Comments on: Simple Home Energy Monitors Help Reduce Electricity Usage

By: Rusty Nail Workshop

Rusty Nail Workshop — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:06:06 +0000

I run the Rusty Nail Workshop web site that you link to for the WEL (Web Energy Logger) device review. The link you have is outdated. The current review of this device is at: http://www.rustynailworkshop.com/Projects/Entries/2007/10/11_Remote_Temperature_Sensor_%26_Energy_Monitor.html

It really isn’t that hard to set up, and the device is very well made. I am a really happy user and would encourage it to anyone who is interested in sensing conditions of their home or business.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:39:32 +0000

Big problem is that none of these work with grid tied inverters (none can accurately read in reverse). Which is amazing being that a big chunk of their customer base are renewable energy producers. Brultech just came out with an interface that looks like it’s capable, but no compatible LCD monitor or interface to work with – strictly computer/web based. Does ANYONE out there make a product (with LCD interface) that works for RE producers???

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:31:46 +0000

A note about TED: their customer support sucks. Emailing them seldom generates replies.

Otherwise, a nice and quite accurate product. Footprints software is a bit weak though.

By: Alternative Energy | How To Fix America!

Alternative Energy | How To Fix America! — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:18:32 +0000

[...] viable alternatives for mass consumption. Until that happens it’s really best to reduce electricity consumption all around. And wait for the politicians to sort it out. This was [...]

By: chad

chad — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:34:01 +0000

Thanks for the review Albo. I am looking forward to testing it ourselves when we move into the house also.

By: Albo

Albo — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:05:35 +0000

Chad,
We have TED running for our place, and have been very happy with it. Electrician installed it when finishing up his work, and it’s been very accurate over the last 10 months.

You can program for different rates at different times, but the unit isn’t wireless – it needs to be plugged into a socket in order to read the MTU in the breaker box.
It can also have communication issues depending on which circuit it is plugged into, so be aware of that.

It’s very quick in updating, almost instantly, and you can immediately tell what a particular item’s power consumption is. Right now it’s telling me I’m using $0.11/hr, and I know that it’s the HRV, fridge, my Mac Pro etc.

Another downside to the TED Footprints software is that the PC has to be on ALL THE TIME in order to capture data from the unit. I called the company about this recently. You can definitely get a lot of interesting data from the unit, but it’s not worth adding a dedicated machine to do it. Plus, you then have even more electricity usage to deal with!

It’s a great unit though, would get it again. My projected total this month, for the whole house, is $90, and it makes me happy that I can look over at this unit and see that at anytime.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:05:12 +0000

I have the Blueline Monitor and it works fairly well.
It would be nice to be able to hook it up to the computer to record the data, as well as have the option to plug it into anything other than batteries (a small solar panel would be great).

It is pretty flexible in letting you set rates. Downside is that it doesn’t record under 0.3 watts.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:12:54 +0000

Interesting… but will this work in the US? I like graphs and such and wonder if this can accomodate? 28 days internal memory storage seems very low.

Nice looking? YES!

By: chad

chad — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:47:17 +0000

For a sleek looking model, check out the Wattson from the UK. Very nice!

http://www.diykyoto.com/

From what I remember today the models in this post can not accommodate power generation from Solar or other yet.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:39:58 +0000

No problem. I wish someone could make a nicer looking wall-mountable interface/display. They are all quite awful.

I’m wondering if anyone has installed one of these energy monitors on a home with a photovoltaic system. Will these monitors be able to distinguish when the home is consuming (buying) or producing (selling) power? And how does this affect the cumulative figures displayed by the energy monitors? I’ve actually asked Blue Line this question a while back and they had no idea. But this was over a year ago. Anyone with experience, please chime in.