{"id":31030,"date":"2016-05-16T07:45:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T06:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/?p=31030"},"modified":"2020-05-07T19:18:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T18:18:50","slug":"efergy-engage-hub-monitors-home-energy-consumption-pv-solar-generation-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/reviews\/efergy-engage-hub-monitors-home-energy-consumption-pv-solar-generation-online.html","title":{"rendered":"Efergy Engage Hub Monitors Home Energy Consumption & PV Solar Generation Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know the story, you need to be able to measure\u00a0something before you can set about implementing changes.\u00a0It’s no different for your home’s power consumption, so lets get measuring and saving.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of home energy monitors around but the engage hub kit<\/a> from UK based Efergy\u00a0is a little different. Instead of a static display sitting in your kitchen or wherever, the\u00a0engage hub sends your data to the Cloud\u00a0to provide you with access to the information from all of your devices.<\/p>\n

Gladly we can point out right from the start that\u00a0there is no subscription here as\u00a0efergy commit to making this a free service for life. You can also get your data out too, but more on that later.<\/p>\n

Installation & Setup<\/h2>\n

The box includes a CT Clamp, Transmitter, Receiver, Mains adaptor and Ethernet cable.\u00a0Installing the kit is a 20 minute job. The Current Transformer clamp\u00a0goes in your meter box and plugs into its battery powered transmitter.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a><\/p>\n

You’ll need to hunt for\u00a03 x AA batteries for the clamp transmitter as these aren’t included. Luckily we had some spare\u00a0rechargeable cells. Efergy quote a battery life of between 18\u00a0and 26\u00a0months for the clamp transmitter.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a>

The Efergy Clamp Installed in our Meter Box<\/p><\/div>\n

The clamp uses 433MHz to communicate with the receiver and efergy say they are\u00a0moving to the OpenThings\u00a0open\u00a0protocol for these comms in future.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0mains powered receiver needs to be plugged into an Ethernet port somewhere on your wired home network. Most people would prefer WiFi these days though and if you don’t have a wired LAN then\u00a0you’ll need to site it next to your router which may not be the most convenient location to receive the signal from the clamp.\u00a0For us though our Node Zero<\/a> lies\u00a0right behind the meter box so is ideal for reception and plugs straight into our network switch.<\/p>\n

Once everything is connected and you have 3 green lights\u00a0it’s off to your browser to follow the setup instructions on screen. The hardware is auto-discovered and updated to the latest firmware.\u00a0A few clicks and you are\u00a0done.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a><\/p>\n

Using the System<\/h2>\n

The engage online platform allows you to access your energy data in real-time and you can view the information from any browser or from the apps available for Android<\/a>, iPhone<\/a> and iPad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As well as your real-time current usage there are daily, weekly, monthly and average costs graphs available. You can input\u00a0your unit price for the best approximation of the cost\u00a0of your power consumption and also set a monthly budget amount too. The\u00a0data can be viewed in \u00a3’s, kWh or CO2.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a>

Spot when the family woke up on this day?<\/p><\/div>\n

If your Internet goes down the hub will retain approximately\u00a030 days worth of your data (in one minute intervals) to sync up when the\u00a0connection is restored. Data storage on the Cloud is quoted as ‘unlimited’.<\/p>\n

The clamps range is 50mA to 200A (90-600V) and we asked efergy how accurate its measurements are\u00a0and they told us…<\/p>\n

The clamp is 95-99% accurate. With higher power levels the accuracy is\u00a0higher. We have made third party tests that shows this accuracy levels. We\u00a0also have an optical sensor that measures the optical pulses from the\u00a0meters, showing an accuracy of 98-99%.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even if this method of measurement isn’t great at measuring smaller loads, this is mainly\u00a0about spotting relative trends and making changes like spotting you need an immersion heater timer.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a><\/p>\n

Solar PV Monitoring<\/h2>\n

Efergy\u00a0say the engage\u00a0hub is also ideal if you have a PV Solar installation.\u00a0A separate clamp can be ordered and placed on the cable coming from the solar inverter. This then measures the output from your system and shows it on the graph too helping you see if you are using the power your PV system is generating most efficiently.<\/p>\n

\"Efergy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"efergy<\/a>Integration<\/h2>\n

Efery have a couple\u00a0of\u00a0useful ways of using your data. Firstly you can export a\u00a0csv file of values to download to your PC\u00a0or Mac.<\/p>\n

Alternatively if you like to get your hands dirty with a bit of coding you can use this\u00a0open API<\/a> that employs\u00a0a (revokeable) token to query the Cloud for your measurements.<\/p>\n

Hildebrand Technology provide the energyhive site and the entire backend for efergy. A quick search turned up these\u00a0examples of integrating the data into SmartThings<\/a>, Indigo<\/a> and Domoticz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Efergy tell us there\u00a0is currently a “mayor mobile company” in the UK that\u00a0is carrying out\u00a0trials with this system and it’s being installed by utility companies for smart meters too.<\/p>\n

All About the Bass(line)<\/h2>\n

\"efergy<\/a>So once you have all this data what are you going to do with it?<\/p>\n

Currently the lowest our house goes (when all is quiet over-night) is around 650 watts. That’s the constant baseline\u00a0consumption from things like the\u00a0fridge, freezer and other devices plugged in and running or on standby.<\/p>\n

To find the worst culprits here you can\u00a0use something like this<\/a> to measure the consumption of individual appliances.<\/p>\n

There’s a new engage socket (pictured right) thats coming in Q3 2016 that will monitor individual appliances (up to 5 sockets on one hub) that should be priced around \u00a315.<\/p>\n

It has also given us the impetus\u00a0to go and buy more of these great LED Bulbs<\/a>\u00a0to swap over more\u00a0of the most used rooms in the house. We still have around 50 of those evil 50w incandescent\u00a0GU10’s halogens to replace though and even\u00a0with the recent price drop that’s still over \u00a3400 worth of bulbs required.<\/p>\n

Seeing is Believing<\/h2>\n

All this stuff helps concentrate the mind. The day after I installed the system I was looking into my tariff on my electricity suppliers website and realised I could do a lot better. A quick call and I had saved over \u00a3200 for the year…<\/p>\n

\n

Electricity price dropped 12.3% + \u00a330 credit to my account just by calling existing supplier. Over \u00a3200 saved annually. #GetPhoningPeople<\/a><\/p>\n

— Automated Home (@ottomate) May 4, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n