Hi all... I'm curious what is everyone's use cases for reducing the consumption of electricity? I'm thinking about replacing my WiFi Honeywell to a Z-wave so I can control it better and put sensors in different rooms along with vent actuators... thoughts on use cases to where you've really saved mo…

The easiest way to save is to stop paying the bill. At some point your electrical consumption goes to zero. Can't get better than that!! :wink:

Sorry if my post is pedantic. Where I live (just outside New Orleans), it is hot and humid most of the year - so HVAC is the major part of my electric bill (according to Sense, currently about 45% of my usage). The image below indicates several HVAC related criteria that I've measured for the last f…

For blinds, I have 2" faux wood blinds that I automated with brackets from this post: [image] [RELEASE] ESP8266 / Arduino servo controlled smart blinds Here we go! This is a re-think of the simple smart blinds created by @C_Hobbs. The code now supports positioning the blinds, not just op…

My electric company going to a demand rate pricing model is what got me started in Home Automation to begin with. I got an estimate for a load controller to curb the demand spikes and they wanted thousands of dollars. My literal first thought was... "[insert expletive], for that much, I could bu…

[image] Gnant: 5 minutes before demand rates kick in, everything goes off How many hours per day are the demand rates in place?

@aaiyar Peak rates are 3 pm to 8 pm. I cool the house down prior and bump the temp up for that period. I can probably get away without it running for two hours. But it has been over 110 lately. I set the Rheem hot water heater to vacation mode, now I just need to find a way to kill the dryer.

[image] Gnant: now I just need to find a way to kill the dryer. In my youth, it was called a clothesline.

[image] Gnant: now I just need to find a way to kill the dryer. Assuming it's a 240V dryer, you control it using an ELK 9200 relay. The coil voltage is regular 120V, so the relay can be controlled using a zwave/zigbee outlet. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004HMZOUS/

I used a high torque 270 degree rotation servo https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07569WJ1M as my bigbox store blinds (2" faux wood) required 270 degrees to go through a complete rotation. I 3d printed a coupler to go directly from the servo to the horizontal rod that rotates inside the blind housi…

[image] jeubanks: .. so slap a energy meter capable device on as much as you can OR install a BrulTech GEM or TED Pro system Oh man, don't get those. I've had both and they suck compared to the Sense. Plus, they are more expensive. The Sense won't monitor per circuit, but it discovers your…

How do you save in electric bills?

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ogiewon July 5, 2019, 2:28am 21

I really like my IoTaWatt energy monitoring system.

And I wrote a Hubitat Driver for it as well...

Aus Solar / Energy Monitoring