How to track your energy usage - monitor electricity usage

Understanding how to track your energy usage can go a long way towards making your home more energy efficient. While it may seem a little overwhelming at first, there are a range of tools that make monitoring your usage a breeze.

Not sure where to begin? We’ll walk you through some simple ways you can monitor energy usage in your home.

Why monitor your energy usage?

Sick of being hit with those unexpectedly high power bills? You know the ones that arrive at the worst times and leave you scratching your head at how you doubled your energy usage in a month?

Learning to track your usage will allow you to identify your consumption habits, particularly ones that could be causing your bills to skyrocket. From there you can make small adjustments to save you money and stress in the long run. Plus – lowering your energy consumption is great for the planet, as well as your wallet.

Ways to track your energy usage

Check your power bill

It may seem basic, but so often we get overwhelmed by the facts and figures that drench our bill. By understanding what each figure represents in terms of your consumption, you may find that you are able to trace your consumption spikes back to a source.

Some key details to keep an eye out for are:

• Seasonal peaks and troughs in energy consumption that could be attributed to heating and cooling usage

• Any peak or off-peak rates that may apply, and how your typical consumption habits work in with these periods

• Any unexplainable peaks and troughs that may correlate with a new appliance purchase, new household member or new lifestyle habits

Smart metres

Smart metres are handy devices that digitally measure when and how much electricity is being used at your home. The readings can be connected to an in-home display or accessed through a web portal (usually through your energy distributor). From there you can track your usage on a daily basis and identify which habits could be causing fluctuations in your energy consumption.

Depending on which state you live in and how new your property is, you may already have one installed. You can reach out to your energy distributor to find out more about smart metres in your home.

Apps

If you want easily digestible usage data on hand, then an app could be your best option. They can provide precise data on which appliances are sucking up the most power, tips on reducing your consumption, and even estimate your next bill amount.

There are a ton of apps on the market, so it’s worth doing some research into which works best for your needs and if they’re compatible with your supplier. It’s also important to note that most of these apps work in conjunction with external monitoring hardware.

If you’ve armed yourself with all the data available and something still isn’t adding up – it could be time to consider changing energy providers. Allow our friendly experts at Compare & Connect to find you the perfect plan and help you make the switch