Smart Power Monitoring Devices / Energy Efficient Home / Off Grid

• 

  Euphemistic on 06/03/2017 - 20:37

  +1

  I don't really see the benefit in remote monitoring several things all at once. Maybe buy one monitor to check the consumption of each item one at a time, then you will know how much each item uses and can adapt your usage around it.

  I bought one years ago, plugged it into a bunch of different appliances and worked out what was energy hungry and then determined what needed upgrading, what needed better usage (off standby when not in use) and what was fine to live on standby.

  Toaster, kettle, lamps etc aren't worth monitoring. You want a toaster and kettle to cook/heat so need them to consume a fair bit of power, but they typically don't have any standby draw. Lamps can be guessed by the globe wattage. Fridge, washing machine etc are probably good to measure while in use.

  Our house could probably do with turning off a bunch more standby items, but I prefer the convenience. Probably should upgrade the fridge too, but our power bills are manageable and we've got solar to offset it.

  • 

    AlienC on 06/03/2017 - 20:41

    How is solar these days?

    I haven't done any research in some time and for a house of only really 3 people max but minimal usage I was wondering if going solar now would be worth it and with what solutions or to wait some more as technology constantly gets better.

    Sorry I don't have exact numbers atm but for a small house what would you recommend and are you grid tied or using batteries etc.

    • 

      mskeggs on 06/03/2017 - 21:51

      Solar is almost always worthwhile these days for home owners, if you use anything above the littlest amount of power during the day.
      So not for a holiday house where the fridge is turned off between visits, but for almost all inhabited houses it works.
      If everyone is at work from 8-6 then a smaller system is all that is needed (usually) but if people are at home during the day using electricity it can make a substantial difference. See my answer below for a bit more.

    • 

      Euphemistic on 07/03/2017 - 07:28

      Our solar is 4kw and grid tied, been told that batteries do not yet provide return on investment despite what the media hype tends to say. We have split our panels half on the north roof and half on the west roof to get more power into the afternoons, when we use most power. We get a reasonable benefit from the panels as there is someone home usually up to 5 days per week. The dishwasher and washing machine can use a timer to run during the day and the pool pump is set to run 7am-2pm.

• 

  mskeggs on 06/03/2017 - 21:45

  +2

  You can monitor power usage with a plug-in, per outlet device, or a 'whole house' monitor that clips on in the fuse box and measures everything.
  I think the whole house ones are more useful as you can measure stuff like bathroom heat lamps, ovens, hot water etc that are hard wired.
  The one I have is from Efergy, and it has all the features needed, as it is the model that connects to the Internet and makes pretty graphs of usage during the day.

  I can tell you unequivocally that the things that use the most power are things that heat, followed by things with big motors.
  So a fan heater uses 2000w every hour, an electric oven about 2500w (a little less as it has a thermostat), and a hot water heater can be 4000w. A bar heater or column heater are also usually 2000w.
  Other heating appliances are clothes dryers, dish washers and microwaves. IXLtastic heat lamps in the bathroom use 500w per globe.
  Big motor devices include aircon and central heating fans, mine is 800w. Pool pumps, irrigation pumps too.
  After them, the special mention goes to halogen downlights. They use 50w each and also ruin insulation if they are recessed. My kitchen has six and used to cost $180 a year to run them until I switched to LEDs.
  Best efficiency for heating is an electric blanket under blankets/doona which uses about 160w. For cooling a pedestal fan uses about the same.

  Maybe surprisingly, a lot of 'always on' appliances use not too much power. A modern fridge will run an average under 50w, you mentioned 30w for routers, but that is very high - you would feel them being very hot to touch if they were using that level of power. My Macbook uses about 9w when I am actually doing stuff, and my phone and stuff averages more like 2w as it might charge at 10w, but then drops to a trickle.

  I think you are in the mountains? If so, then wind power isn't cost effective here (it works a little further west at Oberon) and we don't have any particularly good renewable resources except solar. In any case, there aren't any economically viable solutions for renters yet (if I misunderstood, and you own your place, then consider solar panels) but if you are concerned about environmental impacts of fossil fuels, consider ticking the Greenpower box on your power bill - it costs a bit extra.

  If you are in the mountains still, bmrenew.org (disclosure, I am on the board) is a community group in the area who is planning to run some public workshops on energy efficiency later in the year.

  So the conclusion is, spend your time first looking at appliances that heat that are on a lot, and use them less, or think about getting better ones. Heat/cool the room you are in, not the whole house, and wear a jumper so you can set the heater lower in winter, and do your best to keep cool to avoid running AC in summer.
  Turn off stuff that doesn't have to be on, but figure most brand name modern electrical appliances will be fairly low power in standby. Always the give away is if they are hot to touch - that equals high power use. Replace halogen downlights and other bulbs with LEDs, like you have. Use the clothes line not the dryer.

  If you do this you will be well under the Aussie average of 18-20kWh of power per day for the average house. If you are under about 6kWh you are already way ahead, and it is a struggle (and takes costly measures) to do more.

  • 

    AlienC on 06/03/2017 - 22:46

    I think as far as appliances go we are pretty good here our biggest offender would be heaters during the winter months but every season else it's just hot water, gas stove cook top and the occasional oven meal.

    We don't even have a dryer just an older top loading machine so clothesline or in doors is a must.

    Most lights are led I believe but I will have to check.

