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eMonitor Energy Monitor Service
Due to high demand, orders placed today will ship in August.
Quick Overview
The world's first comprehensive circuit-by-circuit home energy monitoring and management system. Exclusive Energy Circle bundle includes 2 years of service -- click here to save more on a 5-year service plan.
Availability
eMonitor configuration can be tricky -- don't hesitate to call us toll free at 877-865-0395, or send email to support@energycircle.com -- we'll help you work out the configuration that's right for you.
Product Description
The Powerhouse Dynamics eMonitor is the world's first whole-house, circuit-by-circuit energy monitoring and management system.
Not Just Another Hardware Based Electricity Monitor
eMonitor is a service that lets you view your home's 24x7, minute-by-minute electricity use, electricity cost, and carbon footprint, as well as historical information by day, month, or year, all in a password protected web site, with an exceptional graphical interface anywhere you can access the Internet.
eMonitor goes far beyond just your current usage and displaying the raw data it collects from your house -- the eMonitor service analyzes your usage and presents information in aggregate and in detail in a number of ways that help you understand how your home is using energy, what it all means, and importantly: what you can change in order to use the energy you need, efficiently, effectively, and smartly.
While other stand-alone hardware solutions provide a snapshot of your usage at any given moment, the eMonitor service collects data and stores it over time so that you can see how your home operates as a system. No other energy monitoring system comes close to the level of detail, analysis and actionable information that the eMonitor service can provide.
Circuit-by-Circuit Detail
The cutting-edge feature of the eMonitor service is its capability to display electricity use by individual circuit so you can see real-time and historical information of everything using energy, not just major appliances, entertainment centers, and air conditioning, but also the circuits you may not have realized are actually a significant part of your home's energy usage.
In addition to storing detailed historical data on electrical usage, the service keeps you continuously up to speed on your home's energy usage by providing you with a broad set of alerts, sent by email or text message. For example if circuits are overloaded, if there are problems with appliances or your renewable sources, if your electricity usage is unusual, or if your energy bills are approaching a threshold (set by you).
eMonitor "r" models integrate with renewable energy systems (for solar PV, solar thermal, or wind installations), monitoring energy production, savings, and efficiency, and also reports on any problems with those installations.
How eMonitor Works
In order to record and transmit the information from your home, you'll install one or more eMonitor hardware modules in your house and connect it to your home's Internet connection. Each module can record the usage and other data from the electrical circuits in your house. The eMonitor hardware is very flexible and easily installed near to your home's electrical service entrance.
Each eMonitor configuration comes with hardware to monitor a number of "channels" -- typically a channel is the same as one of your electrical circuits. But eMonitor is flexible enough to handle cases like 240v "unbalanced" circuits, several smaller circuits "bundled" into a single channel, sub-panels, larger services with multiple panels (e.g. 400a, 600a, etc), panels in different locations, inputs from solar, wind, generators and almost any electrical configuration found in North American homes having 2-phase 240v electrical services.
Most American homes can be covered with one eMonitor 24, which includes hardware for two 120v mains, and 22 additional channels. Additional configurations are available for homes with more circuits, fewer circuits and almost any residential electrical service we have seen!
The eMonitor is also equipped for future capability to remotely control individual outlets and thermostats, and will integrate with many existing home control systems. Planned future enhancements also include the ability to monitor other energy sources such as natural gas and home heating oil.
The special bundle price from Energy Circle includes 2 years of Powerhouse Dynamics' energy monitoring and management services to help:
- Keep your Bills Down (5-20% or more, depending on the size of your house and what you are monitoring)
- Keep your Family Safe
- Keep your Planet Healthy
What You'll Need
The eMonitor modules allow a wide range of configurations. In a typical home, there's a single main service panel with two main wires ("phases"), each carrying 120v. The mains distribute power to individual circuits -- usually from one 120v phase. Larger loads like dryers, air handlers, ranges, and so on use power from each of the two phases to have a single 240v circuit.
The eMonitor hardware has a fixed number of "channels" -- 2 are needed for the main phases, and in a simple configuration one channel for each 120v circuit and each "balanced" 240v circuit -- 2 channels are needed for unbalanced 240v circuits such as dryers and water heaters. We recommend monitoring each circuit separately, but there are cases where you can "bundle" two or three circuits into a single channel. Circuits not monitored will be recorded as a single measurement.
