Some Singapore households to try device that monitors power consumption

Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia 4 Aug 08;

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) is piloting the use of a tracking device that will help consumers know exactly how much they are paying for various appliances in the house.

With the device, the NEA hopes more households will cut down their energy consumption and save on their utilities bills.

To use it, the device needs to be linked to the circuit breaker. The device not only shows the total energy consumed by the household, it also shows how much power up to three selected appliances use and even calculates the dollar value of the energy consumed.

The NEA hopes such devices will help households change their consumption habits.

K Suresh, senior engineer with NEA's Resource Conversation Department, said: "Through this device, we hope to create awareness among the households about saving energy."

Households which have already started using the device reported significant savings due to awareness.

Home owner Tommy Ng said: "Before that, we didn’t know, because there's no dollars and cents. I have nine rooms and if no one is in the rooms and all (of us are) in the hall watching TV and all the nine room lights are on, it consumes a lot of electricity."

With 12 people in Mr Ng's household, this bottom-line awareness, along with initiatives to switch to energy-saving appliances, have translated into savings of about S$400 a month.

The device will soon be found in more homes. The NEA is conducting a pilot project in 200 homes in the North West and South West Community Development Councils, to help households in these areas monitor their energy consumption.

The six-month pilot project will begin this month, and focuses on families in four- and five-room flats.

The devices will be installed free of charge by NEA and Bridex, the company behind the device.

Mr Ng's energy-saving ways, together with those of 11 other families will be featured in a new programme titled "Energy Savers", which will start running this Thursday on MediaCorp's Channel 8 at 8pm.

The show will challenge the 12 households to reduce their energy consumption by at least 10 per cent and invent creative ideas on how to save electricity. The winning household stands to win S$5,000.

Those not involved in the trial can buy the S$200 device at Home-Fix stores from next week.

- CNA/yb

The energy detective
Device to track power-thirsty appliances on trial in 200 flats
Esther Ng, Today Online 5 Aug 08;


LIKE many customers, Madam Teo Meow Eng, 62, was confounded when her electricity bill showed her usage had shot up from her monthly average of 417kwh to 681kwh in June, despite what she thought were her best efforts to conserve energy.

Now, a new device soon to hit the market could throw light on such mysteries for ordinary householders, and help them be more specific in efforts to shave dollars off their power bills.

The device, developed by Bridex Harwal with the support of the National Environment Agency (NEA), taps into your circuit box and records — in kilowatts, as well as in dollars and cents — exactly how much you are spending on, say, air-conditioning in the master bedroom or on your fridge.

You choose which appliances or which combination of appliances to measure. The device keeps records for up 12 months.

Already, 200 households in the South West and North West districts are being fitted for a six-month trial.

When the ETrack was described to Mdm Teo — who had earlier voiced her confusion over her bill in Today’s report on July 3 (“As temperatures rise, so do power bills”) — she thought it impressive. Yet she is hesitant to fork out $200 to have one installed in her home. “It’s a good idea but I don’t want to spend more money to see how much I’m spending on electricity bills,” she said.

But some families have seen for themselves the huge savings that could accrue. Twelve families have been testbeds for the device over two months.

For Mr Tommy Ng, 50, ETrack helped chop their energy costs from $162.65 over two weeks to $90.46. “My daughter saw on television a call for entries to join a reality show, Energy Saves,” said the financial adviser. “Since being on the programme, we’ve managed to monitor our expenditure and switched to energy-efficient appliances.”

Mr Ng, his wife and their four children live in a nine-bedroom apartment (it originally came with six rooms which they partitioned) in Eunos, with their maid and Alaskan husky.

Mr Ng, who used to spend $450 a month on electricity, figured his air-conditioning unit, three fridges and a freezer consumed a lot of energy. He has since switched to a four-tick refrigerator and a systems 4 air-conditioner with an inverter.

The most surprising discovery he made was just how much power was consumed on standby mode. ETrack revealed it cost Mr Ng 0.73 cents per hour to leave his air-con on standby — and 0.04 cents per hour if he turned the switch off at the compressor.

Other steps the Ng family took to reduce their power consumption include changing their CRT television to an LCD one, using compact fluorescent lights, having their ceiling painted with insulator paint to reduce heat in the home, and attaching skirting to the bottom of their doors to prevent the air-conditioning from escaping.

ETRACK came about because Mr Lawrence Lee, president of Bridex Harwal, wanted a way to keep track of how much energy his household was using.

When he approached NEA last year about introducing the device to households, it only measured energy in amperes and not in kilowatts, the measurement used the calculation of our electricity bill.

On NEA’s suggestion, Brindex included more friendly features such as tariff rate and hourly rate of usage. Mr Lee said the benefit of ETRACK is that by telling you how much energy each appliance drinks, “it will motivate you to use energy more efficiently and thus help you to reduce your utility bill”.

At press time, the HDB had not confirmed if it would be adopting ETRACK for future HDB flats. The NEA said that the 200 households now being installed with the device will track their consumption over the next six months, at the end of which there will be a review of whether to introduce ETRACK to more homes.

Tracking device can help cut power use
He Zongying, Straits Times 5 Aug 08;

ELECTRICITY prices may be hitting record highs, but wasting power is a hard habit to break.

But a new gadget, jointly launched by the National Environment Agency and local electrical equipment developer Bridex Harwal, will help.

The ETrack (energy consumption tracking device) can:

# Monitor household consumption;

# Detect which appliances consume the most; and

# Put a dollar value on energy usage.

First to try it were residents in the North West Community Development Council (CDC).

In June, 200 households with relatively high electricity consumption volunteered to take part in the Energy Audit@Bukit Panjang, a conservation contest. The device was fitted in their electrical circuit boxes to track consumption.

Until October, grassroots leaders, together with student volunteers from the National Junior College, will track significant changes recorded.

North West District Mayor Teo Ho Pin recalled using a similar device in Britain as a student: 'We used to have to put coins in for the heater and that really makes you conserve.'

Similar devices are available overseas but Bridex Harwal is the first to introduce one here. It is expected to retail at Home-Fix stores later this week for between $160 and $200.