A recent report from the International Energy Agency found Internet-connected devices such as modems, printers, game consoles, and cable boxes waste around $80 billion in electricity every year. While you may need to leave your (energy-hogging) cable box on to record How to Get Away with Murder every week, but the TV itself is sipping power even when it’s “off.” But how much? Now there’s a way to find out, on a device-by-device basis.
Smappee launches today in the U.S. The system delivers information about the energy usage of all your household appliance in graphs and charts. Using a single sensor, Smappee identifies the energy signature of ever electronic in your home. By flipping the TV or lamp on and off, you can start to identify and label each unique appliance on the iOS or Android app.
With this real-time information, Smappee hopes homeowners will change their behavior once they realize the biggest energy-offenders in their house. If you’re not home and the device is hooked up to one of Smappee’s Comfort Plugs ($40 for a pack of three), you can turn it off remotely. This mindfulness, and the Comfort Plug’s ability to switch off electronics while you’re asleep, should add up to a 12-percent savings on your energy bill, according to the company. That’s enough for a family of four to recoup the $249 cost, which includes the monitor and one plug.
If you have solar panels installed and have always wondered how much electricity they produce, the monitor can measure that, too.
While the company says it’s an easy install, because you’ll be fiddling around in your breaker box, it’s best you get some professional assistance.
All this is pretty smart, but Smappee also works with If This, Then That. Set your Philips Hue bulbs to flash when energy consumption gets near the danger zone, and pretty soon you’ll have a Pavlovian response to wasting power.
