have kittens!

Anyway, there are four screws that hold the face plate on. Remove those and you can get to the two primary lines that feed your apartment. They are the two huge wires at the top of the box. You don't have to remove any wires, the clamp just opens up and wraps around each of the two fat wires.

[DigDug Posted Dec 8th 2009 2:26PM]

@(Unverified)

I believe the TED won't work for single phase feeds, which many apartments have (including mine).

But this is a great review I have considered getting the TED for my parents who have solar, I think this review just clinched it just have to make sure their box is 200A or less.

[elemenager Posted Dec 9th 2009 1:33PM]

@(Unverified) FYI - to start using Microsoft Hohm you do not need to install a device like TED to start getting suggestions on how to improve the efficiency of your apartment, condo or single family home. If you have any questions reach out to me @microsofthohm

[nastro Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:26PM]

A totally useless device, beyond bragging to your leftist wanna be elite buddies and looking like a fool trying to save water with a strainer, it serves no real purpose.
Somebody please put AGW and the nancy boys who continue to push this fraud to sleep.

Btw folks....it may blow your mind but we live in a Technology based society. By using more electricity we are forcing companies to expand and likewise adopt more energy generating options.

Surplus electricty = Cheaper Prices


Algorical and the global warming lemmings....go eat a d*ck!

[GeekPI Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:38PM]

@nastro

I discovered that my refrigerator was cycling way more often than I thought, so I investigated closer and found that the coils underneath were filthy. I cleaned those out, and cut the consumption of that appliance by half, and arguably greatly extended that appliance's life.

I also discovered that I had left a thermostat on in my shop which was needlessly cycling the heat in an unoccupied building. That saved about $2 a day in electricity.

At the office, I would have never guessed that the single water cooler/heater used more energy than 3 multifunction copiers combined and more than our 50 gallon water heater. Getting rid of 2 of those resulted in the reduction of 20 kWh a day, which is 2/3rds of a residential home's daily power consumption.

You can rant all you want about global warming, but devices like this offer real value by giving you very useful information. For me, it's already paid for itself. Why force the utilities to burn more coal, when it's much easier to eliminate needless waste?

[Peter Troast Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:27PM]

Great, thorough review. Just wish we had AlertMe here in the states.

The one point I take some issue with is on whether to get the TED wireless display or not. Yes, it reduces the cost by $40. But with our TED we've discovered that the omni-presence of our electricity use, in a prominent location in your residence, is of huge value. Of course, this can be achieved with a computer open to either Footprints or Google PowerMeter, but even in a laptop ridden household like ours, these are not always visible. Think about your own behavior to make this decision. I wrote about choosing the right data display for your own lifestyle in this post:

http://www.energycircle.com/blog/2009/12/02/review-choosing-ted-5000-data-display-option-will-work-you

On the question of payback, we're currently at just shy of $300 in savings since starting our @EnergyCircleKW monitoring project last Earth Day. That's primarily been achieved through awareness. And we're a relatively low electricity user (3 BR house with oil heat and have no AC). So I'd expect anyone with a more electricity centric home to see an even faster return.

[rcappo Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:29PM]

@Peter Troast

I have a 3BR house and didn't have to use the AC last summer (I don't use very much nat. gas heat at all either), but I'm not sure I have spent $300 total in electric bills since last April.

The only way I can reduce my bill is to start generating my own power. I need to start working on that.

[Peter Troast Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:52PM]

@rcappo

I'm duly impressed if you're less than $300 in electricity for 7 months. My excuses: $0.15/kwh pricing, home office, 2 laundry intensive kids (electric dryer), and a general love of gadgets. (Our family was featured in NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/business/energy-environment/20efficiency.html)

[rcappo Posted Dec 8th 2009 3:20PM]

@Peter Troast

I am just a single guy who does laundry every 6 weeks (I don't throw away clothes). I use a little natural gas for the dryer, range, and my water heater, so it would be higher if I was only on electric. And I am not home for most of the day, and am sleeping for at least a few hours each night. I do pay the extra money for renewable energy through my electric company that all these people are paranoid about. My rates didn't go up $500, 800 or $3000 per year that I read most recently. I think I spend $50-60 a year. I would still like to own my own power generation ability so I don't need to pay an electric bill, but it is difficult to do in the suburbs.

