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Home Energy Monitors
With all the buzz from the announcement Google made regarding their partnership with Energy, Inc. and the TED 5000 I decided now would be a good time to provide a summary of all the companies in the residential energy monitoring space. This list was compiled with the help of articles I read posted on Earth2Tech and Open4Energy. I’m not doing an in-depth review of each company, just a link to their site and a few thoughts. This list is a work in progress so please let me know if I am missing products or if you have experience using any of them.
***Update 10/8/09 – I’ve updated the list with companies focused mainly on solar PV monitoring as well.
***Update 10/28/09 – Two companies on this list have teamed with Google and their PowerMeter software. See my posts here: TED 5000 and iGoogle and AlertMe.
***Update 12/31/09 – If you are new to Energy Monitoring see our post on Energy Tools for Newbies – Real-time Energy Monitors!
Entire Home Energy Monitors now available in U.S. for purchase without the need of a smart meter:
- Black and Decker Power Monitor
- Energy Owl
- PowerCost Monitor by Blue Line Innovations
- The Energy Detective
- The Meter Reader by Energy Monitoring
Entire Home Energy Monitors now available in U.K for purchase without the need of a smart meter:
Full List of energy monitoring products:
- Agentis Energy Acuity Solution – Software + Smart meter + Utility. Looks like Trilliant.
- AgileWaves – Device. Monitors Electricity, Natural Gas, and Water. Higher end. Looks amazing.
- AlertMe – Device. Based in UK. Not sure if available in U.S. or how their visual display works.
- Aztech In-Home – Device + Smart meter. Also do natural gas and water. Need smart meter for electricity
- Black and Decker Power Monitor – Device. Digital Meter reader. No web based software. Part of their energy series. Looks like PowerCost Monitor.
- Breezeplay – Device, dashboard, with web component.
- Computerized Electricity Systems – Smart panel board. Energy monitoring. home automation. non-original name.
- CurrentCost – Device. Based in UK. Looks like the TED 5000 but sleeker. As of today they have 619,526 units sold!
- Dreamwatts - Energy Management. Interface with smart devices. Zigbee. Smart thermostats.
- Ecobee - Internet programmable thermostat device. Smart thermostat. See my Ecobee review blog here.
- Ecodog – Device. Monitors individual circuits! Looks promising.
- EcoView by Advanced Telemetry – Device + home automation. touch panel. Looks like Ecobee with energy monitoring?
- Energate – Device + Smart meter. Home energy management. Smart thermostat.
- Energy Aware – Device + Smart meter. PowerTab. Based in Canada.
- Energy Engage by eMeter – Utility. customer engagement for utilities.
- EnergyHub -Energy management display + Utilities. Smart thermostat. soon to be available.
- Energy Joule by ambient – Device monitors price of energy. Doesn’t help if you have constant rate.
- Energy Owl – Device and software. meter reader. Cheap solution!
- Ewgeco – Device + Smart meters. Electricity, Natural Gas, Water.
- Fat Spaniel – PV monitoring and software. Looks to be focused on Utility scale systems. Started in residential.
- Google Power Meter – Energy Management software. Interfaces with smart meters or devices. Partnered with TED 5000.
- Greenbox - Energy Management. not sure if software or device? soon to be available
- Green Energy Options – Devices. Multiple energy monitoring devices: Minim, Solo, Duet, Trio. UK based.
- GridPoint – Energy Management software.
- Grounded Power – Device and Energy management software. How does one buy?
- Kill-A-Watt by P3 – Device for Appliances only. nice and low cost. Only for individual outlets. Also have Kill-A-Watt power strip.
- Locus Energy – PV monitoring device and software. PV, Solar thermal, and electricity monitoring. Focused on fleet management for installers. Great support.
- Lucid Design Group – Software. Interfaces with third party devices. Very good looking graphics and reports. Higher end.
- Meterface – wireless Digital meter reader . Open source project. In development
- Onzo – Device + Utility. Coolest name on the list. UK based
- Owl - Devices. wireless electricity monitor and other devices. UK based. Don’t see any software.
- Plogg – Device + Appliance. Like a TED and Kill-A-Watt combined. UK based. Web-based software. Zigbee. Bluetooth. Second coolest name on the list.
- PowerCost Monitor by Blue Line Innovations – Device. Digital wireless Meter reader. I don’t believe they have software or web based! Looks like Black and Decker.
- PowerGuide by SolarCity – monitoring software. Consumption and Solar. Pretty nice graphics. Also SolarGuard for just PV.
- Powerhouse Dynamics eMonitor – Device + Display software. Monitors each circuit, but they don’t show how? I’d like to see more info on the actual product.
- Powernab – Energy monitoring software. Looks cool, but how many devices are available with it?
- PowerPortal by Comverge – Device + Utility.
- TalkingPlug by Zerofootprint – Device + Software. Control and monitor individual outlets!
- Shaspa – Device + Control. Easily Tweet/Facebook your energy usage. Looks promising but not yet released. Mentioned in this post.
- The Energy Detective – Device + Energy management software. Makes the TED 1000 and TED 5000. Solar PV as well. Have teamed with Google Power meter.
- The Meter Reader by Energy Monitoring – Device. Recently upgraded their website and product offering
- Tendril – Device + Utility. Home energy management. Home Automation. Smart thermostats. Only available through Utility?
- Trilliant – Software +Utility. Advanced metering, network, demand response.
- Wattson – Device. Stylish. UK and Australia
- Wattvison – Soon to be released. Looks like a combination of TED 5000 and PowerCost monitor i.e. a web enabled meter reader. Has the potential to be more popular than TED 5000 because you dont have to install it in an electrical panel.
