Trying to control the energy consumption and costs of your home or business? We’ve compiled a list of 15 smartphone apps and tools that will help you keep track of your energy consumption.
Keep in mind, even if you do a great job at tracking and conserving your energy, you’re still doing yourself a disservice if you’re paying a much higher electricity rate than the rest of the country.
1. Green Outlet
This app comes highly recommended by several review magazines like, ecogadget.com, treehugger.com and DailyTekk.com. Green Outlet was designed to allow users to determine which home appliances consume the most energy. It simply requires some personal data, and then the app will calculate an average monthly rate.
One neat feature is that the app also includes an alert to let users know if they are exceeding the recommended carbon usage (based on government regulations).
2. Energy Cost Calculator
Energy Cost Calculator is free on iTunes and is simple to use. It calculates energy cost of an electronic item based on several equations. All a user needs to do is enter an estimated energy use per hour and hours used per day. The result shows users exactly what they are paying.
Overall, this app will calculate:
- Cost per day
- Cost per week
- Cost per month
- Cost per year
More importantly, the app also shows users their energy usage per day, week, month and year as well as the carbon emission per year.
3. Smappee
Smappee’s goal is to provide people with all the information they need to track their energy usage and understand the costs associated to that usage. In order to use the app, Smappee provides a clip on sensor that users can quickly attach to their fuse box. From there, they can view and monitor their energy usage via the free app.
All information is provided to users in real time, and will display energy costs for the previous 30 days. An added benefit to this app is that it can pinpoint all of the appliances in a user’s home. From there, one can determine overall cost and energy consumption. Users can also control different energy elements from the app, so that if they are away from home, adjustments are only a few clicks away.
4. Power Cost Monitor – Energy Cloud
This app was developed to help homeowners wirelessly monitor their energy consumption. While people do need to install sensors to help the app gather the appropriate information, all products are simple to use and don’t require professional assistance. Energy usage information is available both online or via the app users can download on their mobile device. The data is available in real-time to assist people in quickly determining where to adjust their energy usage.
Power Cost Monitor also offers additional services for users who are looking to further track their energy use and increase savings.
5. Nest Mobile
This app only works with the Nest Learning Thermostat. It allows users to raise or lower the temperature of their home from several different devices. The benefit to this app is that users can be at work, or out with friends and still have the ability to change the temperature in their home. Therefore, if a user decides to stay out longer, they have complete control over their energy consumption.
The app will also show a consumer’s energy history. It will display how long the heating and cooling system ran to help users decide where to make adjustments.
6. Light Bulb Finder
This app is free and helps users to make the switch from conventional light bulbs to more efficient ones. While this app doesn’t really help track a user’s energy consumption, it does help to keep it low by providing users with the right options for their homes. With this app users can:
- View bulb images
- View cost
- View savings
- View environmental impact
The Light Bulb Finder also allows users to make shopping lists and purchase bulbs.
7. MeterPlug
MeterPlug is, quite simply, a plug that users can put between their appliance and the outlet. These special plugs then automatically send energy usage information to a mobile app. The app shows users just how much energy a single appliance consumes and can calculate the cost of that energy based on time of day. While the app has a range of around 100 feet, it has built in memory, which can be downloaded and viewed once the user returns home.
8. Neurio
Neuro is a company that strives to provide information to homeowners about their homes so that they can make better energy saving decisions. They have two products which help users better monitor their consumption: the Home Energy Monitor and the Intelligent Home Monitor.
Both are easy to install and will send details about energy usage to a mobile device via the Neurio app. Alternatively, users can also check this information on a computer. The app helps users to monitor their energy consumption, compare their homes to others, and will also forecast the total cost of a monthly bill.
9. Meter Readings
This app makes it quick and easy to monitor home utility meters. Users can enter up to 9 separate meters including, electricity, gas, and solar. The app will also display usage and costs for the latest period and compare the results to the average consumption. It helps users to see changes over time, based on usage and costs per day, week, month, quarter or year. Users can also import and export readings as a CSV file.
