It is a near real time (a second or two of lag) power monitor. The electric company installed it for free for signing up for a 2 year contract, and since I am planning to stay with them anyway.

Here is with the dryer on:


Here is with it off:


It has a bunch of screens that display different data, including daily/weekly/monthly cost estimates.

And the remaining incandescants in the house have to go!

I dumped my incandescent bulbs a few years back and my bill dropped $15-20 a month (on a $75 bill). It's been quite a few years, so I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was a nice change. That's a pretty interesting little toy. I'd be afraid to see what it does when I'm tigging aluminum. That might be a bit scary...

Oddly, I walked in today, flipped on my kitchen and garage lights and they went out a few minutes later. I had to go reset the breaker. I have 320 watts worth of flourescent lights in the garage and about 5 (only 4 were on) 60 watt equivalent low wattage bulbs. Nothing that should have blown a breaker. That's the second breaker I've tripped this week (I haven't tripped a breaker in years). I wonder what this might mean...

Midnight has escalated his reign of terror

That would be near to have, but like Trackbird said, I would be afraid to see what it says after a day or weekend in the shop. Imagine what it would say after a long weekend in the shop during the winter when Christmas lights would also be on... just thinking of that hurts the wallet.

Thats a pretty cool toy to have. My fiancee is all gung-ho on the fluorescent bulb replacement. She ends up replacing hers more often than I replace my regular bulbs plus the light SUX. I have tube florescents in the garage and kitchen but all the others I've had are horrible for producing clean light. I'll take the extra hit on my electric bill for light that doesn't cause eye strain. I think my fiancee would have a problem with big tube fluorescents in every room...

I'm running the same low wattage bulbs I bought "years ago" with the exception of my kitchen and stairs (I bought those 5 years ago when I moved in). The rest of them that are in lamps came from my old apartments. I've only had about 2 go bad (out of 20+) in 8 years or so.

Also, my shop lights are 6,500 K (Kelvin) color temperature bulbs. That's the same color of light as direct sunlight. My garage looks like high noon on a bright summer day. I LOVE that light for the shop (and would HATE it in my kitchen). You might try buying fluorescents with a different color temperature, you might like them better.

My experience has been similar. Replaced every bulb in the house 4 years ago with CFL's except for the lights in the living room that are on a dimmer, and have had one fail.

My 2 goals for 2010 are to consume less but buy more American made.

Then you can't buy any more CFLs! None of them are made in the USA.

Check your ballasts? You may have one going bad.

I'd love to get one of those meters, but Houston Looting and Plunder wants to charge us for it. Google is apparently working on some meter recording appliance that you can check via the intarweb. That would be nice, too, but don't want Google knowing how much power I use.

Guys, NO! I work for GE servicing all the Gas turbines that make the power you are using, If you use less, I work less! Can't you see how this effects the economy? Global warming? Ha! I've seen more snow this year than the past 10 combined!

Just kidding, If you guys saw how much power is actually coming out of the plants and onto the grid you would be amazed! Things like lights, welders, air compressors we use in our shop really draw the power.

Boy, I hope not. I just insulated the garage this past fall and they are all new fixtures with electronic ballasts. That doesn't mean one couldn't be going bad, but I'd like to think not. If it does it again, I'll get more serious about finding it. That's a good thought and one I hadn't really considered. Thanks!

With the round number of 320W you gave earlier, I'm guessing you're using 32W T12 or T8 bulbs. If that's the case realize the bulb may be 32W, but your ballast is consuming more to power the bulbs. With my ampmeter I found 10, 32W T8's were actually consuming 472W. These were electronics ballasts too.

Good point Rob. The other lights on the ckt should be 5 CFL's at 17 watts each. I have five 2 bulb T8 fixtures in the garage. I should still be way under 15 amps. And oddly, the lights were on for a while and then it went dark. It wasn't a start up surge, just "poof" 5-10 minutes later.

it could simply be a weak breaker, or there is something else in the house on that circuit that overloaded it when it kicked on. Dehumidifier, freezer somewhere, sump-pump, ect.

I think the idea of all the cfl bulbs is great, save energy ect, but most people have no idea that you are supposed to dispose of them at hazardous waste clean-up days because they contain mercury. Its not good for the environment. Not being able to dim them sucks too.

There are a number of reasons the breaker could go. Worn out is one. Drops in the line voltage is another. Your electric utility wont tell you about that one. You may be getting voltage drops from other people on the main line if they are starting large loads nearby. In the old days, incandescents used to dim when this happened, but you cant usually tell with fluorescents. Check the CFL's and the T8 lamps (on the ends or base) for temp (touch the base of each one), if you get a cathode overheating it can draw more power. I must say however that given the description of the loads, you should be WAY under 15 amps. Maybe there is something else on there as mentioned. As mentioned above, anything motorized can kick a breaker if you get a locked rotor situation.
bock

that is true, and under voltage will cause certain fixtures/appliances to draw more current, but the circuit would have to be loaded up already to get enough of an overload from the undervoltage for a long enough time to overload and trip the breaker.

It just sounds like something else is on the circuit and when it kicks on, it overloads.

