Identifying Your Electricity Smart Meter In Australia

Questions asked by many of our HOME ELECTRICITY AUDIT clients, often relate to the type or model of Smart Meter installed at their home.

There are many different types of Smart Meter available in Australia. If you want to know more about how to read the Smart Meter, then identifying the meter is crucial. We have come across a list of many of the approved Smart Meters in Australia, hosted on the National Measurement Institute's website.

Visit the NATIONAL MEASUREMENT INSTITUTE'S website, to see the extensive list of approved / cancelled / expired meters, with pictures for easy identification information.


To learn about optional independent monitoring and analysis of your electricity usage and / or solar pv system's output, visit our ONLINE ELECTRICITY MONITORING page, where we make the task of getting your data online, very easy.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY REDUCTION SERVICE industry in Australia.

Monitoring Your Home Electricity Usage Online

Knowing your home electricity usage at all times, is a sure way of tackling electricity cost minimisation head on! More and more Aussie households are installing a HOME ELECTRICITY MONITOR, to track home electricity usage 24/7.

Whilst you cannot get a better Home Electricity Reduction Tool, other than electricity usage and costs 'in your face', so to say. How do you follow, what is happening when you are not at home?

The easy solution is have electricity data uploaded to an ELECTRICITY MONITORING WEB PORTAL automatically, from the monitor. Whilst these web portals may differ in the way they receive data and the acceptable formats, what they do have in common is, the fact you can now see your home's electricity data 24/7, from anywhere via the net. Meaning, it can be analysed on any computer, tablet or mobile phone!

With the added features of power alerts, SMS notifications and detailed analysis, it is a great move forward to see many householders go from being just bill payers, to electricity usage and cost experts, almost overnight.

So what are you going to do about your rising electricity concerns? Are you going to remain being a bill payer, or take the step and join a group of Aussie homes who are learning to make educated savings on electricity prices.


To learn about optional independent monitoring and analysis of your electricity usage and / or solar pv system's output, visit our ONLINE ELECTRICITY MONITORING page, where we make the task of getting your data online, very easy.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY REDUCTION SERVICE industry in Australia.

Sizing A Solar PV System To Accurately Offset Electricity Usage

Sizing a Solar PV System accurately for the purpose of electricity offsetting, is not easy. Whilst there may be a few guessing techniques used by some solar providers, to work out how much power your household is using during the day, a simple accurate solution is to install a HOME ELECTRICITY MONITOR.

In a situation where there is no Gross FIT & the Net FIT is only a few cents return per kW generated, most householders are under the belief that a solar system on the roof, has little benefit. Could this be due to many of the negative media articles? What if you are not aware, by installing a solar system you could be saving big dollars off your electricity bill? So how do you workout what size solar pv system you need, and what are those forecast electricity savings?

Firstly you need to think about the idea of installing a home electricity monitor in your home. A monitor that is not just going to show you how much power your using in the day, when the sun is shining. But a monitor that supplies information, allowing you to cut electricity usage and costs, even before your solar pv system is installed. And you will not be generating power to support waste underneath the roof, as too many households are!

A monitor further makes sure your new solar pv system, is tailored accurately to your home's electricity usage. As offsetting the power you would normally purchase, is where you are going to make money. You will be maximising electricity savings only, whilst not pumping excess electricity back into the grid, where there is little or NO RETURN! This same monitor can further report on the generated power of your solar system and instantly report to notify you of any problems with generated solar output.

To learn more about how you go about tailoring your new solar pv system, to maximise electricity usage reduction and costs, you need to visit Aussie Home Energy's webpage on OFFSETTING YOUR ELECTRICITY COSTS, with a Solar PV System. Where you will find all the information you need to know.

Performing A DIY Home Electricity Audit With Your Current Cost Monitor

OK, so you have already made the move to gain the upperhand on electricity costs, by purchasing a HOME ELECTRICITY MONITOR. Even though you are now being informed of electricity usage and costs in real-time, ask yourself this. “Do you really know how much power each appliance uses and what's the cost of this power per appliance?”

If the answer is NO, then maybe you should think about performing a DIY Electricity Audit of your home. Afterall you have the main tool for this exercise, YES the monitor.

To perform an audit of your home's appliances you will need to record the standby power, the operational power and the electricity costs for all of your appliances. Householders who perform an electricity audit of their home, have a better understanding of where electricity usage occurs and how this relates to electricity costs. Once the task of the home electricity audit has been achieved, the monitor becomes the tool to keep the educated householder on track, with their home electricity minimisation program.

To make this task of performing your DIY HOME ELECTRICITY AUDIT easy, Aussie Home Energy has bundled together everything you need.

The Aussie Home Energy DIY Electricity Audit for householders with a Current Cost monitor includes:

• Instruction Booklet on how to perform a DIY Electricity Audit.
• DIY Electricity Audit Forms.
• DIY Electricity Audit Spreadsheet.
• Portable Battery Power Supply for room to room auditing. [Compatible with your Current Cost ENVI/R].

