They are lots of benefits to using Wattson to help you save energy and reduce your annual electricity bill.
The simplicity & brightness of the Wattson display makes it easy for the whole family to read and understand; partially sighted people will be able to read the glowing red numbers from across a room and see the colour being projected onto the wall behind. Even children can understand the meaning of the colours, making it easy to get them excited about Solar power and also get involved in reducing electricity bills.
Wattson is portable and wireless, so you can use it anywhere in the home thanks to the display’s built-in rechargeable batteries.
The technology used to transmit the data is FM radio which has an excellent range, a deciding factor for choosing the right energy monitor.
Because Wattson shows usage in simple money and colours terms, it is easy for people to understand how much they are spending on what appliances and make more informed decisions – in a survey of 500, Wattson users reported savings on their usage bills of 19.6%.
The Wattson uses just 5 watts on average, which drops to under a watt in night mode, which also extends the rechargeable display battery life.
Wattsons store up to 28 days of electricity use in its internal memory. With holmes, you can access daily, weekly and monthly views of your home’s energy use and join an online community to swap energy-saving hints and tips.
The Solar and Solar Plus models monitor usage, generation and most importantly can show net usage, which is the most beneficial for you to see when you have free electricity: how much is being used and how much more can be used to get the most out of the system being installed.
Wattsons can be used in big houses and small businesses that have a three-phase (415V) electricity supply.
“When I first brought a Wattson to my home, the first thing I did with my son Michael was to try and turn as many appliances on as possible to see how high Wattson could go. I wanted to max it out and make it glow red. We achieved a healthy 11kW and a vibrant red glow.
With Michael in tow, we then proceeded to turn off each appliance in turn, one by one, noting the changes on wattson. Making use of Michael’s subtraction skills we were able to discover the power use of each appliance, which was duly noted.
This was a great way to educate Mike, and myself, on our energy use. Slowly we reduced the power down step by step until we were at a few hundred watts.
Along the way we found that our microwave cost us (well, me) £50 a year just to tell us the time, and our entertainment centre (TV, playstation dvd, hifi) cost me over £100 a year on standby.
After some time we had switched of all the appliances that we could find, but the power was still at over 100 watts. We wanted to get to zero and thought we should be, where this 100 watts was being used was a mystery. We set off again on our search and after another few minutes discovered there are some appliances we can not easily (or rather conveniently) turn off, these include burglar alarms, electric doorbells, central heating controls, cooker clock, a phone charger etc. Each one using very little but adding up.
So, we didn’t succeed in getting it to zero, the burglar and alarm and central heating being quite important things not to have switched off. We did get to less than 30W, which isn’t that bad.
Note: Please remember to turn your fridge and freezer BACK ON! I forgot to do this and lost a lot of food, as well as being in the dog house for several days.
wattson now lives in the living room, where we can keep an eye on it (or it can keep an eye on us). I normally keep the numbers turned off but colours on. It’s actually quite soothing when we have the lights low and are watching a dvd or reading.
Last thing at night or as we leave the house, we use it as a last check. A soothing blue glow is Wattson telling us ‘everything is ok’.”
Jon, Co-Founder
