In our last post, we talked about the risks using a meat freezer. The key point was that freezers can fail, and meat freezers may contain hundreds of dollars worth of food. So how can you prevent losing all of this food and money? One way is to add an alert to your eGauge! Alerts can be set to trigger for many reasons, but if you want one to alert you when a freezer fails, you can use something like this:

Replacing home appliances is never without some cost. Buying a new clothes washer or dryer takes time and money, and all the while you have smelly clothes piling up, just waiting to be washed. Even though replacing appliances like these can be a pain, it’s easy to tell when they have failed. There are some appliances that fail silently and when that happens it can cost you a bundle. These are the appliances in the far reaches of your home, the ones that don’t get used on a daily basis. A meat freezer is a good example of this type of appliance.

In 1890, the Western Union Telegraph Company utilized a battery storage system consisting of 20,000 zinc-copper cells. The installation was designed to provide power in the event of a utility failure. Modern battery storage systems are designed to meet the same goal. However, the technology has improved significantly -- the cost of batteries, controllers, inverters, and other necessary hardware has decreased to the point where battery storage systems (BSS) are a realistic option for many property owners. There are a number of key factors to explore when considering the purchase of a BSS, including:

One of the most frequent topics that I encounter while talking with customers about energy monitoring is the importance of measuring and correcting power factor. In a practical sense, power factor is a ratio of the amount of electrons actually being used by a system divided by the amount of electrons charged to you by your utility. These two values are often very different, especially in commercial buildings where you see large and/or inefficient equipment. While power factor correction gets the majority of attention, other opportunities can provide a less expensive means of achieving efficiency and savings, like demand optimization.

This Halloween be on the watch for energy sucking phantoms and vampires that are stealing your money!

Power is commonly talked about and used every single day, but what kind of power are you talking about and even more importantly, what kind of power are you using?

Welcome Back Students!