Energy Monitoring

High energy bill? How to monitor your home energy consumption

Author: Andrea O.

We’ve all experienced the confusion of receiving an energy bill that is higher than expected, wondering what caused the additional expenses and how to avoid another “surprise”. Or maybe you’ve been on track with energy usage, but would like to be more proactive in reducing your energy consumption. Either way, you’re in the right place.

We will discuss some ways to better track and understand your personal home energy usage, allowing you to leverage that information into creating a more efficient home.

In this article:

High Usage Appliances
Free / Low Cost Solutions
Higher Cost Solutions
Smart Electrical Panels / Breakers

Typical High Usage Appliances

If you’re short on time or don’t get as excited by data as we do, there is a pretty high chance your energy guzzling culprit is one of the following typical high usage electrical appliances. Starting with this list and trying to optimize the efficiency of these appliances would likely reduce your bill without you having to do further analysis.

HVAC / heating & cooling
Electric water heaters
Hot Tub (heating) / Pool Pumps
Electric Vehicles (EVs)
Electric clothes dryers

Other sources to help you optimize energy efficiency without monitoring:

Check out this article for how to maximize the energy efficiency of your home
This resource has a breakdown of each appliance and how to make changes to optimize its performance.
You can also estimate the usage of each appliance using the calculator guide here.

While the information above can help you reduce your energy bill, we do recommend learning about your actual appliance usage and how much energy is used to run your household. This information will help you make a more informed decision when deciding how to backup your home’s power, whether with a solar, battery, or hybrid generator system. Understanding your usage and making efficient changes will only help you save money and energy in the long run.

Read on for some tips for gaining more specific insight on your personal energy habits.

Free / Low Cost Solutions

Read your electric meter

If you want to get an idea of what your house idle load is, or a couple real-time measurements of what your larger appliance electrical demands are… head to your electric meter. If it’s a smart meter (standard) it will have a digital display which rotates through a couple pieces of information. (For homes with analog meters, click here for how to read it)

First you’ll see the total cumulative kilowatt-hours (kWh) your home has used since the meter was installed. If you write down the number at the beginning of the month and then next month, the difference between those two numbers will be the total kWh your home used for that month.
Next you’ll see the current rate of power consumption of your home in kilowatts (kW).
Lastly, you will see the line voltage level in Volts (V)

Note: Digital meters may have slightly different displays based on your location and energy provider, so visit your energy provider’s website for more information about your meter.

Electricity retailer/ provider website

While your energy bill typically shows a snapshot of your usage for the month, accessing your account via the provider’s website can give you more specific information about your energy usage.

Ex. PG&E customers can log in to the PG&E website and see energy usage as specific as 15 minute intervals.

TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug/Powerstrip

TP Link Kasa $40 for 2-pack

This is a smart plug (also comes in power strip form) that not only allows you remote access and control to your appliance - it will also track the energy usage for you through its app.

If your budget allows you to buy a couple, you can track the energy usage for two appliances at a time, record that information, and switch appliances after you gain some insight.

Eventually you’ll be able to see which appliances are hogging the most energy. The smart plug is also compatible with your smart home device (Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung Smartthings), offering voice control and the ability to preset a schedule for your appliances.

Higher Cost

Next let’s look at some options for connecting an energy monitor to your existing residential electrical panel to track the whole house as well as large appliances.

Feature Comparison (src: emporia 2021)

Emporia Vue Energy Monitor

Emporia Vue $165

The Vue connects to your electrical panel and allows you to see your home energy usage in real time. With 16 sensors to monitor individual circuits, over time you’ll be able to understand the energy usage of individual appliances.

On the app, you will see data as specific as 1-second readings with accuracy of ±2%. Additionally, the app will send you actionable tips for how to make your home more energy efficient and save you money.

The Energy Detective (TED) Spyder

TED Spyder $169

The TED Spyder has 8 sensors that connect to the circuits in your electrical panel. Using its Footprints software, it will log data every minute for individual circuits or appliances.

TED is coming out with an updated home energy monitoring system, TED Pro Home 2.0 launching Fall 2023, promising easier installation and setup, Wi-Fi connectivity, and compatibility with iOS and Android OS devices.

Schneider Wiser / Sense

Wiser /Sense $299

This system easily connects to your existing home electrical panel and coupled with their apps, allows whole house usage.

Both use learning algorithms to attempt to identify specific appliances. It also connects with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and more. Over time, its machine learning capabilities allow it to detect more and more of your devices.

While it cannot detect every single appliance in your home yet, it can pick up on the most typical home appliances and hopefully in the future Schneider will continue to expand their detection capabilities.

Smart Electrical Panels / Breakers

Lastly, for anyone interested in a deep retrofit, type A energy consumers, or planning a new build with battery backup, you may want to consider a smart electrical panel.

There are a few features over the simpler / monitoring-only solutions worth considering:

Per-circuit monitoring and ability to remote turn on/off
Dynamically shedding loads (circuits) when battery SoC gets low
Extending runtime of battery backup systems

Schneider Square D Energy Center Smart Panel

Starting from $3000, the Schneider Square D Energy Center Smart Panel replaces a traditional electrical panel.

From the Sense app on your smartphone or tablet, you can:

monitor current home consumption and potentially more detailed information about individual appliances
manually set up for partial or whole home backup and switch between those settings as needed
remotely manage appliances and devices to save energy
receive alerts (eg. space heater running for >8hrs, did you leave the oven on?)
determine how much energy is from grid, solar, battery, or generator

Leviton Smart Load Center

Starting from about $4000 for all the equipment to create a Leviton Smart Load Center (or about $132 per individual smart breaker) this system can be connected to the My Leviton app to:

monitor aggregate, individual circuit, or appliance energy consumption in real time
remotely turn individual circuits on/off
view graphs of energy consumption and cost

Span Smart Panel

Starting from $4500, the Span Smart Panel replaces your traditional electrical panel.

From the Span Home app on your smartphone or tablet, you can:

view your energy consumption and production in real time
receive energy insights, like whether you are connected to the grid or how your energy consumption compares to other homes in your area
monitor individual circuits (with ± 0.5% accuracy)
remotely turn individual circuits on and off
integrate with backup battery power and prioritize which circuits to keep on during power outage
see how much of your energy used is from the grid, solar, or back up power

You’re well on your way to becoming more informed about your energy usage and making money-saving changes. Which one of these strategies or tools will you try out?