I was surprised to see how far along the UK was in this area. I will say that companies that dont have a web based component (i.e. log on to your computer or iPhone to see energy consumption) probably wont last long unless they are cheap. I believe energy monitoring is most effective if it is done with history tracking, which is best achieved with web monitoring.
What other companies are out there? How many of you have tried the devices on this list?
Related posts:
great compilation….and i guess this comes in handy
You guess? Are you currently using any home monitoring tools?
Add to your list: powerhouse dynamics — see our new entry — the emonitor
Thanks for this resource. I’d love to see this list without the ‘in development’ items. It seems like there are a lot of potential products in this space that never come to fruition. Even better – a list of products available for purchase/use in the US and one for the UK/Europe.
Admittedly, I just discovered mapawatt, so please forgive me if this list (or lists) already exists and I just haven’t found it yet.
Great point Shawn. I think the UK is just more aware of energy management issues. As energy prices rise here in the U.S. consumers will be more likely to monitor their consumption habits. Glad that you found Mapawatt. Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed so you are informed of our new articles that come out a few times a week.
WattsGoingDown does energy monitoring (SaaS data warehousing with real time analytics) for commercial buildings. http://www.wattgoingdown.com.
Sorry for the typo: http://www.wattsgoingdown.com
SH
Great information. I’m in the market for a residential monitor here in the US. Can you shed some light on the monitors you believe will be the top 5 out of your list and rank them from there? You may need to be neutral on promotion but I thought I’d ask anyways.
Scott, I really don’t try and stay neutral. Our goal here is to provide advice, and sometimes some products are just better than others. I try and be fair and analytical, but I want to give the best advice out there. If you want to do residential monitoring with data logging, then I really dont see any monitors that are better than the TED 5000. I am more than willing to listen to other suggestions, but it’s hard to find a package that comes with a whole home monitor and powerful software for under $200 bucks.
This is great blog! If you want to see the ultimate product for real time monitoring of energy consumption by circuit combined with managing alternative energy source checkout this link for the product video:
http://www.c-e-systems.com/index.php/ces-system/csdp-product-video.html
The product sells at a starting pprice of $575 (can monitor up to 48 circuts)and can be field upgraded to the highest end product with alternative energy monitoring and utilization.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Shlomo,
Shlomo, I’m very intrigued by the C-E-systems product. How long has it been for sale in the U.S.?
Does anyone have any information on how large the residential energy monitor market is, as in not only the players involved, but current customer base/potential customer base, revenue, forecasting, etc.?
Spenc,
Let me know if you find that data. I would love to look at it. I think you could look at the U.K. as a good model for it. Currently the market in the U.S. is still probably small, but as energy prices rise and people become more “energy conscious” there will be a greater demand.
Check out MillennialNet (www.millennialnet.com). They have a wireless mesh sensor network for tracking energy usage in large commercial facilities and schools. They started out of MIT as a mesh network innovator and are gaining traction by providing the energy monitoring solution
Another product for your list – Gridspy
”
Gridspy provides you with an interactive view of resource usage in your building. The Gridspy allows you to access and monitor your consumption patterns in real-time using a standard web browser on your PC, laptop or mobile phone. The data is presented in high resolution and updated each second as you watch. The moment a light is turned on in your house, you can see the change on your Gridspy dashboard from across the room or across the planet.
”
We have a development blog
and a live demo.
Our devices monitor several circuits from your switchboard and upload data each second for immediate consumption in the web-based interface. We are currently deploying prototypes and slowly scaling up our hardware production. Accepting orders in New Zealand with plans to enter wider deployment early next year.
Pulse Energy has a SaaS commercial building energy monitoring product.
http://www.pulseenergy.com/
Have you looked at Smart systems Technologies, Inc http://www.smartsystemstech.com
I have this in my house… It is great… graphs utility usage..I can also tell how many kw are wasted while I am sleeping. It is also an alarm, audio and lighting control. I can even monitor generated power with my solar panels and wind turbine. It can allow me to stay off the grid If I really want to.
Yeah there are alot of these products around now, although some companies started developing this technology about 20 years ago. Back then we weren’t so “Green” so those products fell to reach demand and dissappeared.
Its interesting that you’ve omitted all the large corporate Electricity Meter manufacturers from your list as all of them have energy monitoring products such as Iskra, Horstmann, PRI Limited, Siemens, NDS, Actaris, L&G, etc. You seem to have focused your site on venture funded companies.
Other small companies like those you’ve listed are:
Microwatt – Edd:e
http://www.microwatt.co.uk/products/low-carbon-housing/
Robert, thanks for the comment. The site is only focused on the residential energy market. I’m very familiar with the commercial market ( day job ) but our focus is on residential.
Great site thanks for all the hardwork! I’m in UK and about to refub a house (inc a full rewire) – I would like to install energy monitors into each socket in the house so I can monitor the use locally – I have found some after market plugs (zigbee based) but nothing that fits into the wall sockets in the house – does anybody have any ideas? – my preference is for one that doesn’t require an ongoing subscription service as well.
Simon,
What about something like the option from Computerized Electricity Systems? Instead of having to install many different meters at each outlet, you can just install one master breaker pane. The only thing is that I dont know if it is rated to work in the U.K.?
How come everyone always leaves Brultech off the list, they may not market as well as some of these other companies, but in my opinion, they offer great technology for the price…
Geoff
I’m guessing it’s their lousy web design and marketing? I think I have them added on my list of energy monitoring devices, but they really need to step it up on the marketing side of things!