List of Energy monitoring tools : devices, software and home automation

Home Energy Monitors

With all the buzz from the announcement Google made regarding their partnership with Energy, Inc. and the TED 5000 I decided now would be a good time to provide a summary of all the companies in the residential energy monitoring space. This list was compiled with the help of articles I read posted on Earth2Tech and Open4Energy. I'm not doing an in-depth review of each company, just a link to their site and a few thoughts. This list is a work in progress so please let me know if I am missing products or if you have experience using any of them.

***Update 10/8/09 - I've updated the list with companies focused mainly on solar PV monitoring as well.

***Update 10/28/09 - Two companies on this list have teamed with Google and their PowerMeter software. See my posts here: TED 5000 and iGoogle and AlertMe.

***Update 12/31/09 - If you are new to Energy Monitoring see our post on Energy Tools for Newbies - Real-time Energy Monitors!

Entire Home Energy Monitors now available in U.S. for purchase without the need of a smart meter:

Black and Decker Power Monitor
Energy Owl
PowerCost Monitor by Blue Line Innovations
The Energy Detective
The Meter Reader by Energy Monitoring
Efergy E2 and Efergy Elite - In Canada, efergy energy monitoring products are available at www.energymonitoring.ca and in the United States at www.energymonitor.com

Entire Home Energy Monitors now available in U.K for purchase without the need of a smart meter:

Full List of energy monitoring products:

Agentis Energy Acuity Solution - Software + Smart meter + Utility. Looks like Trilliant.
AgileWaves - Device. Monitors Electricity, Natural Gas, and Water. Higher end. Looks amazing.
AlertMe - Device. Based in UK. Not sure if available in U.S. or how their visual display works.
Aztech In-Home - Device + Smart meter. Also do natural gas and water. Need smart meter for electricity
Black and Decker Power Monitor - Device. Digital Meter reader. No web based software. Part of their energy series. Looks like PowerCost Monitor.
Breezeplay - Device, dashboard, with web component.
Computerized Electricity Systems - Smart panel board. Energy monitoring. home automation. non-original name.
CurrentCost - Device. Based in UK. Looks like the TED 5000 but sleeker. As of today they have 619,526 units sold!
Dreamwatts - Energy Management. Interface with smart devices. Zigbee. Smart thermostats.
Ecobee - Internet programmable thermostat device. Smart thermostat. See my Ecobee review blog here.
Ecodog - Device. Monitors individual circuits! Looks promising.
EcoView by Advanced Telemetry - Device + home automation. touch panel. Looks like Ecobee with energy monitoring?
Efergy E2 - Similar to TED 5000. U.K. based. We have a blog on it here.
Energate - Device + Smart meter. Home energy management. Smart thermostat.
Energy Aware - Device + Smart meter. PowerTab. Based in Canada.
Energy Engage by eMeter - Utility. customer engagement for utilities.
EnergyHub -Energy management display + Utilities. Smart thermostat. soon to be available.
Energy Joule by ambient - Device monitors price of energy. Doesn't help if you have constant rate.
Energy Owl - Device and software. meter reader. Cheap solution!
Ewgeco - Device + Smart meters. Electricity, Natural Gas, Water.
Fat Spaniel - PV monitoring and software. Looks to be focused on Utility scale systems. Started in residential.
Google Power Meter - Energy Management software. Interfaces with smart meters or devices. Partnered with TED 5000.
Greenbox - Energy Management. not sure if software or device? soon to be available
Green Energy Options - Devices. Multiple energy monitoring devices: Minim, Solo, Duet, Trio. UK based.
GridPoint - Energy Management software.
Grounded Power - Device and Energy management software. How does one buy?
iMeter Solo by Smarthome - Device monitoring + Insteon home networking.
Kill-A-Watt by P3 - Device for Appliances only. nice and low cost. Only for individual outlets. Also have Kill-A-Watt power strip.
Locus Energy - PV monitoring device and software. PV, Solar thermal, and electricity monitoring. Focused on fleet management for installers. Great support.
Lucid Design Group - Software. Interfaces with third party devices. Very good looking graphics and reports. Higher end.
Meterface - wireless Digital meter reader . Open source project. In development
Onzo - Device + Utility. Coolest name on the list. UK based
Owl - Devices. wireless electricity monitor and other devices. UK based. Don't see any software.
Plogg - Device + Appliance. Like a TED and Kill-A-Watt combined. UK based. Web-based software. Zigbee. Bluetooth. Second coolest name on the list.
PowerCost Monitor by Blue Line Innovations - Device. Digital wireless Meter reader. I don't believe they have software or web based! Looks like Black and Decker.
PowerGuide by SolarCity - monitoring software. Consumption and Solar. Pretty nice graphics. Also SolarGuard for just PV.
Powerhouse Dynamics eMonitor - Device + Display software. Monitors each circuit, but they don't show how? I'd like to see more info on the actual product.
Powernab - Energy monitoring software. Looks cool, but how many devices are available with it?
PowerPortal by Comverge - Device + Utility.
TalkingPlug by Zerofootprint - Device + Software. Control and monitor individual outlets!
Shaspa - Device + Control. Easily Tweet/Facebook your energy usage. Looks promising but not yet released. Mentioned in this post.
The Energy Detective - Device + Energy management software. Makes the TED 1000 and TED 5000. Solar PV as well. Have teamed with Google Power meter.
The Meter Reader by Energy Monitoring - Device. Recently upgraded their website and product offering
Tendril - Device + Utility. Home energy management. Home Automation. Smart thermostats. Only available through Utility?
Trilliant - Software +Utility. Advanced metering, network, demand response.
UFO Power Center - Device + Software. A 110-V power strip that allows you to monitor each device that's plugged in wirelessly with your computer. Made by Visible Energy.
Wattson - Device. Stylish. UK and Australia
Wattvison - Soon to be released. Looks like a combination of TED 5000 and PowerCost monitor i.e. a web enabled meter reader. Has the potential to be more popular than TED 5000 because you dont have to install it in an electrical panel.

