The Best Home Energy Monitors

Home energy monitors, also known as home electricity monitors, provide valuable insights into your household electricity usage. By tracking the power consumption from appliances and systems around your home, you can better understand your energy usage habits and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce energy bills.

For consumers with solar power systems, energy monitors also allow tracking of solar energy generation and self-consumption. Some even connect with smart meters enabling real-time visibility into your home’s energy footprint.

This guide looks at the key types of energy monitors available and what you should consider when choosing the best option for monitoring electricity usage in your home.

How do home energy monitors work?

Energy monitors work by measuring the electricity flowing in from the mains power supply into your household circuitry.

Either a sensor clamp is installed around the main supply cable or feed-in cable from the electricity meter. Or a dedicated monitoring device is wired directly into the circuitry panel.

This allows continuously tracking the power draw with displays showing instantaneous usage in watts or accumulated usage over days, weeks, and months in kilowatt-hours.

Some devices also connect wirelessly to smart plug sensors that can be attached to individual appliances for more granular insights.

Advanced models apply analytics to usage patterns to provide personalized insights, identify high consumption devices, estimate bills, and may even offer recommendations to improve efficiency.

Key benefits of home energy monitoring

Home energy monitors empower consumers with information to take greater control over electricity consumption and bills. Benefits include:

• Track daily, weekly, monthly and yearly electricity usage
• Identify high energy-consuming appliances and systems
• Change usage habits to reduce waste and improve efficiency
• Estimate upcoming electricity bills
• Monitor solar power generation and self-consumption
• Ensure household systems and appliances are running optimally
• Understand the impact of upgrades like insulation or new appliances on usage
• Quantify energy savings from efficiency measures and behavioral changes
• Participate in demand response or time-of-use programs more effectively

What to look for when choosing an energy monitor

Consider the following aspects when selecting a home electricity monitor:

• Accuracy – The accuracy of the usage measurements and analytics provided. Look for products certified for legal metrology.
• User-friendliness – How easy is it to install, configure and access usage data on an ongoing basis.
• Display and controls – Screens range from simple monochrome displays to full-color touchscreen interfaces.
• Analytics and insights – How useful are the usage breakdowns, comparisons, and recommendations provided.
• Smart home connectivity – Integration with smart home platforms, voice assistants, smartphones and smart meters.
• Solar monitoring – Ability to track solar generation and self-consumption if you have rooftop PV.
• Price – Upfront purchase costs and any ongoing fees for cloud connectivity and advanced analytics.

Types of home energy monitors

There are a few common categories of energy monitoring products:

Wireless electricity monitors

These are portable battery-powered devices that use a wireless clamp sensor installed around the main power feed to transmit real-time usage data. They are easy to set up DIY but limited in advanced analytics.

Online energy monitors

Hardwired devices that connect to the cloud and provide live energy insights plus data history, comparisons, and bill forecasting via web and mobile apps. Offer more advanced analytics and recommendations.

Smart meters

Digital smart meters installed by energy retailers have built-in home energy monitoring. Usage data can be accessed via retailer apps and web portals as part of smart meter capabilities.

Solar energy monitors

Designed specifically for tracking rooftop solar generation, consumption and self-sufficiency. Some connect directly to solar inverters.

3-phase power monitors

For homes with 3-phase power, these can provide visibility into consumption across phases which is useful for load balancing high-powered devices.

Smart plugs

Modules that plug into wall outlets allowing energy tracking of individual appliances. Can complement whole home monitoring to provide more granular appliance-level data.

Examples of leading home energy monitor brands

Here are some of the top products available from major home energy monitoring companies:

Sense Home Energy Monitor

• Advanced disaggregation identifies device usage signatures
• Live and historical usage tracking
• Solar integration and EV monitoring
• Smart home and smartphone connectivity

Neurio Home Electricity Monitor

• Clamp sensor sticks to main supply cable
• Tracks live usage and solar generation
• Usage alerts and recommendations
• Smartphone app connectivity

Efergy Engage Hub

• HD touchscreen with intuitive interface
• Clamp sensor captures usage data
• Solar and EV consumption tracking
• Smart home integration and custom alerts

Blue Centre Tesseract

• Accuracy certified revenue-grade metrology
• Twists open for DIY clamp installation
• Measures voltage, current, power metrics
• Web portal and smartphone app integration

Brilliant Smart Home Energy Monitor

• Works with Brilliant smart home touchscreens
• Whole home and individual circuit monitoring
• Advanced labeling and home device identification
• Alexa and smartphone integration

Electrium SmartHome Monitor

• Wireless sensors track appliance-level consumption
• Links with Google Home and Amazon Alexa
• Web and mobile app provides usage analytics
• Customized energy saving recommendations

Kasa Smart Plug Energy Monitors

• Single plug-in devices monitor appliance usage
• Works with Kasa Smart home ecosystem
• Real-time and historical consumption tracking
• Scheduling and away modes save power

How much do home energy monitors cost?

Home electricity monitoring costs vary based on the type and capabilities. Typical price ranges are:

• Basic wireless electricity monitors – $50 to $100
• Smart clamp sensors with apps – $100 to $250
• Advanced disaggregating monitors – $200 to $400
• Smart meters enabled monitoring – Often free or included in distribution/retailer fees
• Individual smart plugs – $10 to $100 per plug

Additional costs may apply for professional installation if required. Smart meter enabled options avoid this cost since those meters are installed by the energy retailer directly.

For average households, investing $100 to $200 can provide balanced insights into whole home usage without breaking the bank. Stepping up to more advanced analytics carries premium pricing.

Should I get a home energy monitor?

Here are a few key questions to help decide if a home electricity monitor makes sense for your situation:

• Do you want more visibility into your household energy consumption beyond just the quarterly bill totals?
• Are you planning to install rooftop solar and want to track self-sufficiency?
• Did your latest energy bill seem abnormally high and you want to identity why?
• Are you interested in understanding device-level consumption to identify energy hogs?
• Will easy access to usage data motivate you and your family to change behaviors?
• Are you tech-savvy and eager to experiment with smart home management?

If you answered yes to some of these aspects, investing in home energy monitoring technology can be worthwhile.

Even without advanced analytics and disaggregation, simply observing live power usage more conscious can lead to more informed consumption behaviors.

Professional installation

Most energy monitors require installation by a licensed electrician due to working on mains power supply wiring.

Wireless devices with clamp sensors are easiest to implement as a simple non-contact attachment. More integrated devices need wiring into the electrical panel which increases labor.

If your home still has an old analog meter, installation may be more complex or require upgrading to a smart meter. Contact your energy retailer regarding compatibility and options.

Shop around for quotes as labor costs can vary significantly between electricians. Also clarify if your chosen monitor provider offers installation services.

Demystifying your power consumption

Home energy monitors shine a light on electricity usage to help consumers better manage consumption and bills. The initial expense can pay back over time through informed improvements in efficiency.