5 ms·
Wattvision (YC W09): The Tale of the Mystery Load
- zakhomuth 16y agoVery cool product!
- natch 16y agoWhy is the Wattvision system $249? What are the big pieces that make the cost so high? I'm wondering if it can be done cheaper.
- acgourley 16y agoWho else can you buy this from?
- ig1 16y agohttp://www.alertme.com/ http://www.alertme.com/
- waivej 16y agoWww.Theenergydetective.com is another option. I think I paid $135 and found $50/month savings right away.
- weaksauce 16y agoCurious as to what the 50 per month was from?
- waivej 16y agoThe biggest chunk of the $50 was a malfunctioning electric water heater. But we went on to save $160/mo. more. The biggest surprises were 3x 20 watt doorbell inverters, the DVD player that never shut off, the desktop computers, the old TV, and 5-6x 10 watt draws that were hard to track down. Now our electric bill is 15% what it used to be with no real change in our behavior. ($40/mo.) Actually, we've increased the amount of light in several rooms.
- joelhaasnoot 16y agoIt can be done relatively cheap by reverse engineering a $15 power meter you get at home depot and combining with $10 worth of electronic parts and a $20 Arduino. Was a college project, and we blew up 5 meters before it worked. Working with 220V (or 110V) right next to 5V can be dangerous and not an easy "electronics problem".
- brianwhitman 16y agoit is my understanding that Wattvision taps the entire electrical system via the meter, not just a single outlet like a $15 "kill-a-watt" style power meter will.
- joelhaasnoot 16y agoThat's true, but you need a combination of the two: both general and appliance-specific measurements. Like the post says: it's hard to figure out where power usage is coming from. If you have more specific data and combine it with simple switching, you can achieve a much better awareness and higher savings. And the hardware doesn't have to be expensive as the "kill-a-watt" devices show.
- sliverstorm 16y agoAs a sidenote, are people actually saving money with it? The energy bill for my apartment is around $30/mo. At $9/mo for WattVision service, and $249 for the hardware, I can't find any potential cost savings in there.
- Mz 16y agoMy last electric bill was $266 (also in an apartment). I don't think your costs are necessarily typical (and I know mine are not -- mine tend to be high due to medical-related expenses).
- hinathan 16y agoWill Wattvision someday be able to tap into the (GE) SmartMeter data that already exists? I'm in a multi-unit condo and my wifi closet is a few hundred feet from our meter stack. Is there any way to interrogate the meter via the onboard mesh radio?
- savrajsingh 16y agoYes, definitely something on our radar.
- joeguilmette 16y agoI immediately wanted to purchase this for our business. My enthusiasm was greeted by a server error msg on the mobile site, with no way of viewing the full site... :/
- savrajsingh 16y agoThanks for catching this. We've fixed it -- please contact us at info@wattvision.com with any other questions or issues. We look forward to having you as a customer!
- nopassrecover 16y agoAre digital electricity meters (which I gather Wattvision requires) common in the US? Most homes I know in Australia still use an analog/physical device counter.
- joelhaasnoot 16y agoHere in the Netherlands it definately was a hot issue in regards to privacy. But likely the new meters will come: they could bring savings to the power companies by way of better knowledge of usages.