Customer Reviews
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You Manage What You Measure, 11/18/2008
Reviewer: Mayam (San Francisco)
I'm not much of a gadget person, but ever since my husband set this up, I've been obsessed with this thing. Here's why:
*I learned a lot, really quickly, about which appliances in our house are energy hogs (no more pre-heating the oven earlier than necessary, that's for sure!)
*I literally carry this thing from room to room so that I can see if our usage spikes, and if it does I find out why-Did I leave the garage light on? Is someone watching TV longer than they should be? (Oh no, I'm becoming an energy spy!)
*One of my favorite uses is making sure that everything that should off is, in fact, off before we go to sleep. This is especially useful as we have small kids who can tend to forget to turn things off.
*Paying $135 for this device is a lot cheaper than getting a digital whole house, all off controller or some such thing.
*It is said, "You manage what you measure" and I think this device proves that true. I feel great knowing that I am quantifiably managing our energy use!
Oh my gosh: they dryer must be on!, 07/09/2008
Reviewer: Tom Harrison (Newton, MA)
We got our PowerCost Monitor a couple of weeks ago, and it works beautifully.
Installation was very straightforward -- it works with all usual electric meters, and has excellent step-by-step instructions.
I looked on my current electricity bill to find out our cost per kilowatt hour.
Once you strap the doohickey to the meter, and enter your electricity rate, the indoor display tells you at any moment how much you're paying, per hour, for electricity in your whole house.
We have done a lot of things to save electricity and energy in general, so figured we knew it all. (No, seriously, we have reduced our use of electricity by 40% since we started making little changes details at http://fivepercent.us/2008/06/28/40-percent-reduction-in-electrical-use-over-4-years/).
Yeah, I know dryers are bad and all, but I nearly fell off my chair when my daughter put her wet towel and bathing suit in after camp: not on high heat or anything, and our meter reported a massive increase in consumption! Holy cow!
It's not like I sit and stare at this thing all day, but it's one of those cases where simply being aware of something makes a little, and perhaps large difference.
I do agree with a couple other reviews saying that it could be better. It has a rather obtuse display of your electricity use trend; I think I want to know more "how are we doing this week compared to last week", but while there's a little of this, it's hard to understand.
Still, it's just wonderful to be able to get at this data. Why all electric utilities are not required to provide and install these is beyond me. No doubt we'll save even more electricity in the months to come.
And if you have only started saving electricity, this seemingly expensive device could pay for itself in a matter of months.
Pretty good but could be better, 07/09/2008
Reviewer: Peter (Far Hills, NJ)
It would be great if all the graphics on the face of the device were put to charting a time phase look at usage. Peak usage in my market is 30% more expensive that off-peak. Shy of keeping notes, my memory isn't good enough to recall hour to hour readings.It should be simple to add this to the device.
I'd also like to see a auto-reset (dat based) of the cumulative dollars spent so I could sync the device with my monthly bill.
It works great, 06/26/2008
Reviewer: Paul (unspecified)
I have one of these on my house. It's sensor is mounted on my digital meter
and it works great! The reason that it is useful is that it not only tells
you what the hole house is using but because it updates so frequently when
I turn on an appliance i see the $ or kw change within about 15 - 20
seconds. Then you do the simple math to see what that appliance costs. I've
come to realize the energy hogs and phantom loads in my house saving us big
time!
It would have been a 5 star but problems, 08/26/2008
Reviewer: wayne perry (phoenix)
Potentially this would have earned 5 stars if it would have worked on my meter. Unfortunatly there are meters out there which will not accept the monitor. the ABB electronic meter is one and there may be others. The OEM should have provided a list of these to Terrapass to avoid all the frustration, multiple calls and eventual return of the monitor. As side note I found the remote monitor very easy to program. The dvd supplied made that part easy.
Powercost meter, 07/19/2008
Reviewer: w perry (Phoenix)
This device could have had a 5 star rating except that I could not get it to work on my vintage ABB electronic meter. Terrapass needs to include a statement that there are meters which will not work with this device. Unfortunately my meter does not emit the usual lite pulses from the optical ports which are proportonal to the Kh factor of the meter. This is per the manufacturer's tech support people. It was very easy to program and the dvd was a great help. However still would not work. too bad. To Terrapass's credit they made the return for full refund very painless by issuing a prepaid ups label. I was out only the few frustrating hours trying to make it work.
Great product, 12/31/2008
Reviewer: Bryan (Pittsburgh)
I was loving this product until yesterday when my meter reader showed up and stole it. Allegheny Power in PA claims to encourage customers to conserve but took my power cost monitor.
works better then I thought, 12/20/2008
Reviewer: ericberm (petaluma, CA)
I came home at night over a month ago and was able to install it on my meter in the dark with a flashlight; super simple install.
It's never lost connection day or night, and has helped us to figure out simple, energy saving habits which will probably help us save more money then the meter cost.
The cost per watt with tired billing has also helped us conserve energy. I pay a lot more attention to the end of electric billing cycles when I'm paying $.32 a KW vs. $.11 a KW and can see that real time. This meter helps us see the difference between waiting a couple days to run the dryer; simple tricks that add up to lower energy bills.
finally, it's worked flawlessly through 3 rain storms now; the weather doesn't seem to effect it at all.
Great for kids, too, 12/08/2008
Reviewer: Kathy (Seattle)
I love this monitor. We were inspired to get one after noticing how the real-time MPG feedback in our new car changed our driving habits. Figured the same is true for electricity usage. Show people how much they're using & they'll cut back. And it's definitely worked that way for us.
It's also been a great teaching and motivational tool for 7- and 10- year old kids. They love to run around and turn off lights and watch the numbers drop. We just got new LED holiday lights and the kids immediately tested their electricity use with our monitor.
I highly recommend it! (though I haven't figured out the trend tracking pieces yet . . . )
love it, 06/18/2008
Reviewer: David (Boston MA)
I have had this device for a year or so now. I got it subsidized by my electric company. I love it. Easy enough to get set up. Provides information on your usage in real time inside the home. Turn on the oven, see your usage spike. You can even enter your electric rate and have it display dollars and cents. It makes you very conscious of what you are doing. And knowing has modified our behavior.
