How to Monitor Electricity Use | This Old House

How to Monitor Electricity Use | This Old House

Energy efficiency expert Paul Scheckel shows how to save electricity and loads of money. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)
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Shopping List for How to Monitor Electricity Use:
– current sensors, installed at main electrical panel to determine energy use
– power strips and controlled power strips, for easily turning off several electrical devices at once

Tools for How to Monitor Electricity Use:
– appliance meter, used to calculate electrical use of individual appliances

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How to Monitor Electricity Use | This Old House
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44 Comments

  1. Adam Guymon on November 16, 2019 at 10:18 pm

    5:35 It would be nice to have a power switch that would act like one of those smart plugs but it would be designed to hook to an Alexa DOT or a Google Home system. If the electronic plug strip was designed so you could turn the entire switch off or you could turn each outlet on or off just with an app or your voice this could be so much more efficient and much easier to control. If you don’t want to worry about needing to use your appliances and having the timer shut it off while you may need to use them at a time the timer would of shut the item off. Plus if this switch had a device that was like one of those lead testers that lets you know how much power you are using it would send that information to your app and you could track each item or the entire strip in one shot.

  2. kim hawm on November 16, 2019 at 10:19 pm

    make liberty a higher priority than "security"
    Benjamin Franklin (sometimes Thomas Jefferson) is often quoted as saying:
    Those who would give up Essential Liberty
    to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
    deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

  3. MaddoxInc on November 16, 2019 at 10:20 pm

    So…. Spend $800 to save $60?…

  4. Bradley Herron on November 16, 2019 at 10:20 pm

    where i live the electrical company charges you only even DOLLAR amounts ($50.00 not $49.01) they always round up. how do they get away with it? because the mfers are thieving bitches.

  5. JorgGamingCR on November 16, 2019 at 10:21 pm

    Dear god they are using internet explorer 0_0

  6. Porsche924Tim on November 16, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    Or… turn off lights when you leave the room, wait for full loads to wash clothes and dishes, change over to LED when bulbs burn out… and use common sense and your brain instead of wasting money on electrical monitoring gadgets…

  7. Lazaro Monteagudo on November 16, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    I’m sure Bob Villa is proud of you guys.

  8. Eye Toldyoosso on November 16, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    i turn everything off at night ..but the fridge i leave on
    i don’t have a TV, DVD player, game console ,
    i switched all my lights to 12v LED’s and have a gas hob but a small electric combo oven ( it steams and roasts )
    my gas bill is about $70 a year my power bill is about $300 a year and i use oil for heating about $400 a year
    i have a electric shower and in the summer never have the need for hot water so i boil a kettle of water to do the washing up..no dish washer
    you can save a lot f money …and its easy

  9. Flux Standard on November 16, 2019 at 10:23 pm

    Buy a new
    Laptop with all your you tube money

  10. Michael Price on November 16, 2019 at 10:24 pm

    Now that a lot of people have changed over to LED bulbs and Energy Star appliances the electricity rates have increased by about 65%. Investment in saving = higher cost, but we’re helping the environment.

  11. Pyroman / on November 16, 2019 at 10:25 pm

    The 150w might be the modem and router for the net

  12. John sellers on November 16, 2019 at 10:27 pm

    Where do I buy the current sensors and the management box?

  13. HowSci on November 16, 2019 at 10:28 pm

    wow, the information is so outdated.

  14. Harry M on November 16, 2019 at 10:29 pm

    2:41 "and sends it to the internet" WHOA! BIG red flags going up! the fact that it send my data to the cloud is THE reason not to buy that device.

  15. Shantel Bollmann on November 16, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    IF you want to make it by yourself just go to InpliX page.

  16. Michael Lim on November 16, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    Take cold showers if you want to save on electric bill. Even in winter. You can do it! It’s good for your skin too. Grow chest hair.

  17. Too-old Forthischet on November 16, 2019 at 10:31 pm

    How about just reading the information tag that come with major appliances? Also, if you’re not using it, turn it off.

  18. Charles Damery on November 16, 2019 at 10:31 pm

    The optical reader for the outside meter is a good idea, but I’ve got one of those new digital meters that wirelessly broadcasts back to the power utility. How do I read one of those ?

