Take Your Home’s Energy Pulse

By Jessica L. Anderson, Patricia Mertz Esswein

published 11 September 2009

Gene and Diane DeJoannis of Manchester, Conn., thought they had cut their electricity use to the bone. But to double-check, Gene, 66, a semi-retired engineer, installed a home-energy monitor that continuously displays the home’s electricity usage in kilowatt-hours (kWh). In the following year, the couple cut their electricity use by an additional one-third and their annual bill by 15% (from $715 to $606), despite a 15% increase in their electric rate.

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Row 0 - Cell 0	Slash Your Utility Bills: Power Up on Your Own
Row 1 - Cell 0	Plug Leaks and Replace Appliances
Row 2 - Cell 0	Make Every Drop Count

Home-energy monitors come in several models, but Gene made a good choice by purchasing a TED ($120; www.theenergy-detective.com). The TED sits on the couple’s kitchen counter, plugged into a nearby outlet. It receives data through the home’s wiring from a processor installed in the circuit-breaker box. The processor is clipped to the main lines bringing power into the house. (The company says a “tech-savvy” homeowner or electrician can install it in 10 to 15 minutes.)

Initially, the DeJoannises aimed to lower their electricity use by finding more things to unplug around the house (such as the unused boom box with a digital readout in their daughter’s former bedroom). Quickly, though, the TED helped them garner other savings. They realized, for example, that they didn’t need the kitchen lights turned on while they watched TV in an adjacent room. Gene likens the TED to the miles-per-gallon display in his Toyota Prius, which “tells you how you’re doing all the time and changes your driving habits.”

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A forthcoming model (the TED 5000) will also optionally monitor power generation from solar or other sources, and produce a net reading. Gene keeps his own spreadsheet of energy usage, but TED users can buy optional software called Footprints ($50) to log and graph their data.

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Anderson has been with Kiplinger since January 2004, when she joined the staff as a reporter. Since then, she's covered the gamut of personal finance issues—from mortgages and credit to spending wisely—and she heads up Kiplinger's annual automotive rankings. She holds a BA in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the 2012 president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and serves on its board of directors. In 2014, she was selected for the North American Car and Truck Of the Year jury. The awards, presented at the Detroit Auto Show, have come to be regarded as the most prestigious of their kind in the U.S. because they involve no commercial tie-ins. The jury is composed of nationally recognized journalists from across the U.S. and Canada, who are selected on the basis of audience reach, experience, expertise, product knowledge, and reputation in the automotive community.