Energy Monitors

Why do I need a home energy monitor?

Ever wondered why your electricity bills are so high? A home energy monitor gives you a real-time view of exactly where your electricity is going, and more importantly, helps you reduce how much you use and spend.

Many households are surprised by how much power certain devices consume, even on standby. A dedicated energy monitor lets you identify the worst offenders and make informed decisions about when and how you use electricity.

A simple technique when you first set up a monitor: turn off everything in the home, then switch appliances back on one by one. This quickly reveals which devices have the biggest impact on your consumption, and which are worth replacing or changing habits around.

If you are considering battery storage, a home energy monitor is particularly valuable. The detailed consumption data it provides is the most accurate way for us to specify the right battery size for your usage pattern and solar output.

The Smappee

Smappee is a Belgian energy management company that identifies individual electrical appliances and provides real-time energy readings — much like Shazam identifies songs, Smappee identifies appliances. We consider it one of the best energy monitoring systems available, and it is our preferred tool for detailed consumption analysis ahead of battery system design.

Smappee's current platform, Smappee Infinity, goes beyond simple monitoring. It measures every energy flow in real time, from the main grid connection down to individual circuits and loads, and integrates with EV charging, solar generation, and battery storage in a single system.

Key features include:

• Real-time and historic energy consumption data, automatically uploaded to the Smappee Cloud and accessible via the app or online dashboard
• Solar generation monitoring: see exactly how much of your solar output is being used on site versus exported
• Gas and water monitoring can be added alongside electricity for a complete overview of household energy use
• Intelligent load control: direct surplus solar to EV chargers or battery storage automatically, maximising self-consumption
• Single and three-phase compatible
• Scalable and modular: suitable for simple home monitoring up to complex multi-circuit commercial installations

Smart meters

Most UK households now have a smart meter, which provides a basic view of total electricity consumption in real time and eliminates the need for manual meter readings.

However, smart meters have significant limitations compared to a dedicated monitor like Smappee:

• Smart meters show total household consumption only, they cannot identify which appliances are responsible
• Smart meters cannot measure how much of your electricity is coming from your solar panels versus the grid
• Smart meters do not show your 'always on' baseline load, the electricity consumed by devices left on standby around the clock

For general awareness of your bills, a smart meter is useful. For accurate battery sizing, solar optimisation, and understanding your consumption in detail, a dedicated energy monitor provides information that a smart meter simply cannot.

Smart meter data can still help us understand seasonal and time-of-day consumption patterns, and combined with Smappee data gives us the most complete picture possible when designing your system.