I’ve been using the TED5000 home energy monitoring system to measure my energy consumption since October 2009.
The bottom line: I highly recommend the TED5000. What you don’t measure, can’t be managed… and so it goes with electricity consumption. What the TED5000 has done for us:
1) pushed me to replace every incandescent bulb in our house with CFLs (CFLs use about 1/8th of the electricity and provide more light!)
2) has me and my wife making sure we have lights, TV, etc. turned off when we leave the house.
3) it’s lead to a lot of great conversations with family, friends, and my eldest daughter (5 years old) about energy consumption.
4) Net-net: our electricity bill for November was HALF of that in October and we’ve consistently averaged 30-40% lower monthly bills.
What to buy: If you have one breaker box in your house, you need their TED5000-C kit — it costs $239.99. More info on the TED5000 on their website.
More details on my setup, including photographs of the TED5000 components and the whole setup process below:
(you might prefer to view this album directly on picasaweb)
(since once person I told about the TED5000 asked me, let me state: I have no financial interest in the makers of the TED5000. I’d just like to see more people have their eyes opened by real-time energy monitoring!)
Update (2/8/2010): While she didn’t talk a lot about the details, Purva Patel at the Houston Chronicle has a bit about my setup in this article about home energy monitoring.
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