The PowerCost Monitor (and Black & Decker Power Monitor) from Blue Line Innovations is now on Google Powermeter!  In July of 2010 I wrote about the PowerCost Monitor teaming up with Microsoft Hohm with the addition of WiFi gateway.

From the Blue Line press release on the PowerMeter announcement:

The PowerCost Monitor, which introduced its WiFi Gateway accessory this summer, is the only electricity monitoring product in full device partnership with both Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm®.  The WiFi Gateway allows families with a PowerCost Monitor or Black & Decker Power Monitor to view their data on line or through a mobile device and provides them with their choice of online partner.  A very simple plug and play configuration allows the consumer the flexibility to change their partner selection at any time.

Peter Porteous, CEO, Blue Line Innovations said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with Google PowerMeter today.  Our WiFi launch and partnership with Microsoft Hohm was very successful and now we are able to offer consumers even greater choice and control over energy usage”.

So Blue Line Innovations is the first company to have the two big software players in their court (or maybe it's the other way around).  I'm guessing other device manufacturers on PowerMeter will try and get something going with Hohm soon!  Here is a list of some of the Microsoft Hohm partners, but  I was really surprised to see how many device partners Google PowerMeter has!

From my earlier post on PowerCost Monitor:

It’s interesting to see that the pricing on the PowerCost Monitor is right around the TED 5000 pricing.  There are three (now two) big differences in these two products:

  1. PowerCost monitor reads your meter with an optical eye.  TED 5000 uses Current Transformers (CTs) installed into your breaker panel.
  2. PowerCost monitor communicates with the base station through a wireless network.  TED 5000 communicates through your home’s electrical wiring.
  3. PowerCost monitor has a relationship with Microsoft Hohm.  TED 5000 has a relationship with Google Powermeter

It's great to see more solutions for those interested in home energy monitoring.  Let's hope the rest of the public gets interested!

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Google PowerMeter PowerCost
home energy monitoring
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Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/30/2011 - 22:09
I was reading about this device along with the B&D. I review said that the units would not read below 1000 watts so it you were just using a few lights around the house it does not show up. Can anyone who has one tell me if this is true. I was going to get one of Amazon.
ckmapawatt's picture
ckmapawatt Mon, 01/02/2012 - 12:20
Jerry, here's our review on the <a href="http://mapawatt.com/2009/10/29/black-and-decker-power-monitor/" rel="nofollow">Black and Decker monitor</a>. Let me do a little more research on whether it can pick up loads under 1,000 Watts.
Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/11/2012 - 00:27
Thanks, I have a kill a watt which I use around the house and when I hook it up to my sound system which while 10 years old is a fairly large system with a lot of seperate pieces. with the kill a watt hooked up and the system off it draws about 65 watts, when I unplug the 2 sub woofers it will read 44 watts. I am looing for a meter to put on my outside house meter that will read down that close, so when turning off a light or unplugging a wall wort I will see the current drop off.
ckmapawatt's picture
ckmapawatt Thu, 01/12/2012 - 21:25
Jerry, Here is your answer from the CEO of BlueLine Innovations: <blockquote>Resolution or granularity is sharper on digital meters and we can actually get down to about 58 watts. Electromechanical is a bit higher. Keep in mind that we are dealing with +/- 1% accuracy. So while CT may talk a good story about lower resolution ….it really doesn’t mean much if you are dealing with +/- 15% accuracy. Seeing that “delta” is critical. Its visible on the in home display and the “appliance” function is designed precisely for this visibility. “Seeing” and understanding these changes becomes exceptionally powerful. Our resolution is really a key to allow analytics such as PlotWatt to drive from our whole home data.</blockquote> So it doesn't look like it will get down to 44 watts, but it will 65 watts! If you want stay out of the electrical panel and use something on your utility meter, I think this is the best option.
Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/18/2012 - 19:02
Well i picked up a B&amp;D power meter. And almost had to send it bad after putting battires in it the unit that goes on thte meter would not light up. I called B&amp;D but could not find anyone who knew anything about these. You would think they would have more Tech support then well I guess you will have to return it to the store. While taking the batteries out of the meter unit (which is very cheaply made) I noticed that the light would come on and off as I loosen it up so by turning the compartmant screw a little looser the light finally came on the way it should. I hope this is not the way things are going to go with this. But is has a 2 year warrenty. I will get back to this as I use it for a week or so and update on the use.

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