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On Hold: Discussion Open

Show Energy Cost of Power Outlet

vick s. 7 years ago in Things & Capabilities • updated by Den 7 years ago • 4

Hello,


So I would really love to know how much a certain light or lights is costing me and have a question. 

would it be possible to add something like this:

 

User when adding a new tile say a light switch, enters the watts of the given light bulb or bulbs or whatever, then enters average cost of their electricity say .12 cents a kilowatt 


  • User enters 1 time electricity cost of .12 cents a killowatt
  • User adds a switch or whatever 
  • Master bedroom (has 4 light bulbs each 10 watts ) so user enters 40 watts 
  • now action tiles will calculate amount of cost and show daily weekly lifetime and so on cost of master bedroom lights 

This would be amazing since it would only have to be entered once by the user and user will constantly have a ballpark idea of their homes electric usage / cost . 


Honestly i would love love to know how much my kids leaving their lights on all the time is costing me lol , or even better how much my outside lights being on all night are costing me and say turning them off 30 minutes sooner or later would save me how much ? 

 

Sorry for long post 

Thank you ActionTiles team your product is amazing and i have the purchased license!

On Hold: Discussion Open
Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 7 years ago

Hi Vick,


Thanks for your compliments and for this great idea!


However, we feel that the majority of the functionality in your idea should be done where it is most efficient: i.e., on the SmartThings Platform rather than in ActionTiles. That may change, maybe, once ActionTiles implements "event history" collection or other related features, but, still... ActionTiles is meant as a "view & control" front-end, not currently as a continuous energy usage monitor (or security monitor, etc.).


And, indeed, by doing this in SmartThings the functionality will be available for use inside other SmartThings SmartApps: For example, if the energy cost is above a certain threshold, you could send notifications, turn off lights, or do any action that a SmartApp is capable of triggering.


Please start by doing some extensive browsing of the SmartThings Community as this idea has been discussed a few times and even has some posted solutions.


Here is an example Search:  https://community.smartthings.com/search?q=power%20usage%20cost%20device%20type


Thanks!

...Terry.

vick s. 7 years ago

Terry, 

Thank you so much for actually reading and responding to my question. 

I will defiantly look into it on the smart-things side. 

Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 7 years ago

Our pleasure!


I hope you find some good leads, and then let's see maybe if we can link the resulting cost values to ActionTiles someday.

Den 7 years ago

Vick,

One of the best ways to save money on your lighting costs is by dimming your bulbs to 10% whenever you are not reading. I have a routine that turns on lighting at 10% in all my rooms at 5pm. Then after they all turn off at 11pm, I leave just the kitchen light on all night at 10% as a nightlight.

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