I haven't written too much on home energy monitoring lately. I was a little frustrated because my TED5000 had been having some technical difficulties and I guess I was a bit bummed after Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm announced they were abandoning the space. But things are picking back up again; both for me and residential energy monitoring.
The next phase of home energy monitoring will consist of two different but related technologies that will accomplish similar goals. They won't just show you how much energy your entire house uses; they will show you when and where you are using it! I'm breaking the two technologies down as follows:
- Indirect predictive load monitoring
- Direct current transformer load monitoring
What both of these technologies attempt to do is break out individual electrical circuits (i.e. fridge, air conditioning, furnace, washer, dryer, etc.) and will show you how much electricity each of those circuits uses. I quickly realized in my own efforts to monitor my home's energy that a whole home energy consumption is nice, but requires a lot more detective work to determine when and where all the electricity is getting used. By monitoring each individual circuit, you can get a much better picture of how your home consumes electrical power, and hopefully this will lead to more targeted energy saving efforts.
In a later post we'll look a little deeper into each of these types of home energy monitoring and which one is best for you. In the mean time, check out a few of the companies that work in each area below!
Indirect Predictive load monitoring
Direct current transformer load monitoring
eMonitor by Powerhouse Dynamics (click here for Mapawatt Blog eMonitor review)
FIDO by EcoDog (click here for Mapawatt Blog FIDO review)
eGauge (click here for Mapawatt Blog eGauge review)
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