So energy prices are pretty high at the moment. My power bill is closing in on $500 some months and due to the increase I would like to understand it better. I counted circuits in my house panel and garage sun-panel, I have 31. I would like to put on a clamp on energy monitoring system in the panels and monitor from an app so I can see what's using energy and when and maybe adjust habits. It would be great if I could expand that to water usage too but not a requirement.
There are systems on Amazon and at the box stores but I have only seen up to 16 circuits. Does anyone use a system on their house?
Happy to learn anything anyone wants to pass on about these systems.
I have one from TED (The Energy Detective)
I bought two clamps for the main wires and I believe 8 for the other wires. Keep in mind you need one for 115v circuits, but two for 230V ones.
What I did is I installed them on what I thought were the ones that drew the highest loads, run them there for a couple of months and then switched them over to another set of wires. That way I did not have to buy so many clamps.
In my case, I was trying to see how big of a genset I could get away with so an app was not that important. I can log in through the ip address on the system, they might have something better.
Biggest advise, is that if you really want it to be accurate you need a clamp on the circuit. Some use just clamps on the mains and detect loads being turned on and off, which you later label. These later ones are not that accurate.
Also TED has a forum which was quite helpful when it came time to do this.
Is TED still selling that unit? The website looks like it is still being maintained but the unit doesn't have a link on where to buy it.
I can see the logic in getting 8 or 16 circuits. I know a lot of mine are outdoor plugs that are seasonal anyway.
