{"id":3201,"date":"2010-04-13T07:19:58","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T06:19:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-12-30T00:29:41","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T00:29:41","slug":"alertme-energy-review-power-monitoring-on-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/reviews\/alertme-energy-review-power-monitoring-on-the-web.html","title":{"rendered":"AlertMe Energy Review &#8211; Power Monitoring on the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Review\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy  Review\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_title.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>AlertMe started life as a security company, offering their on-line wireless alarm system.\u00a0 Now it&#8217;s clear from the very front page of their website that they are focussing their future on Energy monitoring.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"sj-gblock\">\n<script language=\"javascript\">\n<!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5598479065369258\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 300; \ngoogle_ad_height = 250; \ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\"; \ngoogle_ad_channel = \"7058025304\"; \ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\"; \ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\"; \ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\"; \ngoogle_color_link = \"52a79f\"; \ngoogle_color_url = \"CFFFDF\"; \ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\"; \n\/\/--> \n<\/script>\n<script language=\"javascript\"  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div>They&#8217;ve employed their Zigbee technology, already refined in their security product, to create their latest offering &#8211; AlertMe Energy &#8211; a \u00a349 hardware package along with a subscription to a monitoring service.\u00a0 So, does it live up to the promise and can you really save money using the system&#8230;.?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Install<\/strong> &#8211; the set-up process is the usual well thought out, guided affair that we&#8217;ve come to know and love from AlertMe.\u00a0 From the moment we took the lid off the box until we first saw our energy usage on-line took around 30 minutes, (perhaps 15 minutes of that was waiting for the hub to discover the clamp transmitter and for firmware updates).\u00a0 The hub plugs in to the mains and your Ethernet network.\u00a0 The hub itself consumed just 2.5 watts in our test, unlike a lot of other on-line set-ups that require either a thirsty PC to be powered up, or a complex setup requiring a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NSLU2\" target=\"_blank\">Linux Slug<\/a> to provide the interface to the Net.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_box.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Box\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Box\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_box_thumb.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"298\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThe AlertMe Energy Package &#8211; Click Image for Full Size Version<\/div>\n<p>We plugged ours directly into our switch in <a href=\"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/Content\/NodeZero-Gallery.html\" target=\"_blank\">Node Zero<\/a> (there&#8217;s no Wi-Fi built in).\u00a0 The hub receives the data from the clamp transmitter that you fit at your meter box.\u00a0 It&#8217;s powered by two D cells, included in the kit, which according to AlertMe should last for around 2 years.\u00a0 The lights on top of the hub change colour as your consumption climbs.\u00a0 For this reason it maybe beneficial to place it somewhere more conspicuous than we have.\u00a0 Perhaps you would notice the red glow signalling you&#8217;d left something on as you were leaving the house for example.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Hub\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Hub\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_hub.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe AlertMe Energy &#8216;Hub&#8217;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Clamp\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Clamp\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_clamp.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"429\" \/><br \/>\nThe AlertMe Energy &#8216;Clamp&#8217; Installed<\/div>\n<p>As everything is done through the AlertMe servers there&#8217;s no software to install.\u00a0 Everything happens in a browser so the system is completely OS agnostic.\u00a0 Once into the web interface it&#8217;s just a few extra clicks to enable the link to the Google Powermeter system.\u00a0 AlertMe are Google&#8217;s first UK Powermeter partners and with this in place your Energy data is sent every 15 minutes and appears on the widget in your iGoogle page.\u00a0 It&#8217;s right there on your home page without even having to log into your AlertMe account.\u00a0 Google will also send you weekly emails summarising your energy consumption and you can <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.google.org\/2010\/03\/share-your-powermeter.html\" target=\"_blank\">share<\/a> your Google data with friends and family too.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleday.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy with  Google  Powermeter\" alt=\"AlertMe  Energy with Google Powermeter\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleday_thumb.jpg\" width=\"177\" height=\"180\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleweek.