Eco-Eye Smart PC
Eco-Eye Smart PC
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Eco-Eye Smart PC Electricity Monitor, Everything you need for PC connectivity in one box.
Recommended for: Families, Couples, Small offices
Price: £60.00
This product
is currently out of stock
Product tags:
Daily Target Graph Data-Logging Demand only monitor Dual Tariff Includes Transmitter and Sensor USB Wall Mountable 3 phase ready
Everything you need for PC connectivity in one box. The Smart PC Energy Monitor comes complete with an Eco-eye Memory Card and a USB cable which uses our open source Trax software, increasing your data storage capacity to 10 years (at 4-second resolution).
You can choose to transfer data in real-time via the USB interface cable or data saved to the Memory Card – which means you don’t have to keep your PC on 24/7. Ideal for managing your usage in more detail so you can get the bigger picture by examining usage trends and patterns.
Product Displays
- KW- Hour, day, week, month, year (instant load)
- Cost (£,$,€, Money Icon) - Hour, Week, Day, Month, Year
- Amps
- Time
- Temperature (at Display)
- Programmable Display
- Target Graph
- Memory Card (included)
Pack contains:
1 x Smart display unit
1 x standard 13 mm sensor and cable
1 x Transmitter
1 x Eco-eye Memory Card
2 x AA batteries
2 x C cell batteries
Plastic access key
Instructions
- Smart Brochure
- B. Eco-eye.zip - Configuration files for Mac installation
- C. Trax_card installation file for Mac
- D. Trax_usb installation file for Mac
- Mac driver for USB cable
- Trax- updating from version 2
- Trax operating guide
- Smart instruction booklet
- A. Installing Trax READ FIRST and follow exactly!
Nicely designed & well-made system, very easy to install and set up. Very quickly managed to identify a potential yearly saving in our house of over £100 (even more so with electricity prices heading upwards!)
The instructions are very clear, a sequence of simple steps/checks to follow - I was getting readings within minutes of delivery. The Eco monitor display unit is clear and easy to read, it is worth reading the instructions because it has great functionality (onboard historical usage, a target system,etc) but if you just want the big numbers then there`s no real need. You can also review simple historical consumption without the need to link up to a PC or read the memory card.
The PC link is very neat, either directly read to the PC via USB, or download historical data from the unit via a removable memory card. You can also review simple historical consumption without the need to link up to a PC
The Trax software installed fine on Windows10. It`s a little `clunky` and looks like an old DOS app, but I don`t think this is written/developed by Eco-Eye so not really their issue. It does what I need and will show if there are any funny `spikes` over time.
I had SMETS2 smart meters installed by my energy supplier earlier this year and was hoping that I`d be able to get fairly fine-grained electricity consumption figures for each hour of the day. I`m interested in calculating whether or not it would benefit me to switch to an "Agile" tariff, where the unit price for electricity varies for each half-hour of a day according to overall generator supply/ consumer demand ratios. This is where smart metering will offer true benefits to consumers, allowing them to alter their usage during the day to gain advantage of cheaper "out-of-peak" tariff periods. Unfortunately the smart meter is currently unable to provide me with the detail I require; The in-home monitor will only provide me with overall usage on a day-to-day basis, and the smart meter itself needs to have certain parameters set remotely in order to display anything more than cumulative consumption readings. My energy supplier appears reluctant to change these parameters even though my energy account is set to provide them with half-hourly readings.
I needed an independent means of capturing usage with at least half-hourly resolution, which didn`t involve tapping into the incoming mains supply, and a means of transferring the data to a spreadsheet in order to analyse usage in detail. I found the Eco-eye Smart PC from a general internet search, and it seemed ideal for my needs. Existing reviews were positive and I thought it worth the investment to see if I could save its cost, and possibly more, not simply by using less electricity but by being smarter about when I used that electricity.
The Eco-eye Smart PC was delivered quickly (I ordered on Friday and it was delivered on Monday); It was well packaged, complete and was very easy to set up (I was recording usage data within an hour or two of receiving the delivery). I ordered the optional USB memory card reader, and PSU for the Smart PC. It is very easy to capture data from the Smart PC and save those data to a spreadsheet for table and chart analysis.
I am extremely happy with my investment; I have been recording usage data for nearly 6 weeks now and so far I calculate that I could save at least between £1.50 and £2.00 per week on my electricity bills simply by planning the times I use high-consumption appliances such as the washing machine and tumble dryer; I have a Golden Retriever so the washing machine and tumble dryer are in nearly daily use for blankets and towels (especially on wet and muddy days). That kind of saving would recoup the cost of the Eco-eye Smart PC in about 6 months.
