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    What's your experience been with Envi?

    The Black Friday coupons came out and the Envi is being pushed and I am thinking about.

    I understand what it does, I understand how it does it. Then ENVI gathers a lot of data and can chart and graph what has happened and what is happening. My question is, to those that use this, can you tell me stories of how you turned data into information and used this to change behavior in your household and save money? Were you able to show screens, graphs and calculated costs to sway behavior? Did you automatically shut things off?

    Can you talk about what the savings are, can you calculate them?

    Thanks in advance, I am really trying to understand the investment vs the payback.
    Paul


    #2
    Mine has shown what a pig our dryer is

    I have mine hooked up and running, but not doing anything with the data yet. I envision a wall-mounted touchscreen with one half showing kWh and $ and the other half showing water usage and $. Having a good idea of what the power bill is projected to be with red/green would be good - just havent gotten there yet.
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      #3
      I tend to ignore mine. It's neat to see how much power you use and maybe knowing this can help attempt to cut back but my kids could care less and that makes me the old man running around and asking them to shut stuff off. Most of us know which appliances use the most power in our homes and nearly all the time there's not a lot you can do about it unless you choose not to use that appliance altogether. I could see the benefit if your electricity was tiered during certain hours of the day and maybe auto shut off or disable "stuff". I wonder how many use the data after it's been captured.
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        #4
        Yeh.. that's some of the tough part.. I can't say "Don't dry the clothes any more." Or hang them outside... especially in November. But on the flip side, I wouldn't have to starch my shirts..

        I've also been through the "I yell because I care" regarding lights being on, and total anarchy from HS turning them off automatically

        I should have added that I got a belkin plugin monitor when I did my server upgrade and measured everything that was plugged into a wall. Since our dryer is gas I measured it, but of course that's only the timer, motor etc. Also the fridge.

        The other big things are motor things: Furnaces (2) which I am controlling with x10 stats, have a 3 degree dwell point which has measurably reduced electric and gas cost. 30" attic fan which I replaced this summer and have on two insteon switches, run it low speed when possible. (The original is from the 40's when the house was built!)

        Also an electric oven, I don't have another way to measure that. But again, I all I could do is create a compelling argument to eat out more..

        Not surprised so far, but interested in stories from others as well
        Paul

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          #5
          it's changed how I use electricity and how much I spend without a doubt, electricity is not getting cheaper which has made it even more important. In Mar 2010 I used 302KW for that month and now I am averaging about 250KW - combination of hardware changes (replacing HS PC for a low power Atom) and some software events (turning off/on heaters depending on time of day or the condition of other appliances).

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            #6
            Originally posted by pbibm View Post
            Yeh.. that's some of the tough part.. I can't say "Don't dry the clothes any more." Or hang them outside... especially in November. But on the flip side, I wouldn't have to starch my shirts..
            Hey what about our forefathers... or would that be fore-mothers' They used to hang laundry outside all year! Of course, we're much too lazy now and it's just easier to through them in the dryer.

            I monitor my power and it helps me see if something is left on. So with that, I know what my house is 'idling at' when at work and no one home.
            Also since I moved last year and started running an inground pool for the first time, I realize just how much it taxes my electric bill - say 1000 watts/each our.. So I took it further and automated the pool pump and can control with HS.

            All in all, it helps identify your usage and I do monitor mine.

            Rob
            HS3PRO 3.0.0.500 as a Fire Daemon service, Windows 2016 Server Std Intel Core i5 PC HTPC Slim SFF 4GB, 120GB SSD drive, WLG800, RFXCom, TI103,NetCam, UltraNetcam3, BLBackup, CurrentCost 3P Rain8Net, MCsSprinker, HSTouch, Ademco Security plugin/AD2USB, JowiHue, various Oregon Scientific temp/humidity sensors, Z-Net, Zsmoke, Aeron Labs micro switches, Amazon Echo Dots, WS+, WD+ ... on and on.