Sample Configurations
| eMonitor Configuration | # Units | Solar | Max Channels | Max Channels | Monthly Service |
| or Wind | Main Panel Only | Main + Add'l Panel | (after 2 yr included) | ||
| eMonitor 12 | 1 | 2 Mains + 10 | n/a | $7.88 | |
| eMonitor 24 | 1 | 2 Mains + 22 | n/a | $10.38 | |
| eMonitor 24r | 1 | ✔ | 2 Mains + 22 | n/a | $16.63 |
| eMonitor 24r + 12s | 2 | ✔ | 2 Mains + 34 | 2 Mains + 22, 12 Sub | $20.34 |
| eMonitor 24 + 22s | 2 | 2 Mains + 44 | 2 Mains + 22, 22 Sub | $15.55 | |
| Additional options available | 3-8 | >100 | >100 | Please call 877-865-0395 |
The "s" models are used for sub-panels, or to allow monitoring additional circuits on a larger service panel and therefore can only be purchased to extend a system. The "s" models do not come with the special sensors needed to record the main power leads -- otherwise, they are the same.
The "r" models enable monitoring and separate display of inputs from renewable energy sources. Signficant additional functionality is enabled in these units so are highly recommended if your home is powered by solar panels or wind. The "r" models are not needed for power inputs like backup generators.
We Thought You'd Like To Know
Installation. The eMonitor measures electricity with current transformers (CT's) that clamp around each wire for each circuit in your panel, plus CT's for the two main power leads that feed your home's electrical supply. There are no special electrical connections or wiring required -- the CT clamps wrap around the wires, and measure current through induction.
While a qualified homeowner could easily perform the work, Powerhouse Dynamics recommends having installation done by a qualified electrician, as the breaker panel cover needs to be removed. (Note: depending on your locality, this may be law.) The lead wires from each CT run to the eMonitor which is mounted within several feet of, and outside of the electrical panel. The eMonitor then sends the data to the central eMonitor service via your home's Internet connection. To make this connection, you'll need a wired Ethernet connection from your router to the eMonitor, or a wireless bridge.
Need to Know More?
More Details and Frequently Asked Questions about eMonitor Service
Nitty Gritty
WARRANTY
Powerhouse Dynamics (the manufacturer) will replace any of the Powerhouse Dynamics products found to be defective for two (2) years. Powerhouse Dynamics reserves the right to change this warranty at any time or for any specific product. The warranty in place at the time of a sale will prevail for that customer. Powerhouse Dynamic’s sole warranty obligation concerning any of the products shall be limited to those obligations stated above or in any written warranty enclosed with the products. Questions about returns can be directed to support@energycircle.com
Note: eMonitor is available with a five year extended service plan and warranty, instead of the standard 2-year plan. Service plans must match when you have multiple eMonitor modules. Upgrades are available.
RETURNS
Energy Circle accepts returns of eMonitor. eMonitor must be returned in same condition it was delivered, including all packaging and original shipping box. All CTs must be neatly wrapped. $25 restocking fee applies to all orders.
SHIPPING COST
For each eMonitor module ordered, there's a flat rate of $35.
Customer Reviews
This is a great product
Posted by waleed aldhefiri on Jul 21, 2010 8:06pmWe in Kuwait will benefit him greatly to increase awareness among consumers to reduce energy consumption
Suggested that if the Arabization of the product to resolve the crisis faced by electric Kuwait in the summer
On an earlier post you mentioned that the eMonitor can can measure generated power from a PV system inverter. Is the eMonitor capable of "net" metering so that I may know how much power was sold back to the grid with my PV system? Also, does the eMonitor measure true power as opposed to an assumption of power based on the measurement of electrical current? What is it power measuring accuracy?
Randy
Posted by RandyG on Jun 20, 2010 12:45pmI put my emonitor on its own circuit and can report that it consumes 7-9 watts continuously.
Posted by Brian on Apr 18, 2010 11:21pmAs a builder of high-performance and sustainable homes, I'm intrigued by the eMonitor product offering. Most of the competition is simply displaying a total household consumption number, which is interesting and you could probably anecdotally guess what's happening when it spikes up, but the added value of monitoring every circuit is tremendous. I plan to up sell it to my custom home clients based on functional specs (and also Chris Hunt's detailed review above).
Cheers-
Posted by Anonymous on Mar 22, 2010 7:27pmSloan
Backyard Box and Cascade Built
http://www.BackyardBox.net
Prefab Seattle Backyard Cottages
I've had the PowerHouse Dynamic’s eMonitor installed at my house for several weeks now and I agree with Peter Troast and others that it's the best system out there for monitoring your household electricity usage. And I know this area since I've tried tools from numerous vendors including the TED 5000 which has actually been installed at my house at the same time. The TED 5000 is still a terrific tool for monitoring total consumption but if you want to discover everything about your household usage the eMonitor is the way to go.
