Home Energy Monitor
The best home energy monitors are easy to use and offer valuable information for their users. They can help you track your usage, create a budget and identify opportunities to cut energy costs. These devices can also be helpful for identifying potential issues with your appliances, such as a faulty compressor or an overused power supply.
The Most Accurate – It depends on the model and the environment, but most energy monitors can estimate energy usage within 1-2% of actual consumption. Higher-end models are even more accurate, with some offering readings of 0.5% or less. Whether your home is large or small, a good monitor will provide useful insights into its electricity consumption and give you a chance to make changes to save money. However, they are not a substitute for making alterations to your habits. You must be able to follow the recommendations of your monitor and implement them into your life.
A good home energy monitor should have a user-friendly app that provides all the information you need, as well as track your energy usage trends over time to see where improvements can be made. This can be a great way to stay motivated to work on your energy efficiency.
How Accurate is a Home Energy Monitor?
Some monitors also come with a voice control feature, so you can ask them to switch off your lights or shut off the dishwasher remotely. They may also be compatible with other smart home devices, allowing you to connect them to your home’s Wi-Fi and use them in conjunction with a smart thermostat or smart plugs.
Appliance Recognition – Every appliance uses electricity in a different way, so monitors that have artificial intelligence or machine learning (AI or ML) appliance recognition feature can detect the “signature” of individual appliances and report on their usage. Some monitors with this technology can even identify a specific appliance’s wattage, so you can track it and make improvements to its efficiency.
Real-Time Cost Tracking – If your home is on a time-of-use electricity plan, you’ll want an energy monitor that can match the times when you use energy with the cost of it, so you can identify patterns and shift your usage behavior to lower costs. Whole-House Monitoring – Some monitors can attach to your home’s electrical panel, tracking your entire home’s electricity consumption and showing you the total amount of energy used in your house in real time. These are ideal for those who have large appliances and want a comprehensive picture of their energy usage, or for those who have strict energy-saving goals.
These monitors can also cover appliances that don’t have plugs, such as heating systems and central heating pumps. They also provide data on how much solar power your home generates, which is a great feature for those who are thinking about installing solar panels. The most accurate home energy monitor will be able to track your energy use, as well as your solar production, in real time. It should also be able to show you the cost of your energy, so you can compare the cost of buying electricity from your local supplier against what you’re saving by using less.