Motion light outside? Heater on a thermostat somewhere on the circuit? outside pump for a sprinkler system? well pump? Just trying to think of things sometimes tied into a garage circuit that you don't notice. Something is overloading it somewhere on the circuit, very well could be a weak breaker.

No sump pump, no dehumidifier, no motion lights, no other lights on, 6 year old house (and breaker panel), gas heat and my line voltages run high. I get 243.7 volts at any of my 220v outlets in my garage. My house voltage runs 121.4 and 122.3 volts on each side of the breaker box. I did see it sag briefly the other day (not my fault, I was inside and nothing was running) to about 116-118v.

If it does it again, I'll dig deeper. Oddly, I popped the breaker in the garage the other day with my chop saw. It was on a cord (retractable cord) with a 13 amp breaker on it (which I've blown on occasion) and it blew the 15 amp in the panel instead. I typically have a TV, surround sound receiver, dvd player, cable box, etc running on that circuit while I use the chop saw (and I rarely have any problems at all), so it's a little odd that it popped with just the chop saw running (the surround receiver is officially dead and I'm waiting on the replacement to show up, so it was all turned off). Maybe it's all just an abnormality.

wow...i'm shocked. most of hers don't last a year. its so bad that when she replaces them, she puts the date on them. She hasn't been good enough about tracking the different bulbs she buys cause some have a 7 yr warranty. I definitely agree on the "color" of the lights...the low Kelvin bulbs are much more dim than others. I guess what doesn't help at least at my house is that much of my light is in the open ended ceiling fan fixtures. CFL's are ugly to look at and I typically use clear vibration resistant bulbs. To make things worse, I also have halogen lights on the back of the house too...

Check to make sure the screw on the breaker is tight and that all the splices are good. A bad splice can also cause issues like that. Wires should be twisted together before putting the wire nut on. Most reps will say that wire nuts are designed so that you don't have to splice the wires together before you put the wire nut on. That's about as true as the guy who tells you that you don't have to torque wheels. Sure, it works, but you don't know if you have 60ft-lbs or 160ft-lbs.

A wire nut is a splice cap and nothing more. Make the splice, cap it so it doesn't touch anything.

Also, how are your receps wired in? Are they pigtailed so that the device isn't in series or did you just land a wire on each screw? Putting a recep inline will greatly shorten the life as you're asking that little metal tab (the one you break to make it a switched recep) to carry current all the time. I've actually seen them so hot that the recep was melting.

The receps are "using the metal tabs". I need to pull them out of the box and take a look. I have dedicated 20 amp breakers for each wall. I need to be using the heavy stuff on those and not the 15 amp that I run drop lights and such from (the builder installed one, but it's what I was using, though I was using outlets I added).

I'll do some research. Thanks TJ!

What are you, some kind of expert ??
Couldn't resist.

I definitely have a dimmable CFL in our living room table lamp (has a dimmer built in to the switch). I've also replaced much of the lights in my house with CFLs and they last a really, really long time. I think I've only had two burn out so far. They do need about a minute to warm up, though.

LEDs are the next big thing though. No mercury and they use less wattage. Really expensive right now, but that'll change.

Follow up: This thing has made me more conscientious of power usage, which will probably taper off, but also helped me identify and eliminate or mitigate some consumption. Previously my low bill, which was the same month last year, was 888 khw. This month, 539.

I unplugged chargers for things I don't own anymore, replaced the remaining incandescent bulbs, but haven't really changed a lot of how I live. If I'm hot, the ac comes on. If cold, the heat. We have had very good weather which helps, but the drop surprised me enough I thought I would post about it.

We replaced almost 100% of our lights with CFLs several years ago. I didn't notice an appreciable drop in KWh used. I guess we have other things eating up more power. I did notice that we seem to have certain outlets that seem to 'kill' the bulbs. As most of the CFLs have already lasted several years, there are about three fixtures, two of the multi-light fixtures (one ceiling fan, and one bathroom light) that have one socket that I have't had a light bulb last more than a year. I find it odd, and can't explain it. Additionally, the ceiling fan came with the house we bought 12 years ago, and the bathroom light is only about 3 years old.

The LEDs I've found have been no stronger than 60 watt light output equivalent. Additionally, most of them seem to be fairly uni-directional in their light output. Great for a flashlight, bad for a light in a room. I think they are cool and the light output for power consumption is great, but don't see getting any soon at the price and light output they have at this time.

I did some investigation of the ones that we had that burned out regularly...turns out that you aren't supposed to mount them upside down. There is a vent on the top, where the tubes come out that vents the electronic ballast. Most of the ones that we had problems with were mounted upside down and a few even went so far as to melt the plastic base. All were discolored around the vent. So if the ceiling fan/bathroom ones were mounted upside down, that was most likely the problem. This investigation has changed my stand slightly on CFL's but I still have a hard time finding decent 6000K bulbs. the 2500K units are junk, I'd be better off with a flashlight.

That's good to know, and new to me. Still, we have _one_ in each fixture that keeps burning out. I can see the ceiling fan being that way, as the lights are oriented around a central fixture, and the air from the A/C and heating vents may be different on the 'downwind' side, but I can't see what's different with the fixture in the bathroom. It's against a wall. Additionally, the ceiling fan has a bulb hanging down from the center inside a glass sphere. I've had no problems with that one, either. Odd.