The Energy Detective – real-time electricity usage monitor
In our time of higher energy and household costs, it’s a good idea to monitor those costs closely and see where we can cut back, not to mention that saving energy is just a good, green practice. For example, Kill-a-Watt has a number of products to directly monitor whatever is plugged into it, but how do you monitor usage in your entire house?
TED, The Energy Detective, is a real-time, electricity monitor. TED monitors your energy usage and displays the info in a simple, LCD display. It even jacks into your PC and lets you monitor historical usage with a custom software app (additional). It’s near real-time, with no more than a 2-second delay between events and reporting, and it updates every second.
So that your entire house is monitored, TED has to be installed directly into your home’s power circuits, so you’ll either need to be very familiar with electrical systems or hire an electrician for the 15 minute install. TED has a few different models. The base model (TED1000) is about $140 and the TED Model 1001 has a USB interface.
Price: TED 1000: $140, TED 1001: $145, TED Dynamics software: $45
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)