Top 5 Apps To Track Energy Usage & Save
#4 Will Change Your Life
“If you can measure it, you can manage it.”
Over the years a few customers have asked, “what’s the best way to track my electricity usage?” so I started doing some research and came up with was a list of 5 apps that allow you to track and/or control your electricity usage. Apps like this are empowering to consumers because the better you understand your energy usage, the easier it is for you to save energy.
1. Smappee: Smappee claims to make your home smarter, safer and under your control. You purchase a clip-on sensor and connect it to your fuse box and Smappee does the rest. It will detect all of the important electrical devices in your house and deliver real-time readings of energy use by device. It also lets you switch devices on and off from the app so you can be in control even when you’re away from the house.
1. Smappee: Smappee claims to make your home smarter, safer and under your control. You purchase a clip-on sensor and connect it to your fuse box and Smappee does the rest. It will detect all of the important electrical devices in your house and deliver real-time readings of energy use by device. It also lets you switch devices on and off from the app so you can be in control even when you’re away from the house.
2. Meter Readings: This free app makes it easy to monitor the energy usage in your home, though it does require a little bit of manual effort on your part. When you configure your account, you tell the app how often you would like to read your meter, for example: daily, weekly, monthly etc. Then the app will notify you when it’s time to check your meter and you input the reading. The app will then generate a graphic representation over time that allows you to identify trends in your usage.
3. Energy Consumption Analyzer: This application keeps track of your energy consumption. You can add your meters for gas, electricity, or water and record the current meter readings from time to time. You can color code the readings and make comments to remember special situations like “had family staying with me” or “ice storm from Wednesday to Sunday”. With this app you just record readings whenever it’s convenient for you – it does not have to be on a regular schedule. The app takes the readings you enter and calculates the average normalized rate of consumption per hour, day, week, or month and draws a graph showing the consumption rate over time. The total amount of actually used energy during each day, week, month, or quarter is displayed as a bar graph or table. If the average cost per unit is provided, the graphs can also show the amount of money instead of energy.
4. Neurio Home: Like Smappee, Neurio also requires that you buy a sensor to install in your home’s electrical panel. Installation does not require any wire cutting and should only take about 15 minutes. Once installed, you can use the app or an online portal to get real-time usage reports, bill forecasting, historic usage, energy savings tips, neighbor comparison, smart notifications and more.
5. Nest Mobile: The Nest Mobile app must be used in conjunction with the Nest Learning Thermostat. It gives you energy consumption history and displays when and how long the cooling and heating systems run. But maybe the coolest thing about the Nest, is that it learns from your behavior. It takes note of when you raise and lower the temperature and starts doing it for you. Eventually, you won’t have to turn down the heat at night and turn it up in the morning – Nest will take care of it. The Nest even knows when you’ve left the house and puts itself in eco mode to save you energy.
Understanding when and how you use the most energy can help you identify areas of improvement. Understanding how much energy you use can also help you pick the right electricity plan. Many electricity companies in Texas offer plans that have a sweet spot. For example, if you only use 500 kWh in a month, Plan A is best for you, but if you usually use 2,000 kWh or more than Plan C would be a better deal for you. When you call 4Change Energy, our agents are trained to find the plan that fits you the best, but it is much easier to do if you can tell us about your usage patterns. If you have used any of these apps please tell what you liked or didn’t like about them in the comments below. If we missed a good one, please share it so others can try it out too.
Jackson Ralston
4Change Energy
Jackson is a digital film and video production/social media specialist that not only enjoys those roles as a job but as a hobby as well. In his free time Jackson creates videos for his YouTube channel about his passions in auto culture.