But, I also am efficient everywhere except for my Linux DVR and refrigerator. They need to implement better power management settings in Mythbuntu, and the refrigerator is full of ice to make it a little more efficient. I wish I had a newer LED LCD HDTV, but the one I have is still working fine and doesn't use too much electricity when it is on.

[Peter Troast Posted Dec 8th 2009 5:15PM]

@rcappo
Ours is just a run of the mill Comcast DVR (Scientific Atlanta made) but is a nasty vampire. For no good reason, ours measures 27 watts in off mode. Everything else in the entertainment center if switched off by the smart strip, but I can't stay up late enough to watch the Daily Show so it stays on. This needs to get fixed.

[GeekPI Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:28PM]

"The TED 5000 provides a thoroughly comprehensive way to track every watt, letting you know exactly when it was consumed -- but not by what. You'll have to figure that out and then go turn it off yourself."

Yes and no - you didn't mention that on your larger loads, you can go to your 'load profile' tab and create a profile for a specific load. Example: you have an electric water heater. You can enter that into the profile wizard section, and force the water heater to cycle the power (this only works on non-variable consuming devices, on/off only). From now on, it'll track when and how often is sees the water heater's ~4.7kw cycling, and give you a little report on that specific appliance's daily usage. The same can work for electric resistance heating, refrigerators, and even home theaters.

Again, it takes a little footwork at the beginning, but yields some very useful data on usage habits and can help single out the loads.

[Oli D Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:47PM]

Maybe Google should install a few in their server farms...

[evilspoons Posted Dec 8th 2009 5:18PM]

@Oli D

They probably developed the software FOR their server farms, with their own hardware, then passed it on to "us" (the consumers who can now buy hardware that interfaces with their software).

[Ameen Posted Dec 8th 2009 12:53PM]

OMG, FInally we're being considered among the elite ! All thanks to those working in countless call centres & cranking out cheesy music !

P.S.: The Sarcastic Indian.

[Tallfish Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:06PM]

I have been using Alertme for the past two weeks and the Powermeter charts are great. They are going to be launching remote heating controls in the next couple of months in the UK with British Gas which looks interesting.

However, the Alertme system does need to have an instant display as you cannot see the instant usage without having a computer switched on which misses the point.

I have been using the Wattson product for the instant display and it has been very effective at reducing our consumption.
See: http://www.diykyoto.com/uk/wattson/about

Ideally, you need Alertme Enegy and the Wattson which I suspect is where the Alertme system roadmap is heading as I think they have quite a bit of investment money and r&d behind them.

[hypo Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:09PM]

"In the end, we were left with the lingering doubt that neither would ever pay for itself."

Well, in NorCal tier 5/6 electricity costs over $0.40/kwhr, so it's pretty easy to save money. In my house, a 5% savings would let me break even within a year, anything beyond that would be gravy!

I've used my kill-a-watt to save a fair bit, but keeping up with that over time is a hassle. I also like the ability to track an appliance (like a fridge) over time to see if it starts losing efficiency. Helps take the guess-work out of regular maintenance etc.

[plentyways Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:41PM]

I'd argue with your point that these units won't be cost effective. Studies from the University of Oxford show simply installing a power meter device reduces energy usage by 5-15%. The average american household bill is somewhere in the region of $1200 annually.

So people should see average savings of between $60 & $180 every year. Enough to pay for these devices many times over. Not to mention that serious energy savers can far exceed 15%. A google employee in this video claims to have saved over $3000 since he started testing Google PowerMeter:

http://www.plentyways.com/blog/2009/09/google-powermeter-tracking-your-energy-usage/

Not to mention the effect on the environment...

[duanes1967 Posted Dec 8th 2009 1:52PM]

I thought $200 was high, but the CT's are not cheap.

For the DIYer, it looks like the CT clamps cost about $65 each and you can get any number of small processor boards with analog inputs ($25-$50 depending on features) that will read the 0-333 millivolt outputs. The rest is just a bit of logging and a comma separated file so that you can pull the data into Excel.

[logistician Posted Dec 8th 2009 2:19PM]

Am I the only one having problems with the galleries? I can never get past the first photo, either by clicking on the photo directly or clicking on any of the thumbnails.