You have already invested in the purchase of your electricity monitor and most likely only just scraped the surface of home electricity savings. Ask yourself what else could you be saving? The fact is you will never know, until you perform an electricity audit. 

If you are generating electricity via renewable sources, have you reduced the waste under the roof? There is no point generating power above the roof, to partially support waste underneath it! Afterall is that not eating away at your investment?

So why not visit Aussie Home Energy's website or call their office and get your DIY HOME ELECTRICITY AUDIT started today.

150 Metre Plus Solar PV Array Monitoring Solution

Are you looking for an affordable solution to monitoring your solar array?

What about the task of solar monitoring, when the distance of the array is greater than 150 metres from the home?

Well Aussie Home Energy has various solutions for monitoring your solar pv!

We have been able to extend the range of the monitor's transmitter to well over 200 metres. Whilst we did actually receive a signal via line of sight at around 265 metres, we have found the signal to be 100% reliable at 150 to 200 metres.

Householders generating power via solar pv are waking up the idea that it makes sense to monitor the output of the solar array at all times. Often the monitoring solution offered with the solar pv system, is costly. Therefore we decided to create a suitable alternative which fits into an Aussie home's budget. This solar pv monitoring solution, only available from Aussie Home Energy will eliminate,

• The issue of not knowing whether all of your panels are active.
• Reduced output from your array for whatever reason.
• The problem of the inverter being off-line.

Problems such as this are often not being discovered until the weekends by householders, or in some cases when the electricity bill arrives! A lot of Aussie homes with solar pv are not keeping an eye on their system's output! Therefore it makes sense to discover our SOLAR PV MONITORING SOLUTIONS where you will know at a glance 24/7,

• What you solar pv system is generating at any one time.
• If you are meeting your planned ROI.
• What your solar pv array in generating, when it is over 150 metres from your home.

To learn more about this great EXTENDED RANGE TRANSMITTER or for other AUSSIE SOLAR PV MONITORING SOLUTIONS contact Aussie Home Energy today.

Aussie Home Electricity Monitoring Network With Mobile Apps

Do you want to get on top of your home electricity usage & costs? A proven method is to install HOME ELECTRICITY MONITORING.

What about where you can opt for the next level, where you see all your data live with history, no matter where you are on your mobile, PC or tablet.

Easily have the data you need with you 24/7, allowing you to make cost cutting decisions in real-time! If this interests you, please email us with your details and the subject header of Home Electricity Monitoring Network. Visit our CONTACT US page for email details.

This is your chance to join an Aussie Home Energy Monitoring network, of householders interested in electricity reduction solutions.

Knowledge is POWER!

Comparing Time Of Use Electricity With A Fixed Rate Tariff

Did you know a Time Of Use electricity tariff known as TOU, has similar charges [in total] over a weekly period to a fixed rate tariff?

The secret to making a TOU tariff work for your household, is knowing when you're using electricity and how much you're using at anytime. You can do this 100% of the time by MONITORING HOME ELECTRICITY.

If you do not know your electricity usage & costs, then you run a very good risk of the TOU tariff costing you more. This is because peak electricity is high in cost, for example at 45 cents per kWh unit. The secret is to offset those high costs in the peak period, by using more in the off-peak / shoulder periods.

The available hours in a total week total 168 hours. In this example we are going to explain the cost for a 1kW appliance, on the TOU tariff. The table shows a TOU tariff made up from three different time based rates. Each rate accounts for a different number of hours per week.

The total cost for the 1kW appliance operating on this TOU tariff is $33.61 per week. A comparable hourly rate for the same total time, works out to be 20 cents per kWh.

You may be interested to know:

• 25 cents per kWh = $42 per week
• 30 cents per kWh = $50 per week

So to make the TOU tariff work for you, you need to understand your home electricity usage 100%. If you do not, you may use more of the peak hours, thus costing you a lot more when costs are high at this prime time of the day!

Whilst expensive high peak electricity only accounts for 18% of the total time during the week, it happens to coincide with those times when you want to entertain, eat ,wash and clean. So it is difficult not to use this high cost power. To offset this high costing power you will need to shift more power usage to the less costing tariffs, shoulder and off-peak.

As mentioned already, a great way to learn about your home electricity usage at any one time is to install a HOME ELECTRICITY MONITOR. A monitor will allow you to reduce and analyse electricity usage and costs, before deciding change to a different electricity tariff.

The last thing you want to happen, is to run the risk of making the wrong choice. An incorrect choice that could cost you dearly. Furthermore it may cost you, to switch back when you break any contract you may have entered into! Remember it pays to do the homework first 100% of the time!

Typical times of the day for TOU tariff changes, have not been discussed in this article. Visit our ELECTRICITY GUIDES page to download your copy of our TOU Table. Stick in on the front door of your fridge to keep everyone in your home up to date!