I purchased this after a competitor started charging for their service. I wanted to have something where I was the owner of the data but I could also download it and perform some analysis from time to time. While it does not have any fancy cloud features, it`s very simple and robust. I did have problems with the SD Card but they pointed out I may have it the wrong way around! That was indeed the case and it is possible to insert it facing the wrong way but otherwise I can`t fault it. Simple, effective, does what is says on the tin and I`d been looking for several weeks for a decent replacement (tried ordering another one only having to go into dispute resolution with my credit card after it didn`t ship after several weeks) to my previous solution, this ticked the most important boxes for me. Great service, shipped immediately and had it working in a few minutes. It`s on my desk and I am familiar with most reasons for an increase now and how many Watts each device uses almost!
An absolute "Goldilocks" of a product. Not so "smart" that it absolutely requires you to send your data to any company`s cloud services via internet connection (as so many of these things seem to be, which is not something I`m willing to accept - remember, "the S in IOT is for Security"), but also not so "dumb" as to be vague or unhelpful.
The install was a breeze, the AA-battery-powered sensor-transmitter arrangement was a perfect match for our outdoors meter cupboard (where getting usable-mains for a mandatory psu would have been a major pain in the rear) and the display-brain unit Just Worked with very little fuss. The interface on the display takes a couple of minutes to learn but the instructions are full and clear. Radio reception has no problems anywhere in our 3-floor house.
The Trax software is very useful too - we`re a very techy household and deeply appreciate both the Card-style "import historic data" and Live "log what`s happening right now to a pretty graph" applications. I bought the offered card-reader accessory at time of purchase just to simplify things, as the card type used (old-school MMC) might not necessarily work in the card readers in our PCs - and it`s very fairly priced.
If you`re less-techy and just want to get a general sense for your electricity consumption then the cheaper non-PC-kit would be great (and you could buy the MMC-card and/or special USB cable at pretty reasonable prices later on, if desired). But if you want to collect and review detailed data on your home power consumption, I would definitely recommend this PC bundle kit.
(I did buy the optional Lithium AA batteries for the sensor-transmitter to help with battery-life in the colder outside environment where the performance of regular alkaline AAs might be reduced. Probably less-necessary if your meter is inside of home.)
I have personally experienced the staff at Eco-Eye to be professional, provide an excellent level of service from initial technical advice through to product delivery, supply an excellent range of reliable products which provide extremely good value and even better Made in Britain
The products have been used in a number of different applications on the Isle of Wight within the residential, commercial, industrial and educational sectors, have identified previously unknown energy wastage situations, ie an unused hot water tank in a friends loft at their home in Bembridge being heated by a 2 Kw electric heating element 24/7 over several years, an under floor electric heating system at Busy Bee Garden Centre in Ryde being automatically switched on overnight in the middle of the summer, also providing confirmation and evidence that existing energy saving initiatives were effective in another friends home in Apse Heath and most importantly has been an extremely useful educational tool for children at Brading Youth Club and also at the Isle of Wight College whos moto is If You Want The Knowledge Then Come To The College
We currently use the Eco-Eye Smart PC in our range of Electric Vehicle Smart Charge Points currently installed around the island, an example of this is in a number of hotels where guests stay on vacation, charge their electric vehicles overnight, the hotel then has evidence of electric consumption per individual guest from each individual EV Smart Charge Point and then has the option to make an informed decision to absorb the electricity cost by providing free EV charge point electricity to guests as an incentive.
I have used a range of Eco-Eye products in a good number of applications since 2010, hope to continue and enhance our relationship during 2018 and subsequent years to come.
Well done Eco-Eye team.
regards,
Mason Murray.
Site Facilities Manager at Medina House School on the Isle of Wight.
These guys are so very easy to deal with!
Why not 5 stars?
Unfortunately, it took 3 attempts to get a properly working device but now we have it we are delighted with it. The detail of information that you can access is amazing and it has been instrumental in both reducing our electricity usage and making us very aware of how we use the energy we do use.
Despite the initial problems, everything was sorted out without fuss and very fast. The people we spoke with were knowledgeable and very helpful. The only thing they wanted to do was help us and get us up and running.
Many thanks guys and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
Installed this piece of kit a few weeks ago and was very pleased to find how easy it was, the instructions are very clear on a separate piece of paper and at the end it suggest to try turning on a kettle to see if it has been correctly installed, sure enough the numbers on the display shoot up showing a real time reading of electricity usage leaving you satisfied and at the same time giving you a better perspective on your electricity usage. Does the job and more with the PC connectivity and at a reasonable price.