Smart Home Blog

British based company Energy Optimizers Limited offers an elegant and efficient way to monitor of energy consumption named Plogg. This a bit ugly looking unit can measure energy consumption in desired socket (and appliance, of couse) and transmit data to PC or controller via Bluetooth or ZigBee. Thanks to it the Plogg can be integrated with whole house automation system or with just standalone application on your PC.

The Plogg looks similar to Kill-A-Watt but the last one doesn’t have possibility to connect to PC. The price for unit is about 60 GBP (depends on using wireless technology). The application of the Plogg is reasonable if you need to see of energy consumption of specific device (or group devices). Otherwise the using of whole house energy monitors is more preferable.

Share This

Once I wrote a short article about energy monitors which can be used in home to reduce energy consumption. Here is another one - EnerJar. The winner of the Greener Gadgets design competition the EnerJar offers a simple way to monitor energy consumption for device connected to it and can be made by yourself. If you have heeded hardware (including a jar), electro technology knowledge and a little patience go ahead. Otherwise it might be better just to buy Kill-A-Watt.

[via Inhabitat]

Share This

There are a many ways to do a measurement of energy consumption in your house. YankoDesign offers another one - Saveclip. It’s a clothespin like device that reads electric usage on any power cable it’s clipped onto. The Saveclip sports embedded LCD display where you can see how much power used and could be saving. The device works by reading the electromagnetic fields emitted by said devices. Actually, that emission also recharges the Saveclip. So, you shouldn’t care about batteries.

The Saveclip offers simple but efficient way to reduce your energy consumption and save your money and our environment. It’s a pity that the Saveclip is just a concept.

Share This

Finally energy monitor TED got a PC interface and software to collect measurement information and display it in human understandable format on your PC. TED Footprint is a “data-logging software designed to provide very detailed information about your use of electricity”. It offers following:

• Dashboard view of real-time usage, displaying all data stored within TED on your PC
• View data in kW, Dollar, or in CO2 format at the push of a button
• Logs Time of Use in kWh, Dollars and Voltage
• Graphs/charts all logged data in kWh, Dollars, or Voltage
• Graphs/charts are printable
• Calendar for viewing is flexible: view day, week, month, year.
• Data is logged in background
• Data is logged in Excel format, as well as .htm format for further user analysis
• Load-Profile major appliances, such as Water Heater, HVAC system, or other heavy loads. Records time-of-use, run-time and cost-to-run specified loads.

To use TED Footprint software you have to purchase an upgrade your TED monitor, including a new firmware and TED Footprint. Personally, I’d like to use TED to monitor the energy consumption in my home. But the TED Footprint is based on Windows and doesn’t offer API. So, it won’t be possible to integrate it with my LinuxMCE installation. It is a pity but I hope that next version of TED Footprint will support Linux as well.

Share This