  19. joseph Norcal USA #1 on November 16, 2019 at 10:33 pm

    nice video guys, thank you for sharing !!

  20. XzTS on November 16, 2019 at 10:39 pm

    OG+E [Oklahoma Gas + Electric] had replaced everyones’ GE dial meters with the GE digital meters.

  21. Victor Troska on November 16, 2019 at 10:39 pm

    Lol "carbon footprint" I can’t believe all the lemmings who buy into this fake science. It’s nothing but a bullshit lie to destroy the standard of living and push toward Communism under the guise of "muh environment". These crooked cunts don’t give two shits about the environment, it’s all about making you a willful slave to give up your freedoms and liberties and become direct slaves to the elite.

  22. Alex Medlock on November 16, 2019 at 10:43 pm

    1:37 – Clip that on to the power meter,

    Gets electricity turned off for meter tampering, has to pay a $200 meter tampering charge + $75 reconnection fee

  23. Shawn Lewis on November 16, 2019 at 10:44 pm

    1513 kedron toledo ohio

  24. Nicholas2011ist on November 16, 2019 at 10:49 pm

    Who uses a fax machine these days anyway? A desk light is a more realistic load for a constant hot outlet.

  25. Extremelocura on November 16, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    This is already outdated. There are systems out that can read your load by just tapping into the two mains coming into the electric panel.

  26. mansharker8 on November 16, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    my area of California upgraded to smart meters….so I dont need any of those devices on the mains wiring or meter at all. I just use the meters inside the house, since SCE can tell me my usage per hour 😀

  27. Abe Coulter on November 16, 2019 at 10:52 pm

    FAKE!!!!! if you had the wheel spin that fast on one light at 60kw the wheel would spin at 1000+rpm

  28. Pete Smyth on November 16, 2019 at 10:53 pm

    Phantom power is prevented a lot more easily with switched sockets, as the UK uses.

  29. Jim Groth on November 16, 2019 at 10:57 pm

    I haven’t seen an analogue power meter in many years. The digital kind pulses an led (usually) every kWh. With a simple ($10) device from Ikea that pulse is read and sent to a display with a bunch of analysis tools built in.

  30. 9l3JlOu on November 16, 2019 at 10:58 pm

    OMG – Windows XP!

  31. mewimi on November 16, 2019 at 10:59 pm

    In this day and age with sensitive electronic components such as hard drives and other electronic storage, it is a bad idea to just cut power on a power strip.  What you should be doing is learning how this technology works and why it may be running when you presumably think it is off.

    Notably a lot of todays devices have a "standby" feature, which generally does not draw a lot of power and probably wont even be notable on the end of the year electrical usage cost.   For this case,  150W would indicate a computer ( usually over 100W by itself ) router/modem ( 10-30W ) being left on.

  32. Colin Beirne on November 16, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    2:53 when Mom plugs the vibrator in

  33. Shawn Lewis on November 16, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    I what my done

  34. 1BrotherMack on November 16, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    I put my water heater on a timer and cut my electric bill in half, WOW !

  35. kennys Boat on November 16, 2019 at 11:03 pm

    what if you have a LCD meter what does it mean?

  36. Peppe Ddu on November 16, 2019 at 11:08 pm

    And if you have a sudden spike in power in your iOT devices or PCs, someone may be crypto-mining on it.

  37. Dávid Kalló on November 16, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    Turn off your modem for the night so you don’t have internet and you can save 15W but leave your fax on 24/7. Great idea…

  38. Raks Electric on November 16, 2019 at 11:11 pm

    big brother

  39. Mario Dabek on November 16, 2019 at 11:12 pm

    it doesnt send the dial, it senses the LED blinking, i have the same thing

  40. weedram on November 16, 2019 at 11:14 pm

    I sure hope that none of these fancy readers will show up as "phantom power".

  41. Dennis Morgan on November 16, 2019 at 11:14 pm

    And as usual they never give the cost of these amazing gadgets because they now that it is something the majority can not splurge on

  42. Shawn Lewis on November 16, 2019 at 11:15 pm

    I have old-time one

  43. Christopher Longhorn on November 16, 2019 at 11:16 pm

    But every thing is bs wireless

  44. triden55 on November 16, 2019 at 11:17 pm

    Wait…fax machine??

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