Wilbur has been complaining for a long time about the electric bill. Finally CarsonGoose located the “TED” otherwise known as “The Energy Detective”. The TED is made of several parts:
- The countertop “monitor” (the item always shown in the pictures)
- The “inside the breaker box” parts that actually “capture” the electrical usage data
- The Footprints software
The software is an optional purchase, but honestly, as info-junkies, Wilbur and Carson feel that the software is a necessity. We geese hired an electrician to install the “inside the breaker box” parts. This part is very easy to do, but if you’re not comfortable with the breaker box panel removed or you don’t understand the parts inside, we recommend an electrician. The instructions for installing the “inside the breaker box parts” is very clear. The most important thing? Decide in advance where you want to plug the monitor in. Then, install the “inside the breaker box parts” in the neutral of the breaker for the outlet where you want to plug the monitor into.
We had some issues getting the monitor to pick up the signals from the breaker box. The breaker box parts send a signal through the electrical line. The monitor picks up this signal when it’s plugged into an outlet that is on the line that has the signal. This is where things get tricky. Go to the room where the outlet is that you want to plug your monitor into. Plug into your favorite outlet. No blinky blinky green light? Try the next outlet. Try EVERY outlet in that room. It’s possible that 3 outlets don’t work, but one does! We have NO idea what makes one outlet better than another! Be sure that you’re plugging directly into a wall outlet and not through a surge protector. The surge protector can “filter” out the signals that your monitor needs to receive.
Ok…so now you’re thinking “I’ve got the blinky blinky green light, but that outlet isn’t near my computer. How do I connect to my computer for the software?” Not a problem, Wilbur and Carson put their heads together and came up with two solutions. We tried the Cables Unlimited USB Wireless set which allows you to connect “wirelessly”. Pretty nifty! And it works with our Vista 64bit computer too (a rarity!). We also tried using an extension cord plugged into the “chosen” outlet. This works, if the cord won’t become a trip hazard. One thing we found…it doesn’t matter where you put the “monitor” since our Geese “watch” on the computer, not the monitor device.
Our next challenge – the Footprints software doesn’t work on our Vista Ultimate 64 bit machine. We did try everything and contacted customer support. They sent us stuff to try, we tried, it didn’t work, they refused to email us anymore. Boy was Wilbur STEAMED! Whenever we went into Footsteps, it kept saying that internet explorer couldn’t find the website. Now, maybe there was some conflict because Wilbur runs our test website on our Vista 64bit machine. We noted that someone else on the internet had luck with Vista Ultimate 64 bit (yes, we now verify compatibility before any software purchase!). For awhile, we kept our XP machine and we admit, it ran perfectly, but on a wired connection (with extension cord and USB cord). Then, Carson got the brilliant idea to use Virtual Box and installed Footprints on a Vista 32 bit virtual machine and it runs great on a wired connection. We installed the wireless USB and we now think it’d work, but we were frustrated on install day and just plugged in the USB cord and extension cord.
We have to admit, Footprints isn’t perfect. Wilbur loves to watch the “average cost per day” and how it keeps going down as he makes home improvements (like adding our solar screens, water heater timer and weatherstripping). We suspect that this average cost per day is rather accurate since the monthly total did match our last bill. Carson was very disappointed with the “download to excel feature”. We thought it’d download the cost per day. But no…it seems that the only way to recalculate cost per day is to multiply the usage rate per hour times 1/60 (one minute) times the cost per kWh then sum up the values for every minute of the day to determine the cost per day. Sure, we know how to do this, but why didn’t they calculate this for us? Particularly when it tracks the cost per day every day! This is Carson’s next project…building an Access database that can do the calculations for us.
The other peculiarity is the use of the term “annual” in the setup panels on the monitor. We geese believe that “annual” means “12 months”. Well, if you read the fine print on the WEBSITE, you’ll find that the TED folks think that “annual” means “a value charged any month – a value that doesn’t change based on the time of day or year”. We totally messed up and put in the monthly “billing charge” of $4.95 as 12*4.95 thinking that it was asking for an annual rate. But no…if there’s a monthly figure, put in the MONTHLY figure!
We really think that the documentation for the rate setup and software setup could use lots of improvement and patience! That’s why we didn’t rate the TED a 10. It took our geese 2 weeks to really get the thing up and running and comfortable. But now that it’s running, we love it!
WilburGoose, being his cheap self has made us make the following adjustments:
- Solar Screens to prevent the A/C from running all day (despite being set to 85deg during the day).
- Hot water heater timer so that it runs only in the morning and evening when our Geese really use hot water
- Turned off the XP computer and used Virtual Box to run virtual machines on our Vista Ultimate 64 bit machine
- Bought bright, fluorescent lamps with remote switches instead of using the halogen track lights
- Ordered new, double paned windows
We’re not sure that there are any other changes that we can make that wouldn’t be painful. Wilbur threatened to limit tv time when he saw that the tv was running .4kWh and questioned why we couldn’t just hang the laundry instead of using the dryer. The girls quickly informed Wilbur that he might be out in the doghouse, with no microwave and no clean laundry if he turned off the tv and dryer. Wilbur and Carson discussed it and decided that the TV and dryer would stay (both guys valued their hot dinner and clean clothes). :)