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy with Google  Powermeter\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy with Google Powermeter\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleweek_thumb.jpg\" width=\"176\" height=\"180\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleemail.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy with  Google  Powermeter\" alt=\"AlertMe  Energy with Google Powermeter\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleemail_thumb.jpg\" width=\"141\" height=\"180\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a>\u00a0Google Powermeter Widgets &amp; Weekly Email &#8211; Click Images for Full Size Version <a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleday.png\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You have to remember to enter the unit cost for your electricity (currently \u00a30.153 per KwH in our region) and currency so the costings are correct (you need to do this separately in the Google powermeter settings too).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Data<\/strong> &#8211; Who doesn&#8217;t love a nice graph?\u00a0 It&#8217;s a great way to see your usage pattern at a glance and the AlertMe web interface produces them automatically.\u00a0 We saw scary peaks of over 9kWs in the days after installing our unit &#8211; it would be nice to have more time detail on the x axis in order to try and track down more accurately when these peaks occurred.\u00a0 However you can export your data to a CSV file in order to analyse it in more detail in your favourite spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_biggraph.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Graph\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Graph\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_biggraph_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/> <\/a><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_highrate.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_highrate_thumb.jpg\" width=\"294\" height=\"210\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a>Data Graphs &amp; Web Interface &#8211; Click Images for Full Size Version <a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleday.png\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<p>The web interface is still a little quirky for our tastes and some options still seem buried away and hard to find.\u00a0 AlertMe must believe the cartoony graphics somehow make it a simple interface.\u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t.\u00a0 Like we said in our <a href=\"New-Products\/AlertMe-ZigBee-Smart-Home-Security-System-Review.html\">review of the security system<\/a> we think it&#8217;s time for a redesign here &#8211; or at the very least offer a more elegant &#8216;skin&#8217; for the web application.\u00a0 We really like the clean new look of the AlertMe.com website and hopefully some of its design elements might make it into a revamped web interface in the future<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_hubinfo.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_hubinfo_thumb.jpg\" width=\"293\" height=\"210\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_emailsetup.png\" target=\"_blank\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Web Interface\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_emailsetup_thumb.jpg\" width=\"294\" height=\"210\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a>Web Interface &#8211; Click Images for Full Size Version <a href=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_googleday.png\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>How Do You Save Money?<\/strong> &#8211; While the system is not 100% accurate it should provide a good approximation of your power usage.\u00a0 What it can&#8217;t do is change anything &#8211; that bit is up to you.\u00a0 It takes some interest from the user and some time invested to make the savings.\u00a0 Probably the most beneficial thing you can do is to reduce your base line consumption &#8211; the items that are using power 24\/7.\u00a0 This is the figure that&#8217;s always there in the background.\u00a0 Your energy usage will peak when someone boils the kettle, turns on the washing machine or the cooker.\u00a0 But the baseline comes from things like your fridge, your AV amplifier on standby, your media server etc, all the &#8216;stuff&#8217; that&#8217;s in use all day, every day.\u00a0 <strong>Here&#8217;s an easy way to look at it &#8211; current electricity prices in the UK are roughly \u00a31 per year for every 1 watt used 24\/7.\u00a0 So, if you could reduce your baseline by 200 watts you could save around \u00a3200 per year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_94544\"  width=\"480\" height=\"360\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/khL19_VvQe8?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>To help you further, you can monitor an individual device by adding an AlertMe SmartPlug to your setup.\u00a0 This allows you to measure power usage for a discrete appliance, as well as turn it on and off remotely.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll be looking at the SmartPlug in more detail in a future article.\u00a0 To get you started, you should <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26rs%3D%26ref%255F%3Dsr%255Fnr%255Fi%255F0%26keywords%3Dpower%2520monitor%26qid%3D1255443373%26rh%3Di%253Aaps%252Ck%253Apower%2520monitor%252Ci%253Aelectronics&amp;tag=markmccall&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450\">consider buying a basic plugin meter<\/a> to help measure which devices are the must power hungry.