I thought $400 for a home energy monitor was a waste, then my August bill came
I bought a smart meter reader for about $400 back in June after a neighbor in Columbus kept bugging me about it. First month I ignored the app, then July hit and I saw my AC was running 9 hours a day while nobody was even home. Turns out my old thermostat was fighting the window unit in the back room and they were both losing. Fixed the schedule and sealed two gaps under the doors with $14 of foam tape, and last month's bill dropped from $280 to $161. Has anyone else had a smart meter actually show them something they would never have guessed?
Man, the part about the thermostat fighting the window unit is exactly the kind of thing I bet happens in a ton of houses and nobody ever knows. Two systems both trying to do the same job in the same space is just money going out the window, literally. What gets me is that you can't see any of this from watching your house, you only see it when the data is laid out in front of you hour by hour. So the next step would be checking if that back room even needs the window unit at all once the main system is running right, because maybe you can drop it and save even more. Or go the other way and just let the window unit handle that room and close the vent, depends which one costs less to run. Either way that July data probably paid for the $400 right there.