One of the most important steps before installing home solar is figuring out how much energy your home uses, and how big your solar energy system needs to be to cover that usage. Taking a close look at how much energy your various devices consume can be an eye-opening and behavior-changing experience.
We’ll start by exploring the average annual costs from powering the most common home appliances. Then to dig deeper, we’ll compare three home energy consumption monitoring tools. Finally, we’ll see how much money you might save from installing one of those tools, and if it’s worth the investment.
Where Does My Energy Go?
Whether you’re using the US Department of Energy’s Appliance Energy Calculator or a tool like EnergyUseCalculator.com, you will get a general sense of how much energy goes to power your home. These tools use different assumptions about how long a device is used per day and how much energy it uses. I ended up using EnergyUseCalculator for this post because I found its default assumptions to be closer to my experience.
Below is the estimated annual cost of 18 common household appliances, based on the national average electricity rate of 12.58 cents per kilowatt-hour. Even though you pay for energy on a monthly basis, seeing annual costs will help determine if home energy monitoring services are a good investment for you.
Device
Estimated Annual Cost
Electric water heater
$551.06
Central air conditioner
$482.18
Space heater
$344.42
Refrigerator
$198.38
Kitchen stove
$137.77
Oven
$110.21
Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
$56.21
Clothes dryer
$34.44
Microwave
$27.55
Laptop computer
$16.53
Incandescent lightbulb
$13.78
Video game console
$12.40
LED television
$6.89
Wi-fi router
$6.61
Clothes washer
$5.74
CFL lightbulb
$3.21
Mobile phone charger
$2.07
LED lightbulb
$1.38
Look at where your money is going and how small changes, such as switching out inefficient lightbulbs, can add up to big savings over time. Energy efficiency brings an added benefit for solar homeowners, too. By cutting out wasted energy wherever possible, you’re not only saving on your energy bill, but you can install a smaller solar system to cover your home energy needs.
How Do I Monitor My Home Energy Use?
Now that you know roughly what’s driving up your energy bill, you may want to find out more about your energy-use profile and manage it in real time. Here’s one do-it-yourself approach: buy a $20 Kill-A-Watt meter, which plugs in between any appliance and the outlet and reports how much energy is being used. If you’ve got a suspected energy hog at home, that is one way to track it down.
But going plug by plug is a time-intensive process. There are several systems on the market that promise to measure whole home energy and make it easy to get it under control. We’ll compare three platforms that each seems to have active user communities and fairly high user ratings on Amazon: The Energy Detective (TED), Neurio, and Curb. We’ll also look at a more affordable option in Chai Energy.
The first three solutions are all quite similar. In your main electrical panel, they connect a sensor that communicates with a central hub, allowing a smartphone app or your computer to read a graphical display of all your energy use information. It functions like a smart meter that’s controlled by you, not your utility.
Chai Energy, currently available in most of California and Baltimore, Maryland, connects directly to your personalized energy usage data made available through the Green Button initiative. Going this route, you don’t have to hard-wire any sensors to your electrical panel. By upgrading to Chai Pro, you can see a detailed breakdown of how much energy various appliances are using.
Neurio and Curb let you set targets for reducing energy use, and suggest ways to achieve your goal.
Source: Neurio
You can explore energy use history and get alerts if you leave home with the oven on. You can also estimate monthly usage and get alerts if you’re on track to go over-budget.
Importantly, these systems are all compatible with home solar energy systems. Each offers a way to track energy generated by your solar panels and how much you’re saving every day using solar energy.
Is Home Energy Monitoring a Good Investment?
Neurio products cost $180 or $250. TED’s residential products cost $200 or $300. Curb starts at $400 and offers a $700 double-version for large homes. Chai is a free app. For $49, you can upgrade to Chai Pro for more precise monitoring.
For solar homeowners, it’s important to note that Curb is solar-ready out of the box, while TED and Neurio each require an additional investment, $150 for TED’s solar add-on and $60 for Neurio’s. Since many solar energy systems include professional monitoring, it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the investment for the solar packages.
If the cost of home energy monitoring sounds like a lot, consider two facts. Every home wastes at least some energy, and a lack of knowledge is the main thing keeping people from reducing their energy use. Ask anyone who’s driven a Toyota Prius or another car that gives you real-time feedback on your current fuel efficiency, and you’ll understand how quickly people are willing to change their behavior. These services put knowledge front and center.
The Energy Detective highlights 36 independent studies showing that TED users save an average of 12.6 percent [PDF] on their monthly electricity bill. If you pay $100 per month to your utility, TED will pay for itself in two to three years.
A 2009 review of TED in The New York Times details the immediate costs of everyday activities, including reheating a cup of tea in the microwave and cranking up a space heater to full blast. The author, Joe Hutsko, found his own behavior changing to the point where he turned his heater down to low and bundled up on clothing—and cut his winter heating bill by as much as one-third.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you think your home energy consumption could go on a diet, one of these tools might be right for you.
