Anyone using a Smappee?

[pamalot]

Another quick update for you guys.

It's detected about 12 things in my home that it's now measuring the power of. I'm not going to list all the new ones it's found but they include the garage door, freezer and water heater. It keeps on finding more each day.

I gotta say, so far I'm impressed, I was all ready to send this thing back before I even got it but unless something disastrous happens with it now, I think it's a keeper. I'm addicted. It's like seeing your bank statement for the first time and realizing where all the money goes.

I'm really wanting to order another 6 of the control plugs but I'm gonna give it at least another week, or at least until I'm out of the honeymoon stage. On the subject of the control plugs (or Comfort Plug as they like to call them ) I changed mine so instead of it switching off and on to a set schedule it's now set to something they call "Activity/Inactivity" which means it 'should' switch it off when Smappee detects that there's nothing going on in the home, and switch it on when it detects the opposite. It means if it doesn't detect any appliance activity it should switch the TV, etc off. I can't see how this will work. What happens if I'm watching some film for an hour on the couch? When both I and the home are 'Inactive' as they call it?? the first time it switches the TV off in the middle of watching something I'm setting the plug back to a simple schedule

Ikstack - that doesn't sound like this thing. If anything I'd say it's the other way around. The hardware is OK - just a white box with current sensors and power cord. The software is the strong point for me. You can zoom in, out, scroll etc the graphs. I've only had it for about 4 days now so I can't comment on the storage capacity of it but I can't believe it only holds one to two weeks. If it does, it's going back T

EDIT - Ikstack, you had me worried for a minute there I checked. It says 36 months data.

[SunEagle]

Another quick update for you guys.

It's detected about 12 things in my home that it's now measuring the power of. I'm not going to list all the new ones it's found but they include the garage door, freezer and water heater. It keeps on finding more each day.

I gotta say, so far I'm impressed, I was all ready to send this thing back before I even got it but unless something disastrous happens with it now, I think it's a keeper. I'm addicted. It's like seeing your bank statement for the first time and realizing where all the money goes.

I'm really wanting to order another 6 of the control plugs but I'm gonna give it at least another week, or at least until I'm out of the honeymoon stage. On the subject of the control plugs (or Comfort Plug as they like to call them ) I changed mine so instead of it switching off and on to a set schedule it's now set to something they call "Activity/Inactivity" which means it 'should' switch it off when Smappee detects that there's nothing going on in the home, and switch it on when it detects the opposite. It means if it doesn't detect any appliance activity it should switch the TV, etc off. I can't see how this will work. What happens if I'm watching some film for an hour on the couch? When both I and the home are 'Inactive' as they call it?? the first time it switches the TV off in the middle of watching something I'm setting the plug back to a simple schedule

Ikstack - that doesn't sound like this thing. If anything I'd say it's the other way around. The hardware is OK - just a white box with current sensors and power cord. The software is the strong point for me. You can zoom in, out, scroll etc the graphs. I've only had it for about 4 days now so I can't comment on the storage capacity of it but I can't believe it only holds one to two weeks. If it does, it's going back T

EDIT - Ikstack, you had me worried for a minute there I checked. It says 36 months data.

Did you alert the system that you were using the garage door opener? That load seems it could be hidden by background "noise" unless every other load was turned off.

[control4userguy]

Anyone with a "connected" home will not appreciate this device. A hard power-down/power-up shortens the life of equipment, especially those with heat-generating CPUs.

[pamalot]

Did you alert the system that you were using the garage door opener? That load seems it could be hidden by background "noise" unless every other load was turned off.

No. It just found it. There is a feature to 'manually' find appliances but I haven't had a chance to try it yet, I've just let it find things automatically, which it seems to be doing a good job of so far.

[pamalot]

Anyone with a "connected" home will not appreciate this device. A hard power-down/power-up shortens the life of equipment, especially those with heat-generating CPUs.

What? so we're all supposed to just leave everything on 24/7??? Sorry, that's not me. When I walk out the door I want my home to go to sleep, hopefully now automatically, without me needing to go around the home switching everything off at the wall each time. Call me lazy

You've just given me a great idea. I think I'll also set me control plug to switch on when Smappee detects the garage door comes on when I get home. I feel like a kid at Xmas, so many things to try

[SunEagle]

Anyone with a "connected" home will not appreciate this device. A hard power-down/power-up shortens the life of equipment, especially those with heat-generating CPUs.

While I agree with you that a number of electronic items can have their life shortened by increasing the on/off cycles you have to decide if all those continuous loads which is costing you $$ per month is worth it just to get a little more life out of some things.

While I have reduced a number of my "vampire loads" I still have "always on" loads that is costing me about $1 per day every day of the month. I am sure I can find a few more items and reduce that to $0.50/day "always on" costs.

[HX_Guy]

Sounds like a cool little device...sort of like TED but with more features. Does it get as technical as TED in the sense of telling you peak kW, peak voltages, etc? What is the web interface like in terms of keeping track of energy used/produced in that month and estimates of month end?

