Gone are the days of studying your electric bill every month to monitor your energy usage. Now you can rely on an energy monitoring system to include the necessary sensors, data gateway and displays necessary for you to easily review your home’s energy usage at any time you choose.
Most of us want to reduce our energy consumption to save on utility costs and lower our footprint on the earth. Smart thermostats, like the ones available from Honeywell, Nest and Carrier, have made it easy to manage your energy consumption from heating and cooling systems. But how helpful is energy management if you aren’t monitoring the actual use of energy itself?
That’s where energy monitoring systems come into play.
Smart Energy Monitoring Systems for your Home
If you really want to cut energy usage and the costs associated with it, you need to know how much energy is being used, when it is being used, and how it is being used (e.g. what specific home system is the energy hog). Home energy monitoring systems come in a variety of devices. Some will monitor your entire home and therefore encompass every source of energy usage in the home (HVAC, lights, appliances, etc.). Other single system devices are meant to be hooked up to one specific system to track. The most common use for the single system monitor, for example, would be a home’s HVAC system.
Energy monitoring systems like the TED Pro can monitor up to 32 circuits and uses your home’s existing power lines to monitor usage. Data can be checked from any laptop, tablet or smartphone. Smaller scale units like the Digi XBee Smart Meter can be plugged into any outlet to monitor the single usage of whatever device or appliance is plugged into that outlet. The Elgato Eve is a bit more tech savvy, using Bluetooth to deliver data to you via the free Elgato Eve App. The Eve also monitors a bit more than some other systems including air quality, water usage, humidity and air pressure, and includes a smoke detector!
The first step in reducing your home’s energy use should be knowing what your energy use is. If you are considering purchasing an energy monitoring system, make sure you understand your goal. Do you want to identify an energy hog in your home? Would you like to identify when your energy consumption is highest? Or maybe you want to know both. The decision as to which monitoring system to install will depend on how you answer those questions.
To learn more about this energy-saving smart home tech or anything else, please give us a call at 704.450.4401.