<\/p>\n<p>You can setup your &#8216;Energy&#8217; to email you when consumption goes above and\/or below a certain threshold and using this feature we noticed that our tumble drier was a huge drain on power.\u00a0 We&#8217;re now using it a lot less.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy Warning Email\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy Warning Email\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_emailtoomuch.png\" width=\"550\" height=\"199\" \/><\/div>\n<p>You can easily monitor things remotely by logging in to a special mobile optimised site &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.alertme.com\" target=\"_blank\">mobile.alertme.com<\/a> &#8211; to view your live usage from your smart phone.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"AlertMe Energy on the iPhone\" alt=\"AlertMe Energy on the iPhone\" src=\"\/images\/news\/alertme_energy_phone.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"362\" \/><br \/>\nThe AlertMe Energy Mobile Interface on the iPhone<\/p>\n<p><strong>Swingometer<\/strong> &#8211; All meter readers installed on an AlertMe system feed data into their <a href=\"http:\/\/demo.alertme.com\/secure\/energy\/swingometer\" target=\"_blank\">Swingometer<\/a>.\u00a0 The system allocates them to regions based on the post code given by the user.\u00a0 While AlertMe wouldn&#8217;t provide us with exact figures they say there are currently &#8216;hundreds&#8217; of hubs creating the data for the UK snapshot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Future<\/strong> &#8211; As with the AlertMe wireless Zigbee sensors used in their security system &#8211; the clamp transmitter houses a temperature sensor.\u00a0 Homes like ours with an exterior meter box can get a decent approximation of the outdoor temperature from the clamp sensor.\u00a0 This can prove useful for creating a software &#8216;weather compensator&#8217; system for a central heating controller.\u00a0 While there&#8217;s currently no way to extract this data from the system, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertme.com\/products\/heating\" target=\"_blank\">AlertMe are developing their own Heating Controller<\/a> and they tell us it will have its own separate service which will enable you to program the heating on a day by day basis.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re sure other utility sensors must be in the works too.\u00a0 How long before there&#8217;s a Zigbee gas monitoring sensor, or how about one for oil fired central heating or even water coming into the home?\u00a0 These are all parameters the Automated Home of the future is going to require.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion <\/strong>&#8211; For us the only real issue with the device is the on-going \u00a31.99 monthly subscription.\u00a0 It&#8217;s good to see AlertMe have recently dropping the cost of the hardware from \u00a369 to \u00a349.\u00a0 While the monthly sub dropped from \u00a32.99 to \u00a31.99, paying year after year still seems at odds with a device thats main purpose in life is to save you money.\u00a0 We&#8217;d love to see AlertMe producing a version without an ongoing fee, perhaps charging a little more upfront like with the &#8216;Lifetime Subscription&#8217; model TiVo employed.<\/p>\n<p>While the AlertMe Energy is squarely aimed at the mass market, it should also appeal to the smart home geek too.\u00a0 The ability to check your energy usage from any screen in the house &#8211; or anywhere in the world from a computer with web access, or even just your smart phone, is fantastic.\u00a0 It&#8217;s so much better than having to walk to a particular location in the house to look at a static display.\u00a0 The historical data is invaluable too for spotting usage patterns and trends that can be adjusted for savings.\u00a0 The AlertMe Energy system is a joy to own, install and use, and its link to Google Powermeter is the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.AlertMe.com\" target=\"_blank\">AlertMe.com<\/a> : <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26rs%3D%26ref%255F%3Dsr%255Fnr%255Fi%255F0%26keywords%3Dpower%2520monitor%26qid%3D1255443373%26rh%3Di%253Aaps%252Ck%253Apower%2520monitor%252Ci%253Aelectronics&amp;tag=markmccall&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450\">Buy a Meter<\/a> :\u00a0 <a href=\"Announcements\/Reduce-Your-Bills-with-Smart-Home-Power-Monitoring.html\">Other Home Power Monitoring Alternatives<\/a> : <a href=\"New-Products\/AlertMe-ZigBee-Smart-Home-Security-System-Review.html\">AlertMe Home Security System Review<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Want More?<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ottomate\">Follow us<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AutomatedHomeUK\" target=\"_blank\">Like us<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook, or subscribe to our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds2.feedburner.com\/automatedhome\">RSS feed<\/a>. You can even get these news stories\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=AutomatedHome&amp;loc=en_US\">delivered via email<\/a>, straight to your inbox every day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AlertMe started life as a security company, offering their on-line wireless alarm system.\u00a0 Now it&#8217;s clear from the very front page of their website that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3201"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12127,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions\/12127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automatedhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}