The turning off certain things probably wouldn't work for me. Thinks like the satellite box...that thing takes forever to boot back up and I don't have that kind of patience. My home consumes around 500Wh-600Wh in "vampire loads"...that's roughly 200kWh per year, or about $20 per year...not really something I need to be that concerned with.

[sensij]

The turning off certain things probably wouldn't work for me. Thinks like the satellite box...that thing takes forever to boot back up and I don't have that kind of patience. My home consumes around 500Wh-600Wh in "vampire loads"...that's roughly 200kWh per year, or about $20 per year...not really something I need to be that concerned with.

Are you sure about the math on that one? Even 100 W of "vampire load" = 100 * 24 * 365 / 1000 = 876 kWH annually. If it includes a DVR, the satellite box alone might use that much.

[J.P.M.]

Are you sure about the math on that one? Even 100 W of "vampire load" = 100 * 24 * 365 / 1000 = 876 kWH annually. If it includes a DVR, the satellite box alone might use that much.

Maybe, but wasn't that # given as 500-600 Watt-hours ? If, say 550Watts --->> (550)*(8,760) = 4,818 kWh/yr. That's seems a pretty high vampire load.

[control4userguy]

What? so we're all supposed to just leave everything on 24/7??? Sorry, that's not me. When I walk out the door I want my home to go to sleep, hopefully now automatically, without me needing to go around the home switching everything off at the wall each time. Call me lazy

You've just given me a great idea. I think I'll also set me control plug to switch on when Smappee detects the garage door comes on when I get home. I feel like a kid at Xmas, so many things to try

No. Let me ask you this- you have a LAN system there? Router, WAPs, switches?? Any home automation? My point is there are many devices in a typical home that do consume even when "off". If you choose to completely power-cycle each and every day that's your business. When things go belly-up due to stress, will you think about why they failed or just go and replace?

Back on the networking gear, serious problems can arise by powering-down this gear unless you have each and every component on a static or a reserved IP. If none of this applies to you then OK. Otherwise, it's a bad idea to be chasing-down for the sport of it.

[HX_Guy]

Maybe, but wasn't that # given as 500-600 Watt-hours ? If, say 550Watts --->> (550)*(8,760) = 4,818 kWh/yr. That's seems a pretty high vampire load.

Crap, you guys are right.

I multiplied it by just days I think, and not hours *doh*. Damn, that is a lot! Now Im curious what the heck is pulling all the juice!

EDIT: And it is accurate, I checked the TED history and between 3am - 6am (when I know the house is "dead"), I'm showing an average of 0.7kWh..so even higher than I though. That's 6,132kWh per year. Good god! That's 27% of my yearly usage.

[SunEagle]

Crap, you guys are right.

I multiplied it by just days I think, and not hours *doh*. Damn, that is a lot! Now Im curious what the heck is pulling all the juice!

EDIT: And it is accurate, I checked the TED history and between 3am - 6am (when I know the house is "dead"), I'm showing an average of 0.7kWh..so even higher than I though. That's 6,132kWh per year. Good god! That's 27% of my yearly usage.

It is time to get out those wooden stakes and find them Vampires.

Some areas to look at would be all of your electronics (TV, cable boxes, DVD player, Stereo, Video Game consoles, battery chargers, home security cameras, etc.) All the new ones have continous power going to them so they can come on instantly. Usually there is a little green or red led light on the device.

You can find items that do reboot quickly and eliminate those loads. Believe me, a lot of little devices always "on" does add up.

[J.P.M.]

Crap, you guys are right.

I multiplied it by just days I think, and not hours *doh*. Damn, that is a lot! Now Im curious what the heck is pulling all the juice!

EDIT: And it is accurate, I checked the TED history and between 3am - 6am (when I know the house is "dead"), I'm showing an average of 0.7kWh..so even higher than I though. That's 6,132kWh per year. Good god! That's 27% of my yearly usage.

OOPS ! Does that mean your system could have been 27% smaller ? After that saga you just went through that would be another bummer.

Not meant as another kick in the shorts, but if your vampire load is true, this may serve as an example/learning moment to prospective PV owners to get a good handle on usage and loads before pulling the trigger on solar.

How many fridges/TV's/computers/etc. ?

[HX_Guy]

OOPS ! Does that mean your system could have been 27% smaller ? After that saga you just went through that would be another bummer.

Not meant as another kick in the shorts, but if your vampire load is true, this may serve as an example/learning moment to prospective PV owners to get a good handle on usage and loads before pulling the trigger on solar.

How many fridges/TV's/computers/etc. ?

In theory yes but not realistically.

The items that could be shut off completely are 2 computers, A/V equipment, and a couple printers.
Aside from that we have 2 fridges (1 big, 1 beverage) and a chest freezer which would still be drawing power.

[J.P.M.]

In theory yes but not realistically.

The items that could be shut off completely are 2 computers, A/V equipment, and a couple printers.
Aside from that we have 2 fridges (1 big, 1 beverage) and a chest freezer which would still be drawing power.

With that much refrigeration, and the other stuff, that 0.7 kW/hr. may not be far off the mark. Feel like putting a Kill-a-Watt meter on them ?