This little meter was easy to configure and easy to use. This device makes monitoring consumption in real time easy. For $129, that's impressive.
That is certainly the case with Energy Management. Information allows you to make informed decisions and can often uncover things that are unexpected.
Last week I installed a Current Cost ENViR energy meter in my home. This is a "whole house" meter that connects to the main electrical supply entering entering my home. It has two clamp on current transmitters and a programmable voltage (it does not require voltage taps). It also has a wireless transmitter to transmit the consumption data from the electrical panel to a nice little display.
I have put the display unit in my kitchen where we can see what the current consumption is at any time of the day. As time goes on, we are getting a feel for what our "baseline" is. When we are above the baseline, the obvious question is "what is running that should not be?".
This weekend, we plan to shut everything off and then turn on one device at a time and figure out how much energy it draws. We will enter each device and its draw into a spreadsheet and figure out which are the worst culprits and what actions we can take to minimize their use or if we should replace them.
I have already noticed that the dryer is a big drag on my wallet. I notice that we are usually using about 600 watts in the morning, but we were almost 3 times that the other day when the dryer was running. Air drying is beginning to look like a good idea!
