What a surprise that you feel this way, given that the link your submitted was to a company that just happens to sell the Envi.

So rather than just delete as spam, I have an alternative, which is to give my honest review of the Envi.

So I have used the Envi (I have one which I installed in my home specifically for review). I found the display difficult to read. There’s a lot more information than is needed. The price is OK, but for $30 less you could get a BlueLine or Black & Decker monitor, both of which don’t involve connections in the power box. A minor quibble of the Envi is that because it reads only current, it needs to make assumptions about voltage in order to correctly calculate Watts — but voltage varies throughout the day, and I found mine read about 5% to 10% lower than what was being consumed at the moment. It’s not a big deal.

The notion that Envi supports Google PowerMeter is a little specious until the network bridge device you mention is released — to upload to Google PowerMeter with the Envi alone, you would have to run the USB cable from where ever the monitor is plugged in to your computer, then (assuming it’s a Windows computer) install software that uploads data to Google.

To get a continuous report (which is the only thing that really makes Google PowerMeter useful), you need to make sure to do this every few days, or, just leave the computer on all the time. Needless to say, having to have a computer on all the time isn’t exactly aligned with the idea of saving energy. The real solution is, indeed, the network connection. My issue with that is that this extra component will raise the price of the unit — not sure how much but let’s say $179 (I think I saw someone selling the package for around that price). For this price, you get a device that’s not accurate, has a bad display, needs to be plugged in (no batteries), and requires installation at the breaker panel.

Just not sure this is an option that’s worth the extra money.

Tom

Another approach that gets you a lot closer is a new product called eMonitor — it will be available soon (so I hear) and you can learn more from the primary reseller Energy Circle (disclaimer — I have been doing work for Energy Circle lately).

Tom

You may install outlets and swithches in the home that can be monitored by a z-wave controller and indicate how much energy is being used from a switch or an outlet.

This is the issue…. it does not dynamically “discover” which loads are where. With the z-wave devices you need to program the cost per kw and the actual load that is on the switch or outlet. The controller would then calculate the load / time /cost per kw and arrive at the cost of usage on the zwave device being monitored. The limitation is this…. you have to know what is plugged into the outlet. The reason this is OK is that the “vampire” loads alluded to earlier are typically on the same outlet day in and day out. Additionally the zwave devices can be controlled by a central remote and “scenes” may be created. In my house, the plan is to have all surge protectors and lighting shut down in my “going upstairs to bed” mode. Anyone using this now? Any input…..?

I also own a Kill-a-Watt and will be going around the house and documenting what uses how much, especially in terms of establishing a baseline so I can try and issolate just what might be using power that I don’t even realize.

I have owned a similar monitoring device, the BlueLine PowerCost Monitor for over a year and agree that real-time data is good, but has limitations. However I have found that two aspects of the TED 5000 overcome the historical data issue you note.

First, there’s a wealth of data to be found in the built-in graphing in the Footprints data — you can get pretty granular data out for a couple of days — while you do have to use some detective skills to isolate unexpected loads, the tools provided in TED have helped me find a couple already (my gas oven, of all things, uses about 300W, apparently because of a “glow bar”!).

Second Google PowerMeter, while less granular appears to be collecting and saving historical data, more than what the TED gateway can keep in its limited on-board memory.

A bonus third: if you really want to store the data, and you’re a programmer, you can get the TED data via an API, and have all the granularity you need out for as long as you want.

That all said, I do agree that the TED is just another step in the process of having clear visibility into our data use. But I think it’s a rather huge one compared to what most people have: a monthly bill :-)

Tom

Notes on the 5000:
The concept is great and when it works (and you have a lot of time on your hands) it gives unprecedented insights into your homes behavior. However the limitations become obvious right away and the name “Energy Detective” is right on – you have to be a detective to figure out what is driving the spikes in usage you see. I posted a blog with more feedback (http://realmdesign.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/ted5000-a-first-look/) detailing some of the problems I’ve had with the TED 5000 system. Mostly these are not major, but as a small company I guess they have a hard time with tech support. I’ve received replies but no answers so far – and now they just seem to be ignoring me.
If you are looking at these types of devices I wouldn’t bother with anything that doesn’t give you visibility into historical usage (even as limited as the TED5000 is). Its just too difficult to watch a monitor real time and get anykind of decent information besides what happens when you turn one thing on/off. And you can get that with a Kill-a-Watt for a tenth of the prices.

I have found the support folks at Energy Inc to be pretty responsive, although undoubtedly they are totally swamped as a result of their huge Google PowerMeter deal.

I love your idea of a Yahoo group, and also invite people to post problems and solutions as comments here. I have had a couple other similar threads (e.g. Windows not going into standby/hibernate) that have proven to be pretty good forums for solving issues.

Tom

for those interetest, join here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/TheEnergyDetective/