First off, the eMonitor is a robust and finished product. It's not just that it works once installed; it works flawlessly. I have not had a single gotcha, bug, UI display or data problem since I installed it and I can't tell you how rare that is. I've done product development for software companies and to have this system work like this out of the box is amazing.
Personally, the biggest issue I found with using the eMonitor is that it is an iterative process. I thought my service panel circuit labels were pretty accurate but once the eMonitor was running I found those labels were at best 3/4's on target. And this is after previous investigations, both from past electricians and even my own analysis. For example, more outlets and rooms were attached to specific circuits than I knew and I could only find that out when something didn't make sense by digging deeper until I found the culprit.
For example, the circuit that was wired "refrigerator” in our kitchen also had the dishwasher wired to it. So not only did that circuit show the circulating background of 285 watts every time the fridge cycled on, it would jump to 800+ watts whenever we turned on the dishwasher. Better yet, the circuit would show 27 watts constant background draw when both the fridge and dishwasher were off; it turned out the dishwasher had an “always on” feature after it had been run. Unless you unhooked the latch after the dishes had been cleaned, the washer would consume 27 watts 24/7. The machine is only about 7 years old and doesn’t have a “do not heat dry” feature so to stop the waste you literally have to open the door to prevent the dry-cycle and always-on feature from consuming.
Another example - although one we can do little about until we replace this unit too – is the stovetop. We have a gas oven / stovetop unit but with electronic ignition. Every time we would cook or heat something up in the gas oven it turns out we were using 300+ watts of electricity as well to power the clock, timer and temperature gauge.
That's the type of granularity you can't get with any total monitoring system because it just can't drill down far enough for that. I had previously gotten our nighttime power usage down to under 300 watts/hour from midnight to 5 am but I couldn't really figure out what was causing those 300 watts. The computers were off, the TV and DVR were power-stripped & off, the outside lights were off (our low voltage lights are 300 wts/hr - good to know). Turns out that various small things contribute all the time and while I can't eliminate all of them I can compensate in other areas or at least turn these things off now when we go away. The garage door-opener draws power 24/7, the add-on speakers to the kitchen computer draw power 24/7, the two gas heaters draw background electrical power around the clock as well. Who designs this stuff and how do we tell them to stop?
Regardless, the best part is that I know the exact energy footprint pattern of my entire house and can control it. I know what the draw should be during the day, during the night and what is waste vs. necessity. I have not lowered my living standards one whit, but I have completely eliminated expensive and unnecessary consumption.
Cons:
Installation. I am not an electrician and I did this myself but it is highly recommended that you have one install this monitor because your hands and fingers are inches deep inside the panel. If the thought of 220 volts sparking your hair with highlights doesn't bug you, it should.
But the biggest issue is not that the circuit CT clamps have to go on every circuit you want to monitor, it's that many service panels out there are just a mess. The original panel box is often too small and if you have dual-pole breakers like I do it is tough to get all the CT's (24 in the standard kit) in the circuit box and close the panel again. The CT wires coming out of the panel (through the knockout hole) are also a little unruly but if you know that going in you can avoid the possible Medusa effect.
The only other complaint is that I want even more now, a true power addict. I now know that the lights have been left on upstairs because it shows that that hallway is drawing 60 watts and no one is up there. And the two different programmed thermostats in my house are a pain to reprogram when daylight savings and the season change comes around because their controls are so bad - so getting UI controllable thermostats from PowerHouse Dynamics would resolve that. I'd also love to control major appliances from my laptop, either at home or away. For example, instead of a separate timer and controller box in my basement for the outside lights I could program the lights to come every day at 6 PM and off at 9PM by putting the lighting control plug into a pending PowerHouse socket module that enables the logic to do that. Or how about not using certain energy hog devices during punitive Time-of-Use pricing that will come along with the complete saturation of Smart Meters? That is true home energy management and I can't wait for some of those features to come online.
Disclaimer: My firm runs home electricity audits and I do use the TED 5000 in my audits now and will also use the eMonitor in the future for clients who want that granularity in the audit. But I am not a dealer as has been listed on the PowerHouse site; if my clients want to purchase the eMonitor system I will simply point them to the Energy Circle website.
Chris Hunt
Posted by Chris Hunt on Mar 22, 2010 4:17pmAfter watching the market for energy monitoring systems for several years, I was thrilled to find the eMonitor. The system has all the major features I was looking for, specifically: 1) individual circuit monitoring, 2) simple installation, 3) web based interface, 4) attractive price point. The eMonitor addresses each need, and looks to have other features on the way such as an iPhone app and control features (above and beyond monitoring).