[lareeth Posted Dec 8th 2009 3:34PM]

@logistician I have the same problem in Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, 8 and Opera. And now it looks like I'm having posting problems

[BuffaloX Posted Dec 9th 2009 6:44PM]

@logistician

I'm having the same issue today.

[TeMpEsT Posted Dec 8th 2009 3:21PM]

Just want to point out something that may not be evident.

Looking at the connection for both. TED CT's (Current Transformer, sensor that measures the power) connects to both phases A and B as you would want. Typically in US residence you will have split-phase power coming in. That's 120/240v. With only a single CT (Current Transformer, sensor that measures the power) as AlertMe has would only measure half of your power usage. So it wouldn't work in US, or any other country that uses split-phase power delivery. To make things worse, I don't see how it's reading the voltage if there is no connection.

TED software also has a lot of features that ware not mentioned, real-time graphing allows you to instantly identify loads that are robbing you, you can see patterns and even find devices that you wouldn't notice otherwise. Also don't forget that because the software resides within the gateway you can connect to it remotely using pretty much any device with a web browser, including thew new smart phones, and pda's. I can use full featured software on my HTC phone. There is also 3rd party software available for the iPhone if you wish to use a smaller more compact interface. And without a subscription cost associated its a no brainer.

[jggllnt Posted Dec 8th 2009 10:49PM]

@TeMpEsT

You are right. What this article fails to mention is that AlertMe will not work in North America because of construction standards. The two hot conductors going into the typical North American electrical panel are not accessible for current measurement unless you open up the panel (as in the TED 5000 installation). I'm also wondering about the voltage issue. I am assuming that this is measured by the plug in appliance monitor but who knows. Without the correct voltage they are just making a guess at the REAL power being consumed.

[bokohut Posted Dec 8th 2009 3:54PM]

I have been using a TED device prior to Googles announced partnering. You cannot know how to take corrective action against anything until you can accurately measure said thing and TED does just this with electric. You can read several discussions about this and more in the Google Power Meter forum of which TED auto creates for you once configured, commoner may not be able to just sign up. There is a FREE iPhone app someone was kind enough to write as well, with graphs too. I have my iGoogle showing my home consumption which updates every 15 minutes and will soon will support net metering for generation(If not already). To each is own but it is great for those wanting to know.

As for the wish list it would be nice of TED to add water and gas collection devices since the central server device could just collect from them as well, maybe next year...

[fg Posted Dec 8th 2009 7:39PM]

There is no way I would pay a monthly subscription to use AlertMe - all I want is a local webpage and the data uploaded to Google Power Meter for free. I just don't think AlertMe provides anything close to £2.99 a month extra functionality. TED 5000 looks better but I can't find it a company to ship to the UK :(

Another thing neither of these seem to do is cope with tariffs charging different pricing rates according to the time of day. This would render the electricity cost shown fairly useless to me.

[memnon Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:55AM]

@fg In Sweden there is a product called http://www.uninel.se.its not wireless, but it does show current and historic consumption on your local machine...works great for me

[memnon Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:56AM]

sorry it should be http://www.uninel.se

[newki Posted Dec 9th 2009 12:00PM]

@fg the TED5000 allows you to set up rates according to the time of day (up to 4 TOU's) as well as combining tier and tou based billing.

[solarbuddy Posted Dec 9th 2009 8:15AM]

For those (apparently few) of us who generate our own green power, these items (with the exception of http://www.brultech.com/index.html) make no provision for breaking out categories of power generated; power consumed; net power to/from the electric grid.

[newki Posted Dec 9th 2009 12:01PM]

@solarbuddy The TED5000 allows you to break out power into the categories you mentioned (load, generation, net load, etc).

[elemenager Posted Dec 9th 2009 1:37PM]

Hey guys I'm the online community manager for Microsoft Hohm and I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that for those who DON’T have access to an expensive smart meter, you can use Microsoft Hohm for free today and start seeing how your household energy is being used, how you compare to other households in the area, and receive personalized recommendations to help you save money here: http://www.microsoft-hohm.com/.” if you have any quesitons reach out to me @microsofthohm or @elemenager - love to hear your feedback. Elliott Lemenager

[cgp224 Posted Aug 3rd 2010 12:18PM]

I love my powermeter. I have even hooked it up to this game that I play with my kids. It helps teach them how to conserve energy . They get points for our real world energy savings.

http://nexus.kumagames.com/portal/welcome/t5000