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              #7
              Originally posted by langenet View Post
              Hey what about our forefathers... or would that be fore-mothers' They used to hang laundry outside all year! Of course, we're much too lazy now and it's just easier to through them in the dryer.

              I monitor my power and it helps me see if something is left on. So with that, I know what my house is 'idling at' when at work and no one home.
              Also since I moved last year and started running an inground pool for the first time, I realize just how much it taxes my electric bill - say 1000 watts/each our.. So I took it further and automated the pool pump and can control with HS.

              All in all, it helps identify your usage and I do monitor mine.

              Rob
              Not ashamed to say we had a clothes line at our first house and remember clothes hanging outside for a few years at our second house growing up. Having said that, I don't want to think about the response I would get to that suggestion today ...
              Last edited by pbibm; November 22, 2011, 01:05 PM.
              Paul

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                #8
                Yea, I mentioned how much we could save by hanging out clothes and the wife reminded me how much we could save if I didn't golf. Case closed.
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                  #9
                  Originally posted by mrhappy View Post
                  it's changed how I use electricity and how much I spend without a doubt, electricity is not getting cheaper which has made it even more important. In Mar 2010 I used 302KW for that month and now I am averaging about 250KW - combination of hardware changes (replacing HS PC for a low power Atom) and some software events (turning off/on heaters depending on time of day or the condition of other appliances).
                  That's a great point. I recently upgraded as well, to the AMD low power version, Zacate. My Belkin meter showed that I dropped from an average of close to 90 from my old server to just under 20 with my new box. Very happy with that.

                  Are your time of day events based on the cost of the electricity itself at a point in time, or is there something else going on there? I have an attic fan and based on how things are heating up in the summer I get it started a little earlier to keep the AC from having to do that.. that kind of thing?

                  Paul
                  Paul

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by pbibm View Post
                    That's a great point. I recently upgraded as well, to the AMD low power version, Zacate. My Belkin meter showed that I dropped from an average of close to 90 from my old server to just under 20 with my new box. Very happy with that.

                    Are your time of day events based on the cost of the electricity itself at a point in time, or is there something else going on there? I have an attic fan and based on how things are heating up in the summer I get it started a little earlier to keep the AC from having to do that.. that kind of thing?

                    Paul
                    My electricity is cheaper during the night period (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_7) by some margin (about 40% IIRC) so anything via HS I can shift to running at these times I can save money on. I have a water heater that I can't turn on during the day as HS will turn it back off that sort of thing, HS prevents me running both my gas water heating and electric heating at the same time etc - independent really of the CC Envi really it just gives me an overview of what I am doing.

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                      #11
                      I think it promotes understanding how and where you are using power. Even after a year, I started chasing what looked like 'noise' in the ENVI real-time data. It turns out the Panasonic 46" Plasma burns a lot of power (Kill-a-watt measurement) and the power changes a lot in real-time depending on what exactly is on the screen.

                      Up until now, I have left the screen on as 'background', now I select an unused input source causing the screen to go black which then drops the power from about 230 to 60 watts. Of course I could simply turn it off completely, but I'm not sure what's worse, burning some extra power or turning the screen on/off multiple times per day.

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                        #12
                        Thanks mr happy... unfortunately we don't have a staggered schedule where I live. My air conditioner compressors are on an Interrupt-able meter that allows the power company to turn off all interrupt-able power in an area when its going to "brown out", we pay about half for every kilowatt... however nothing there I can control. Like you I have done the things I can; by experimenting I have found when to turn on the attic fan to keep the upstairs coolest possible so the air doesn't run..


                        Mark, I used the belkin version of the killawatt and was really surprised how much the computer LCDs sucked power. I have played with and settled on power settings for the PCs that keep the power use low as possible without being annoying. I've about finished running around the house with this and changed what could be changed. Found out what my old dehumidifier in the basement used, can easily justify replacing that based on consumption alone.


                        Thanks for all of the replys to this thread. I've settled on getting an alarm plugin as the best use of HA $ right now. I have been actively addressing all of the things that I can in the power savings department. I don't think the envi will change much right now.
                        Paul

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