    The owner is basically a friend of my grandfather's and I am just here to help out with anything from bills to community feeding programs to heavy lifting and cleaning so any benefits to the house is always welcomed and encouraged for all parties.

    The downstairs of the house is still slowly undergoing renovations so we can easily accommodate more people.

    I guess there is nothing much you can do about hot water except use less of it unless solar heating works out to be cheaper or have good return on investment.

    Other than all of that the next step is just investing in a good vacuum cleaning robot and scheduling it for routinely sweeps then maybe a steam or wet mop robot.

    We have a sizeable backyard and front yard for gardening but that is still a few steps ahead (well for me at least since we already have some other trees growing) also if it encourages or gets ruined by our neighborhood bird and rat pests it might not be a good idea.

    Which device would you recommend I guess for daily readings with maybe an online interface preferably Android. I think we are under 6kWH daily but would definitely like to monitor it and check especially with winter coming soon.

    • 

      poboy on 07/03/2017 - 19:34

      mskeggs has already given some great advice. Looking at your explanations it appears that you are running a pretty tight ship, so any other future savings will be minimal. My 'always on' (e.g when everything is off in the house) is 96W. My 10 year old fridge uses 1.2kWh per day (about 28c a day in electricity). Game consoles tend to use a heap of power in standby mode - about 12W or so - that's like leaving a light on 24/7. My modem/router uses about 7W as a comparison. A phone charger will use about 1W, so don't stress.

      For daily readings, refer to mskeggs as you're both in NSW (I'm in Vic so we have smart meters as standard).

      Huge innovation in solar and batteries is just around the corner. I made the conscious decision not to invest until this technology is better and more affordable. The Vic feed in tariff will also increase from about 6c to 11c in July which is great news.

      Good luck.

      • 

        Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 08:15

        I don't think there will be any huge development in solar soon. It is more incremental, and is already pretty good, payback period is pretty good for panels.

        Batteries are a bit of an unknown, but the cost will definitely be coming down. Battery payback period is too long at present to make it worthwhile.

        Read a thing by a 'solar expert' saying it is worth investing in panels, but not batteries. Just make sure your system is battery ready.

• 

  Partake0486 on 06/03/2017 - 22:48

  Don't energy monitors and wireless switches, etc. use power themselves?

  • 

    AlienC on 06/03/2017 - 22:49

    Yes I should put this in the question.

  • 

    mskeggs on 07/03/2017 - 08:09

    The one I have uses AA batteries, they need changing every couple of years.
    I have eneloops in them, of course.
    I also bought the upgrade that sends the data to the Internet. It has a wall plug, but uses a trickle of power.

    The brand I have is Efergy:
    http://efergy.com/au/

    You can get them cheaper on ebay, about $60. The e2 model includes software to that allows you to graph usage by time of day, so if I was choosing I would get that one.
    To see what you are currently using, look on the back of the power bill and it will tell you your average daily usage.

• 

  FirstNameLastName on 07/03/2017 - 10:22

  +1

  i have the belkin conserve insight or something.. got it on special for about $15. works well for one appliance at a time.. can enter kwh cost and it can work out monthly average cost for an appliance at that rate (ie leave fridge plugged into it for a couple of weeks and it will calculate yearly/monthly average cost/use)

  i have an archer d9 and a mass of tv/chargers/pc/hdd/old amps etc etc.. that as a whole only use 20w when idle

  fridge was best benefit.. i used device to calculate which of my fridges were most greedy and sold/consolidated into the most efficient fridge.. think it costs about $7/month to run. also i used a thermometer to get the fridge to efficient/safe temp.

  just don't spend too much trying to save a few bucks.
  when i bought my normal front loader I think i calculated that the most efficient (and expensive) washer wouldn't see me benefitting for about 15 years of use.

  my neighbour spent about 17k on solar panels (AFTER rebate) and yes he gets 40c/h back, but in the meantime, the panels are probably worth 7k now.. at a guess.

  sometimes it pays to just wait.

  • 

    AlienC on 07/03/2017 - 22:15

    I think our house is already pretty good. Probably just needs a better fridge and some bulb replacing.

    • 

      Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 08:16

      Bulbs are an easy one to fix. For a fridge you need to consider the payback period. It might be better to wait for it to break down financially. Spending $1500 to save $50 a year isn't worth it considering the life of the fridge.

      • 

        AlienC on 08/03/2017 - 15:46

        Hmm true

• 

  Bayley79 on 04/04/2017 - 14:07

  Hi,

  If your looking to see what individual appliance use when running you can use something like the Eco Switch its a bit like a standby controller that comes with and App you can see how much energy a specific appliance is using, it even lets you turn appliances on and off via the app, i found this great in winter as you can turn your heaters on before you get home and come into a nice warm house!

  You will probably find that your hot water system uses the most energy in your home, during the cooler months its a good idea to invest in a heat lamp for your bathroom and refrain from standing under your shower to heat yourself up during the cooler months, instead jump out and stand under the heat lamp as it uses a fraction of the electricity your shower will use to heat your hot water.

  If you want a rough idea of how much energy your appliances use you can use the government website http://www.energyrating.gov.au/ they have thousands of appliances you can look up, you can also use http://www.saveenergysavemoney.com.au/ to compare the annual running cost, the government site gives you the KW information the other site will tell you home much it uses in a $ amount.

  If you don't want to get solar panels you can convert to a solar hot water system that will reduce your hot water energy bills, and over time it will pay for itself.