Wattvision (YC W09): The Tale of the Mystery Load | Hacker News Reader

Wattvision (YC W09): The Tale of the Mystery Load

blog.wattvision.com

47 pointssavrajsingh18 comments

I 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...

Thanks 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!

Why 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.

Who else can you buy this from?

http://www.alertme.com/

Www.Theenergydetective.com is another option. I think I paid $135 and found $50/month savings right away.

Curious as to what the 50 per month was from?

The 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.

It 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".

it 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.

That'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.

As 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.

My 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).

Will 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?

Yes, definitely something on our radar.

Are 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.

Here 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.

Very cool product!

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