I was surprised to see how far along the UK was in this area. I will say that companies that dont have a web based component (i.e. log on to your computer or iPhone to see energy consumption) probably wont last long unless they are cheap. I believe energy monitoring is most effective if it is done with history tracking, which is best achieved with web monitoring.

What other companies are out there? How many of you have tried the devices on this list?

***If you like this post, check out our post on smart home communication protocols.

Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 10:41

Great information. I'm in the market for a residential monitor here in the US. Can you shed some light on the monitors you believe will be the top 5 out of your list and rank them from there? You may need to be neutral on promotion but I thought I'd ask anyways.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 15:37

Scott, I really don't try and stay neutral. Our goal here is to provide advice, and sometimes some products are just better than others. I try and be fair and analytical, but I want to give the best advice out there. If you want to do residential monitoring with data logging, then I really dont see any monitors that are better than the TED 5000. I am more than willing to listen to other suggestions, but it's hard to find a package that comes with a whole home monitor and powerful software for under $200 bucks.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 09:09

WattsGoingDown does energy monitoring (SaaS data warehousing with real time analytics) for commercial buildings. http://www.wattgoingdown.com.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/12/2009 - 14:04

Sorry for the typo: http://www.wattsgoingdown.com SH

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 07:21

Thanks for this resource. I'd love to see this list without the 'in development' items. It seems like there are a lot of potential products in this space that never come to fruition. Even better - a list of products available for purchase/use in the US and one for the UK/Europe. Admittedly, I just discovered mapawatt, so please forgive me if this list (or lists) already exists and I just haven't found it yet.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 09:35

Great point Shawn. I think the UK is just more aware of energy management issues. As energy prices rise here in the U.S. consumers will be more likely to monitor their consumption habits. Glad that you found Mapawatt. Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed so you are informed of our new articles that come out a few times a week.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 03:30

Add to your list: powerhouse dynamics -- see our new entry -- the emonitor

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:28

Have you looked at Smart systems Technologies, Inc www.smartsystemstech.com I have this in my house... It is great... graphs utility usage..I can also tell how many kw are wasted while I am sleeping. It is also an alarm, audio and lighting control. I can even monitor generated power with my solar panels and wind turbine. It can allow me to stay off the grid If I really want to.

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/07/2009 - 23:44

great compilation....and i guess this comes in handy

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/08/2009 - 03:30

You guess? Are you currently using any home monitoring tools?

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