10 Reasons Aussie Householders Install Home Electricity Monitoring

Home electricity monitoring is a great electricity minimisation tool, used by many Aussie householder's, as one of their home electricity reduction methods.

If you too are trying to reduce your home's electricity costs and feel you are not achieving all you can, then why not take a minute to understand why these home electricity monitors, are being used by so many other householders in Australia. Used primarily in their quest to gain control again of rising electricity bills.

There are many reasons Aussie householders install home electricity monitoring, we list here the TOP 10. 

Are you missing out on electricity savings, by not monitoring your home?

• Your electricity bill is out of control! You have no idea why and want to know FAST!
• You want to keep an eye on your Solar PV, which can now easily be seen 24/7 easily from within the comfort of your home!
• Your electricity usage in the home or business, needs to be analysed & monitored
• You want access to your electricity data, when away from your home.
• You are looking to perform your own DIY HOME ELECTRICITY AUDIT to learn more
• You require ELECTRICITY USAGE ALERTS via SMS or the net! See our SOFTWARE page for details
• Your home is split into two sections, whilst on one electricity meter. For example a rented apartment, where you want to know the tenant's power usage
• You want to monitor separate circuits, such as air conditioners & pool pumps
• You want to itemise data for electrical usage awareness, as part of your family electricity reduction program
• You want to minimise electricity use, to offset the FORECAST ELECTRICITY PRICES

You too can choose to install home electricity monitoring as part of your home electricity reduction solution. Visit our CHOOSING YOUR POWER MONITOR page.


Knowledge is POWER in the search for CHEAPER HOME ELECTRICITY COSTS.

How To Read An Electricity Smart Meter In Australia

A common question from many Aussie householders is, “How do you read the newly installed smart meters?"

Firstly we need to point out that there are many different makes and models of Smart Meter, offered by electricity providers in Australia. 

Secondly these meters are software programmable by the distributor or third party. Thus this results in many variations.

The time of day, peak / shoulder / off-peak / controlled load [hot water] data and generated solar power, is simply stored in the Smart Meter registers. These registers are basically a software location in the meter.

And in most cases you can access some of this data. What data is accessible via a 'Scroll Button' on the front of the smart meter is determined by how the meter is programmed.

We will use as an example a Landis & Gyr Model E350 Type U1200. This meter has been programmed for a TIME OF USE (TOU) tariff. The meter also enabled to monitor the exported power [gross or net feed in tariff] from the SOLAR PV.

To access the data stored in the smart meter's registers you will need to scroll through the registers one by one, using the SCROLL button. Often the LCD screen will move through the same fields of data, every few seconds on auto pilot, meaning you do not have to press anything.

In this example the registers of the Landis & Gyr E350 display the following:

• 01 - Time
• 02 - Date
• 03 - kWh Imported Total Power
• 04 - kWh Imported Peak Power
• 06 - kWh Imported Off Peak Power
• 13 - kWh Total Exported Power
• 14 - kWh Total Exported Peak Power
• 16 - kWh Total Exported Off Peak Power

Whilst software registers differ from meter to meter, as in installation to installation, there is a pattern where the first three registers often display the same basic information. In some cases these first three registers often being the only one's accessible via the 'Scroll Button', more so when solar power is not installed.

For example:

• 01 - d25/08/12
• 02 - t16:07:02
• 03 - 50401.5 kWh

Smart Meters have an internal time of day clock and are able to compute the power used, during different time based tariff rates. This information is not always fully accessible via the front panel of the meter. The meter reader accesses the data via a remote handheld device and then uploads this data to the electricity retailer at the end of the day. 

You can get access to this data file, by requesting it from your electricity retailer. There is a lot of data in this data file as in most cases as there is an entry for every half hour over ninety days. And that is 4368 entries! Best to input into a spreadsheet.

If you are one of the many householders around Australia having issues with the reading / billing from these Smart Meters, we would suggest you start logging the data in register 3 once every day. Meaning you know your imported power. 

More information can be found on our website's ELECTRICITY pages. Where we have a form, especially designed to help you keep a record of the data.

To learn about optional independent energy monitoring and analysis of your electricity usage and / or solar pv system's output, visit our ONLINE ELECTRICITY MONITORING page. You will soon realise you can get your data online, very easily.

Updated October 2016 - This blog post brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY REDUCTION SERVICE industry in Australia.

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.