Efergy E-Max Wireless Energy Monitor from Reduction Revolution

Published on 19th December 2024 by Simon Fearby

Background

Last year we bought a Power Pal Energy Monitor Bluetooth Power Pal Energy Monitor. This battery powered device attaches to our house power box smart meter to measure power usage in realtime.

It works by detecting the LED flash on the Energy Provider Smart Meter (power used) and reports the power usage to a Power Pal mobile app. If my phone is away from the house it catches up on the power usage when returning to the house.

The Power pal app on my phone saves this power usage stats and graphs the usage over time. The Power Pal device has been syncing to my phone (via Bluetooth) over the last 12 months, this has been helpful to allow is it manually monitoring and track our power usage.

We were able to track our house power 24/7 and measure what was using the most power in realtime. We could tell quite quickly that our air conditioner was consuming 70% of our power.

After we got an EV we wanted to track power usage into the house. After a few months we switched to Origin Energy’s EV Power Up program where we plug in the car when we are not using itand Origin decide when to charge to meet our requested charger limit (at cheaper power rates).

With EV Power Up Origin will try and use surplus renewable energy during the day or off peak energy at night during off peak times (all at 8c per kW/h). In return we do not expect to charge during the peak demand when cheap power is not available.

The device could measure and chart power usage over 24 hours.

On a typical month the car (EV) uses 8kW of power a day. We plug in ever day to remain topped up to 80% battery capacity ensure we have over 410km range everyday. The car is plugged into a 15A 240V Socket but we only pull 12A to be nice to the cabling. The car charger happily lowers the power drawn if the house is using to much power or if the charger, charger cable or charger plug is too hot.

The Power Pal app energy usage matches the cars power usage.

The Power Pal screenshot below shows monthly consumed data at the bottom of the following screenshot.

Our power usage is generally seasonal (summer and winter high load), we have been able to track down high power usage patterns outside the demands of heating and cooling. We learned that our dish washer uses a lot of power in certain modes.

We have reduced our power usage by about 40%, but we want to save mor. This is where the Efergy E-Max Power Monitor with colour display comes in, as it has an always on display to remind the whole house how much power is being used.

Efergy E-Max Wireless Energy Monitor with Colour Screen

Delivered Package

Opened the box lid

Box contents

Inside box

Bottom of the box

Screen inside a box

Manual

Colour display and battery compartment

Back of the screen

Battery compartment at the back of the screen

Battery compartment at the back of the screen

Transmitter box and batteries

Transmitter clamp inputs

Battery compartment on the transmitter

Batteries added to the transmitter

This is the single phase power clamp that clips over the power line in the meter box.

Power clamp open

The colour display is bright

1W power draw on the screeen

Our electrician installed the clamp on the main incoming power line (after the fuse and energy meter and before the switch board).

Power box wiring diagram

The energy monitor can be installed on any circuit you want (e.g on a Pool Pump, solar circuit, Car charger or all power).

I connected the energy monitor screen to the transmitter before talking it inside.

Screen linked to the transmitter

I setup the Energy Monitor near our Television in the lounge room.

The screen updates every 10 seconds with realtime power usage.

Configuring the Energy Monitor

The manual clearly explains the process of configuring the device.

I held down the Mode Set button for 3 seconds until I was asked to set the Date Time. I entered the date and time. I then proceeded to set the..

• Voltage: 240V
• Currency: $
• Tariff 1 – Rate: 0.34c kW/h (I checked my bill)
• Tariff 1 – Time Start and End: 7:00 ~ 22:00
• Tariff 2 – Rate: 0.14c kW/h
• Tariff 2 – Start and End: 22:00 ~ 07:00
• Tariff 3 – Rate: N/A
• Tariff 3 – Start and End: N/A
• Tariff 4 – Rate: N/A
• Tariff 4 – Start and End: N/A
• Budget – Per Month: $400
• Alarm: 12kW
• Footprint: 0.5 kgCO2
• Calibration: 0.98 (I determined this by following the manual and comparing the power usage to the Smart Meter over 24 hours)

Configuring the Energy MonitorAfter a few weeks

I have tested this over a few weeks.

At any time I can press the Next/Right button to cycle through the day/week or months power usage to see a report.

Pros

These are the upsides

• No more logging into a Power Pal Mobile app to check house power usage.
• The whole house can see our energy usage, we have made a game of lowering power usage.
• This a device has helped educated my kids on our energy footprint/usage.
• We no longer blindly adjust the AC up or down (without looking at power usage).
• Zero interaction once connected.

Cons

These are the downsides

• You will need an electrician to install the Energy Minute (5 minute job)
• The Tariff setup has no weekend awareness
• The Tariff time windows do not align with the Smart Meter/Energy Providers bending of the power prices times, as they change prices depending on grid demand.
• No ability to detect and subtract Origin EV Power Up power usage – The EV can pull power at 8c per kWh during the day or night. If wanted to track our EV’s power usage I would need to put a clamp on that circuit or add a second display.
• You may want to calibrate the power usage to get accurate readings (see the manual)

Conclusion

We have definitely lowered our power usage by 40% just by seeing the current power usage and deciding to not turn something on until off peak times (dish washer, washing machine, AC etc).

The colour screen has batteries so the device can be unplugged and carried around the house to real power while I turn devices on and off. Now I know what uses the most power.

I hope Efergy create a screen with multiple clamps for monitoring multiple circuits.

Thanks for reading.

v1.0