Household solar monitoring systems change the abstracts of power generation and consumption into graphics and numbers you can scroll through on an app. Hardware connected...
Solar panels and backup batteries get all the attention. But there’s another important piece of equipment to the home solar equation: mounting systems. These sturdy...
Solar.com is committed to providing our customers with the best customer service experience in the solar industry. In light of the ongoing developments around the...
U.S. Installed Solar Capacity: 2 Million Milestone
According to the most recent data released by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the residential solar market in...
Solar Subcontractors: Should I use one to go solar?
So, youre interested in starting a solar project and now youre wondering, “who should be doing the installation work?” Well, more and more companies are...
5 Most Popular Solar Panels Chosen by Homeowners in 2018
Homeowners demand a lot from the solar panels they select for their rooftop system. These panels need to look good and perform well over multiple decades! Here...
According to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is on track to install 200 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2020. The country is fully embracing...
If you live in an area that experiences extreme weather like hurricanes, hail, thunderstorms, blizzards, heavy winds and more, then you should take the time...
If you have ever driven through a residential neighborhood in states like California, Arizona, North Carolina, or any of the other top states for solar,...
Hyundai and Panasonic are trusted brands and they’ve both expanded into the solar panel industry. Offering quality products for two different price points, each brand...
Should I Get a Solar Thermal System Instead of a PV System?
When you hear about installing solar, youre most likely hearing about PV (photovoltaic) solar cell panels. Theyve become standard in the industry. PV solar cell...
How Utility API Works With Your Utility and Solar Company
Utility API provides software to accelerate the clean energy movement. They do this, in part, by offering secure data on a homeowners energy usage to...
American Solar Panel Manufacturers - 2018 Complete List
There are many reasons why a consumer may want to purchase their solar panels from an American manufacturer or from American Solar brands. They want...
Solar panel mounts are a common component of almost every solar panel array. Although there are newer solar panel technologies coming out that do not...
Top 5 Solar Panels Selected Through Solar.com in 2017
Curious which solar panels are selected most on the Solar.com platform? As an online marketplace connecting quality solar companies to customers, we stay neutral...
SunPower Solar Panels vs. LG Solar Panels - 2018 Update
SunPower and LG are two of the top companies making solar panels. You’ve probably come across them in your research, and you’re wondering which will...
Solar technology has been in existence since 1876 when William Grylls Adams and his student researcher discovered that you can produce electricity by exposing selenium to...
Solar energy is taking shape across industries and geographies. Engineers at top solar panel companies are hard at work developing innovations making solar even more...
5 Reasons to Consider a Career in the Solar Industry
Solar energy, unfortunately, is still viewed as an alternate power source. However, in spite of this designation, it is quickly becoming the primary source of...
Amazon Has Finally Decided To Become A Leader in Renewable Energy
Back in 2015, Greenpeace did a sophisticated research project on the sustainability of the top tech giants in the United States. It covered many areas of sustainability,...
Most solar installation companies provide financial projections to homeowners estimating what their savings will be twenty or twenty-five years after the time of installation. But...
It’s International Women’s Day! Today we recognize and celebrate women all around the world. As a member of Solar.com’s female population, it’s necessary for me...
A Review of LG Solar Panels - When Brand Name Does Matter
LG is a brand you may already be familiar with. They are a South Korean multinational manufacturer that makes televisions, mobile devices, tablets, smartwatches and...
This paper highlights the importance of power tolerance when choosing solar panels. Power tolerance is a measure of how much electrical power a solar panel...
Gauging the Bankability of Small to Mid-Sized Solar Installers
The entire world is going green and moving toward cleaner sources of energy. California hosts a flourishing solar industry with a burgeoning number of solar...
At Solar.com, we believe in supplying quality equipment for our customers. In the last twenty years, solar technology has grown exponentially, costs have plummeted,...
Elon Musk's Gigafactory Should Be Dictating Your Solar Equipment
All solar installations today should be thinking ahead to the not-so-distant future. The main question to be asking is whether your solar system will seamlessly...
We all know why people go solar: investment purposes, immediate savings, environmental concerns, and grid independence. But who are these people? One of Malcom Gladwell’s...
The following letter is from a very reputable company in Solar.com’s installer network to a homeowner who was unfortunately taken advantage of by an installer...
Bankability: What it Means and Why it is Important for Your Solar...
Homeowners who are considering solar typically overlook the manufacturer of their solar panels, despite this being one of the most important factors for the longevity...
The U.S. Department of Energy invests in new technology to revolutionize the landscape of solar data. Reliable solar grid data, the true performance of solar...