Energy Management - Home Sub Metering Solutions

[ol' boy]

Does anyone here use a third party metering solution on their switchboard or appliances?
I am getting more and more requests from older clients that are interested cutting their Electricity Bill.

I see there is 3 part solution;

1: Monitor the house usage
2. Change heating, lighting and refrigeration options to more efficient
3. Get Solar Panels based on the the above.

So, this leads me too a clever, clean, live and recorded power usage product that is easy for these people to use.

I have found Wattwatchers



And basically i am hoping to find a Switchboard based product that monitors the mains (1 phase or multi phase) and provides the customer with current "live" and historical data.

Does anyone already have experience with a product they like?
I can also see this being a very complimentary product for those with Solar already, as they are aware of power generated for the day, but perhaps not aware of energy usage for the day.

With the rising cost of electricity, i have some clients whom have power bills of over $1000 for a holiday home they only visit on weekends.
I have one client who's bill is $25,000 for the winter months and he might not be there for weeks at a time, strangely, he has never complained once. But 50amps across 3 phases for slab heating will do that

[gordon_s1942]

Considering I doubt my total annual bills for the last 20 years would equal $25,000, how the hell would a house use that much power over one or 2 quarters?
The same would apply for a frequently unused Holiday home because they are not turning off things like the Hot water etc while they are absent.
Regrettably the best economy devise on the market is still the 'OFF' switch, Leave it ON, use power, you pay.

I would dearly love to be on that clients income to be able to pay bills of that magnitude and not blanche.

[ol' boy]

You'd be surprised gordon, there are some who pay higher! Just because it seems out of reach to you (and me) doesn't mean its not just an average bill to some people.
And to answer your question, 50Amps over 3 phases, non stop for 4 or 5 months, thats 150Amps 24/7, do the maths
Its even higher now the 3 Phase Pool Heater has been installed, Powercor have already been out to replace and burnt out 100Amp service fuse on one phase from things being a bit out of balance across the 3 phases.
(As for the clients income, neither have jobs, they are retired at age 50, and house is just a holiday house they might get to a few times over winter)

The use of the Sub-Metering is more to see when loads are on and give the customer some live feedback, so perhaps they in turn, do something about their usage habits.
Especially as some (not the people mentioned above) would like to reduce their electricity bill.

So, you use any good Sub-Metering products gordon?

[SpankedHam]

50 amps, 3 phase?1 That's in the domain of commercial loads, not domestic! Hell, the last office I was in had about 30 people in it, 4 ancient air conditioning plants, computers on every desk and 4 proper servers running and only pulled about 30 amps / phase.

[ol' boy]

One Domestic House. Not what the thread is about though, there are many houses that have larger than average loads.
Especially considering slab heating was big in the early 90's with the SEC offering cheaper night tariffs, which aren't as attractive now.

Really interested to here about anyone that has used a monitoring product and if they are happy with it.

[stolla]