Navetas creates intelligent home energy meter

Developed in conjunction with the Cambridge Design Partnership, the home energy hub offers distribution companies a single point to monitor multiple utilities.

Nick Wellington of Navetas said that, while home energy monitor products have recently become popular, these have limited functionality as they only provide an estimate of usage. The problem for the householder is that the final bill can vary widely from this estimate.

’Our solution provides an accurate measure of the actual energy usage and can be broken down by appliance. It is possible then to compare the efficiency of appliances and see, at a glance, where energy is being used,’ he said.

The smart hub can be easily retrofitted by a utility company as it attaches at the point where the service enters the house. The information is then sent wirelessly and made available to the householder through a touch-screen display located in the house.

The ability to drill down to examine the consumption of individual appliances is due to the fact that the unit can identify the ’signatures’ of individual electrical appliances by interpreting both mains voltage and current electricity waveforms.