SBS purchased two of the TED 5000 devices to try out and see how well they functioned and whether they could be of service to our clients.  The package came with two sets of current transformers, an MTU device, a gateway to route data to a home’s wireless network and a remote display.  The current transformers (CTs) clip over wires delivering power to home electrical circuits and through the magic of magnetic induction register the current moving through the wires.  The MTU sends information gathered to the remote display and to the gateway which allows it to be accessed through an intranet connection on a home computer.

The remote display is a great tool for checking on the instantaneous electrical consumption in the home at any point in time.  You can use it to watch the draw of particular appliances as you turn them on and off while following the numbers on the live dashboard (expressed as kWs, dollars, and pounds of emitted CO₂).  It’s quite fascinating in a sort of morbid way.  (Oh that clothes dryer sucks the juice more than I ever imagined!)  The internet option that comes with the TED 5000 allows data collected about energy consumption to be logged and displayed as a series of graphs and tables.  It has the ability to learn certain load profiles and keep a tally of the energy consumption of that particular load.

Our Friend TED - the 5000 model

Long story short…I’ve learned some very revealing facts about how we use energy in our home.  For instance, I used to fret considerably about the energy gobbled up by our well pump.  What I’ve learned is that while it does draw significant power (1.5 to 2.2 kW) its run time is short enough that its overall energy consumption is small compared to other devices in the home.  As mentioned earlier, the clothes dryer is an energy hog of grand proportion and now our outdoor clothes line is gaily festooned with laundry full time come rain or shine.

My load profile shows the steady staccato punctuation of our cycling refrigerator and has definitely sharpened my resolve to bite the bullet and purchase an Energy Star Rated appliance.  More than ever we are careful with lights, the TV, even the coffee maker.  It lends new significance to all the little energy services we tend to take for granted.

Another nice feature of the TED 5000 is its ability to export data to the internet and display it on the power gadget on my Google search page.  I now know even when I’m at work when the dishwasher is running or laundry is being dried.  It’s not my desire to become the “Big Brother” of my own household, but it is a nice feeling to look at the graph and see a nice flat profile.

my usage over the day.

Here’s a the graph from my Google power gadget showing our power consumption over the last 36 hours.  The double humped peaks are our dishwasher (an Energy Star rated device by the way) and the tall spike at about 4 o’clock yesterday was a brief episode with the clothes dryer.  See the teeth at the bottom of the graph?  Our refrigerator takes a bite out of our energy budget.

So you can see the impact TED’s presence has on our awareness.  Maybe ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power- the power to conserve.  Now I know that for us an 11 kWh day is a pretty good one while  17 kWhs feels pretty indulgent!  TED is a good guy…but he’s brutally honest.  If you decide to bring him into your house he’ll certainly give insights to the grid.