electricity Archives

How I Lowered My Electric Bill (Almost) Instantly

by Stacey McCuaig | Jun 27, 2016 | Blog, Customer Success Stories, Electricity Bill, Energy Reduction, MyEyedro

I, like most Ontarians (and Hydro users everywhere) have become more than a little bit disgruntled with the sharply rising cost of electricity. Every month we wait in trepidation for the arrival of the dreaded electric bill.

With the goal of energy reduction in mind, I decided to install an Eyedro Real-Time Electricity Monitor in a secondary breaker panel that powers my living room lights, outlets, and my desktop computer.

As a new Eyedro Electricity Monitoring Systems user I was shocked to discover how much electricity was being consumed by the gadgets in my home even when they weren’t actively in use.

Since the MyEyedro cloud based software offers real-time electricity monitoring, I was able to determine through experimentation (flicking switches, powering down appliances, turning breakers off and on) which of my devices was using the most power. It quickly became obvious who the main culprit was – the tower computer that lurks in the shadows under my desk, fans humming away night and day, red LEDs glaring defiantly, and using twice the electricity of anything else that I was monitoring with my Eyedro system!

For more on computer energy consumption here’s a great article from howtogeek.com – PSA: Don’t Shut Down Your Computer, Just Use Sleep (or Hibernation)

By making a few relatively painless adjustments, (and sending out gentle reminders to recalcitrant participants – I can see how much hydro you’re using even when I’m not home!) I have been able to almost immediately realize an overall cost savings of roughly 60% on the power usage that I am tracking with my Eyedro electricity monitoring system.

As the following graphs beautifully illustrate in both kWh consumption and dollar values, with Eyedro it really is possible to Keep an Eye on Your Hydro!

Eyedro Home Electricity Monitor: Daily Consumption in kWh

Eyedro Home Electricity Monitor: Daily Cost Savings

A Better Way to Understand Your Home’s Electricity

by Megan Gill | Dec 19, 2014 | Blog, Featured, MyEyedro, News

If you’re like us, you know how important electricity monitoring can be when trying to meet energy cost and consumption goals. Traditionally, homes aren’t equipped with a way for you to see how much electricity is being used. But with the increasing popularity of connected home devices, it’s never been easier to feel at home while away from the house.

With learning thermostats, like Nest, you know that your living room is a cozy 73°F (23°C). And with video monitoring, like DropCam, you know your Golden Retriever is asleep on the couch, instead of munching on it. Now, with electricity monitors like Eyedro, you know your home consumed 20.14-kilowatt hours of electricity today.

Making Electricity Usage Easy to Understand

But unlike temperature, the kilowatt hour isn’t a measurement we use every day. Unless you work closely with electricity or have a knack for the subject, the average homeowner might only consider wattage when picking out light bulbs. Since we are less familiar with using kilowatt hours, electricity consumption can be more difficult to understand than things like fuel economy. (Stay tuned for a brief tutorial on kilowatt hours, coming up in January ;))

Introducing the MyEyedro Insights Plugin

While Eyedro always provides your electricity consumption in terms of cost, we wanted to give you a way to put energy into terms we all use every day. This is exactly why we created the MyEyedro Insights plugin.

MyEyedro Insights Plugin

This handy tool helps you put your electricity use into terms you already know and love. The values are based on the amount of energy produced (or required) for the given unit. So if you’re interested in how much gasoline you would have needed to power your home yesterday, we have that.

Or maybe you want to measure your environmental footprint. With the Insights plugin you can see how many kilograms of coal you would have used. Maybe you’d like to see how many slices of bread you could have toasted. We have that too.

9 Different MyEyedro Insights Views to Choose From

The MyEyedro Insights plugin helps put energy into context, giving you the power to make more informed energy management decisions in the home.

Interested in keeping an eye on your home’s electricity?

Get Started with the New Insights Plugin

Utility Scams on the Rise

by Jennifer Robles | Jun 27, 2013 | Blog, News

While most people would not be so easily swayed to believe they are past due on their credit card bills, the uncertainty of how to read monthly electricity use (KwH) makes it common for discrepancies to go unnoticed. Over the last month there have been dozens of reports where scammers have been targeting small business and homeowners, claiming they have late, overpaid or unpaid utility bills.

In most instances in cities like Montgomery, Alabama and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, consumers receive phone calls or knocks on their door from people impersonating utility representatives stating if they do not make immediate payments their services will be shut off.

“In order to avoid an interruption of service, the caller instructs the customer to go to a local retail store and purchase a pre-paid bank card for a certain amount. Customers then must call a particular phone number and provide the numeric codes from that bank card.”

– Dixie Electric

Unlike credit cards bills and bank statements which provide details for every transaction, utility costs vary not only by season, but day and time of day. Readings are provided in a lump sum at the end of the billing cycle, making it nearly impossible to differentiate electric costs and consumption other than comparing bills from one month to the next.

The hard pressed situation here is that because modern day society depends on electricity, consumers have conditioned themselves to expect a figure from their service provider despite understanding how the figure is formed.

City of Toronto fixed rates:

http://www.ontario-hydro.com/index.php?page=current_rates

Do you as a restaurant owner, homeowner or small business owner understand why your electricity bills are the way they are? If a storm disrupts the meters which track your electricity use, how would you justify the costs? If you’re not mindful of off-peak and on-peak hours how do you process your monthly statements? These are the loopholes in which scam artists find their prey. More specific demographics include the elderly and immigrant families where English is not the first language. Anyone who thinks they’ve been a victim or a potential victim of utility scams should report the information to their local authorities.

If you want to find out how to make sense of your utility bills visit Eyedro.com