10. SunPower Monitoring System
The SunPower Monitoring System app allows users to track their solar system energy consumption and performance. It provides detailed information on how much energy a user’s system generates and provides ways to save on energy costs. Users can view information based on daily, monthly, yearly, or custom parameters.
11. Wiser
This company actually has several products that help users to monitor or keep track of their energy consumption. The Wiser Panel Meter in particular, monitors a home’s energy use and then sends that information to a user’s mobile phone via an app. In addition, users can also monitor electric vehicles by using the product and app with energy charging stations.
12. Fuel Good
While this app doesn’t provide information on energy consumption in the home or business office, it does help users to keep track of their vehicle’s fuel consumption. Through the app, users can enter details about their vehicle to reveal fuel saving habits and learn more about different money saving techniques.
13. Energy Consumption Analyzer
This app helps users to track their energy consumption by adding meters for various types of energy. Users can colour-code readings and comment as a way to remind themselves of special situations where they consumed unusual amounts of energy. The app will calculate the average rate of use per hour, day, week and month. It can also create a graph to show the usage rate over a period of time.
14. My Earth
This app has 5 main categories to help users keep track of the energy consumption:
- Electricity
- Recycling
- Travel
- Food
- Usage
The app presents users with activities to complete and check off in a journal. As the user completes tasks, they collect carbon units. Overall, it’s a visual way for people to monitor the impact they have on their daily energy consumption over time.
15. Wattsly
Wattsly advertises itself as a personal energy butler. This app helps people monitor and track their energy consumption by challenging them to lower their energy costs. It’s smart graph technology shows usage in high, mid and low peak hours, in an easy to understand format. These graphs also allows users to tap and tag high energy tasks like, laundry to show activities that generate the most usage.
Bonus Apps and Tools
Apps for Energy II
The U.S. Department of Energy ran a web and mobile app contest called Apps for Energy II. The contest awarded monetary prizes to apps that solve common energy challenges. Each entry is displayed on the Department of Energy?s website and allows visitors to browse through the most popular designs.
For example, Green Button Conservation is an app that displays the impact of energy changes to help homeowners get the most out of their energy usage. Weather temperatures indicate a baseline, which users can use to view how their actual energy consumption lines up. From the information displayed, users can then make changes to further reduce consumption.
The app also offers helpful energy saving tips such as,
- When it?s hot, use fans instead of air conditioners.
- Find and seal any leaks with caulking and weather stripping.
- Insulate floors, walls and your roof.
For more innovative app ideas and options that helps users to keep track of their energy usage, check out the Apps for Energy II page on the U.S. Department of Energy website.
Energy Star
Energy Star is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that strives to help energy consumers save on cost while protecting the environment. They provide many tools to help both homes and businesses keep track of their energy consumption.
Homeowners can use a product finder to help them determine the best appliances for their home. They can also puruse available tax credits, as well as different tips on how to reduce their energy costs.
Tools for businesses include helping consumers find certified buildings and commercial products. Energy Star also provides tools to help businesses gain access to expert help.
Plant Energy Profiler
The Plant Energy Profiler (PEP) is an online software tool that allows plant managers to determine how energy is being purchased and used, as well as potential cost savings. This program gives users a detailed report that shows,
- How energy is consumed
- Potential cost
- Energy savings
- Next steps to save energy
This tool is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy and was first released on November 10, 2011. It is provided either online or in a downloadable format.
Electricity Data Browser
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has many tools available to help power plants reduce their energy consumption. One of these tools is the Electricity Data Browser.
It is an online tool that provides several data sets, and pre-generated reports to show energy consumption based on energy type over time. While this tool is primarily available for researchers in the energy field, many consumers find it useful for their own businesses as well.
Finally, in addition to the apps and tools and above, keep in mind that for larger businesses we offer a wide range of energy management services. Contact us today to learn more!