When you're sitting at home at your computer, you likely have a variety of other devices plugged in, quietly consuming power.
Think about them for a second:do you know how much power they get? Do you know how much money you could save if you turned off a particular appliance or switched to an efficient one?
What could you do with a smart energy monitor that could tell you all that and more?
Without a smart power monitor, you probably won't know which devices use how much power. Normal energy monitors tell your electric company how much to bill you and can tell you about your home's total electricity usage.
Smart monitors go further, giving you real-time information, connecting to cloud services that help you control devices remotely, and allowing you to keep an eye on activity around your home while you're away.
When I attended the BC Tech Summit in January, I was able to interview Janice Cheam, co-founder and CEO of Neurio, creators of a Smart Home Energy Monitor that was funded by a successful Kickstarter in 2013.
Neurio gives you personalized answers to these questions with data and visualizations to help you understand. you from home individual energy usage*, on an individual device, even if they are not smart devices.
But before we get into Neurio and alternative smart energy monitors, let's back up and tackle the fundamental question of why you should monitor the energy in your home.
Controlling the energy in your home is a great way to learn how you can change your behaviors to do your part for the environment and save money, too.
Monitoring the energy consumption in your home individually can reveal big surprises. Cheam's big surprise was that the biggest energy loss is Is your home energy efficient? 7 things you've overlooked Is your home energy efficient? 7 things you've overlooked The true cost of a smart home is much cheaper than you think. In fact, there are many home automation devices that everyone can afford, and many of them will be featured in this article. Read More
One thing we can all support is ensuring the safety and security of our homes. Knowing which appliances are using energy when it could mean preventing a house fire from carelessness, for example.
It doesn't really matter why you want to track your energy usage. With a smart energy monitor, you get the information you need to be more environmentally friendly, save money, and know what's going on in your home, without having to be there.
However, what sets Neurio apart is that it can effectively turn all your major appliances into smart appliances, without you having to buy new ones.
What your appliances are doing can tell you a lot about what's going on in your home. If you can detect your home Playstation 4 running while you're away, you know someone is playing video games instead of doing their homework or homework.
Maybe you'll make smarter decisions about housework if you know how often the family does laundry, if a lot of the dishes have already been done, or just how much energy it really costs to turn on the oven to bake a batch of cookies (maybe be worth baking back-to-back batches and having more cookies now!).
Installing the Neurio sensor in your breaker panel requires a bit of electrical knowledge (find a professional if you don't know how to use the breaker panel) but it only takes 15 minutes.
Neurio's cloud service tracks the data, noting events such as when a device starts and stops working, and how much power it consumes along the way. You can then use that data to set up a trigger to send you an SMS when your laundry is done, for example with integrations like IFTTT or SmartThings.
You can also view and manage all of that information on the Neurio mobile app for Android and iOS.
Solar 6 Advantages of Solar Panels You Probably Haven't Considered 6 Advantages of Solar Panels You Probably Haven't Considered Solar energy is becoming more common among middle-class consumers, and more and more people are realizing the advantages of the solar panels. Read More Unfortunately, it can be difficult to know how much energy you get from the sun and how that offsets your energy bill.
If you're generating solar power, Neurio's Solar Home Monitor makes that information easy to understand by graphing it in your Slick app so you understand exactly that.
You'll get a better idea of your ROI on solar and make better decisions about how much more you can contribute.
Samsung SmartThings (which we've covered before 3 ways to protect your family and home with the presence of SmartThings 3 ways to protect your family and home with the presence of SmartThings Do you want to use technology to keep your closest and safest safe?See what a SmartThings Presence can keep an eye on in your home.Read More) build a smart home monitoring kit with a variety of useful sensors to know the status of your home:
These tools connect to the Samsung Smart Home Monitoring Center. The outlets on the SmartThings system are also a decent alternative to Neurio's energy monitor. They can tell you if electronic devices are on or off, as well as check lights and small appliances.
The Samsung SmartThings Kit can be had for $249.
For entry-level smart home control 3 Ways The Belkin WeMo Can "Smarten" Your Regular House Lamps 3 Ways The Belkin WeMo Can "Smarten" Your Regular House Lamps We took the time to look at the possibilities of turning your regular house lamps into smart lamps Read More With that in place, you can control the device to turn on and off from your smartphone.
The WeMo Switch won't tell you how much power it draws like the Neurio can. However, with IFTTT triggers, you can program your WeMo switches to turn devices on and off based on data about their power consumption from Neurio and other power monitors, for example.
(If you don't like the WeMo, we've also covered 6 Alternative Smart Plugs 6 Non-Belkin WeMo Smart Plugs 6 Non-Belkin WeMo Smart Plugs Read More.)
This last one is for everyone who lives outside the tropics. You probably spend time and energy trying to heat your home the right way. The $249 Nest Learning Thermostat saves you energy by learning your temperature preferences over time and then automatically manipulating it from then on.
The Nest Learning Thermostat can detect when everyone has left and turn off the heaters. You can learn when you normally arrive and turn on your heaters ahead of time. If you like your home cooler at night, you can do that too. You can also automate Nest with IFTTT. 7 automation tricks from Nest to cut your heating bill in half. 7 automation tricks from Nest to cut your heating bill in half. If there was a Nest Thermostat in every home, it would have the biggest impact on energy use. history; And it could save you more money than you can imagine. That is how. Read more, and control it from your smartphone..
Are you following the energy of your home? If so, we want to know how it tracks you and the power consumption of the device that surprised you the most. What steps have you taken to lower your energy bill? What was worth it and what wasn't.?