The system took about 2-3 hours to install, and clearly could have been done more quickly. I took my time to read the manual, unwrap and straighten all the cables, mount the hardware, and verify that the circuits were properly marked. It struck me that for the system to be able to provide useful insight, I needed to be accurate about what was being measured, and thankfully my original electrician had paid attention to detail. As I applied the monitor clamps, I carefully noted what was connected to each circuit, and that has made all the difference when I interpret the results. Online set-up included visiting a website to enter my device MAC id, then inputting each relevant circuit label.
The system has been running without issue for three weeks now, and has provided a myriad of insights. What are the greatest energy consumers in my house, which rooms have phantom loads, how often the refrigerator cycles, when the furnace kicks on, that the dishwasher has two heating cycles every time it's run, etc. The trailing 24 hour graph of energy consumption allow clear identification of consumption patterns, like our well pump running shortly after the kids brush their teeth at night, or the toaster, lights, and refrigerator spiking each morning around 6:30.
The web based interface allows viewing of each circuit individually or all collectively, plus a meter for consumption right now, a list of the top active circuits now, and a dollar estimate for each circuits consumption over the trailing 14 days. There is even an estimate of my average 30 day phantom power cost and the size of my carbon footprint compared to the state average.
To me, the system represents empowerment through knowledge. The utility bill each month provides very little feedback. My Black and Decker Power Monitor provides a bit more by reflecting current total consumption, but the eMonitor takes homeowner awareness to a whole new level. Once you know what's really happening in your house, you are then empowered to be able to do something about it.
As a principal in an architecture firm that designs low energy homes, I can say tools like the eMonitor are one of my strongest hopes for consumer awareness and the associated potential to reduce energy consumption.
Posted by Adam Prince on Mar 13, 2010 12:36pmHad a nice presentation on the Total Home Energy management system at NeSea by the energy circle folks today. Looks to be everything we have been in the hunt for to better manage the power usage in or home.
Look forward to getting started.
Steve
Posted by Steve Oliver on Mar 11, 2010 9:30pmHow much energy (Wh) does the eMonitor itself consume on a daily basis ?
Posted by Anonymous on Mar 5, 2010 11:47amHi Peter, I have come to appreciate the difference between monitoring and control. There is much info about monitors but a dearth of info about home energy control systems. So-my question to you would be; have you as of yet encountered a viable, low cost (relative term I know!)controller that I can recommend to people that are concerned about energy consumption and remote control? Thank you in advance for sharing information.
Posted by Larry on Mar 4, 2010 2:47pm(Disclosure: I'm founder of Energy Circle.)
We've been using the eMonitor in our home for about 4 weeks now and I am duly impressed with the core breakthrough it provides--the ability to see your home's electricity use on a circuit by circuit basis.
We have tested and/or installed virtually all of the consumer energy monitors currently available on the market, so it's fair to say we're veterans of real time, whole house energy monitoring. We continue to feel that seeing your entire home's energy use is amazingly powerful and an important first step towards tackling your energy use and cost.
For a great many people, one number--the electricity use of your whole house at any given time and historically--is eye opening and the only thing you need.
But since installing eMonitor, which tracks each circuit and all the major appliances individually, I'm very impressed with the additional value that comes from more detailed and granular data.
We've learned, for example, that the heat level settings on our dryer make no difference in electric use. (Service call in process.) We learned that the computers, printers and other devices in the home office added up to much more vampire load than each one measured individually using a kill-a-watt. The kids, who were already engaged because we share our energy savings with them, now compete with one another because each of their rooms is tracked individually. I've become much more concious of the supplemental electric heater I use in the basement home office--because those nasty 1500 watts stare me down on the eMonitor dashboard. Remember Mom yelling about closing the door to the refrigerator? She was right in spades. Now we see in concrete detail how the normal power cycling of the fridge spikes during meal times when the door is being opened more frequently. And the few places where incandescents have not been replaced: they stand out like sore thumbs. For a house that's smart stripped itself from top to bottom, or so I thought, we've still got a $16/month vampire power problem. The learnings go on.
Yes, eMonitor is more expensive. But for us so far, for our family, it's well worth it. And when you consider the extensible environment of the device--built in Zigbee for smart outlets, displays, thermostats and other future devices--its future is equally exciting.
If you have other questions about eMonitor, feel free to contact me directly at info at energycircle dot com.
Posted by Peter Troast on Feb 18, 2010 5:12pm