Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi Gateway
by Blue Line Innovations
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List Price: Our Price: $120.00 You Save: $39.00 (25%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $82.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
Product Details
Manufacturer: Blue Line InnovationsModel: BLI 31100
Product features:
- Enables personal real time electricity data to be fed to Microsoft Hohm
- Track your current and historical electricity usage
- Understand where your home's energy goes and how you can start saving today
- Engage with the Hohm community to get and share energy saving tips and to compare results
- Compatible with Black & Decker Power Monitor
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi Gateway
Customer Review: How to use it and geek out!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great way to bring the "Prius Effect" into your house... you can totally geek out, annoy your children, and alienate your spouse by watching a graph of your energy consumption while pointing at the culprit disapprovingly.
Or perhaps, you could put an "Energy Jar" in the center of the living room where you can collect funds for your next trip to Disneyland or start that fund to buy everyone extra sweaters and blankets as you crank down the thermostat during the winter.
The basic utility of the device is to show you when energy is getting used and potentially identify areas to improve. If you see something happening at 3AM every night, but everyone's asleep and it's winter, perhaps your irrigation system is still running (even though the water is turned off).
A tip: anything with an "analog" clock or timer is chewing up energy. My front-loading washer eats energy while doing nothing (there may be a solenoid holding a door lock open). My microwave eats almost as much energy as my laptop just telling me the time. How you "solve" those problems will definitely depend on how popular you'd like to be in your house.
Depending on your energy "rate structure", you may be able to identify ways to stay out of certain "zones" where things cost more. I live in a place with "Tiered" rates. When you exceed one level, the price per kWhr goes up. So, peak use doesn't matter as much as reducing the "base load" of the house.
I was able to identify a hundred watts of power vampires (and maybe more) in surprising locations, and verify their effect with this setup. By turning those things off, I might stay out of the next higher energy rate tier. If you live in a "time of use" rate area, you might use the data differently.
The point is - with this setup, your data is WAY BETTER than the power company's data - in that, you can see it every few seconds and it's pretty accurate. But, I wouldn't try arguing your bill with it...
This unit works with both the Black and Decker (Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor) and BlueLine Power Cost Monitor sensors.
Note that this unit is also now compatible with Google PowerMeter, but I still prefer Microsoft Hohm. You can't seem to use both at once.
Also, and this is important, this unit absolutely REQUIRES 802.11b wireless support on your router. Some new routers do NOT support "Mixed Mode" (e.g. 802.11b/g, a/b/g, b/g/n etc.) connection. If yours does not, you will be stuck using 802.11b for your network.
The setup was fairly straightforward. When I installed the software, it found a new version of the firmware for the unit and installed it without issue.
One thing to note is that the instructions tell you to "Hold the Reset button until the light stays RED" on the unit in order to get it to pair with your sensor that's out on the power meter.
Don't do that. If you hold the reset button too long, it will erase all the programming you just did on it.
It appears to me that the unit is ready to pair as soon as you disconnect it from the computer and move it to where you'll be "installing" it (near the power meter). The light blinks red and amber at that point. Pressing the reset button didn't change the blinking pattern, and pressing the button on the sensor outside on the power meter immediately paired the WiFi device to the power meter sensor.
One thing to note is that this unit has a very informative web page inside it. It will tell you things about the current link status of your connection to Microsoft Hohm or Google Power Meter, the battery level in your power meter sensor, and the signal strength of that connection.
The device's web page also automatically refreshes the data more quickly than the Hohm site. But it will ONLY SHOW YOU DATA IF YOU USE A SECURE WIFI NETWORK. They warn you about this in the package. But it's just a helpful reminder in case you don't use at least WEP security. Some people scratch their heads when they see a blank page, but Hohm has their data somehow.
I chose to assign the device a FIXED IP address on my router so that I could always get to that web page. If you use DHCP, the Hohm connection will be fine, but your device might drift around your network when your router resets itself. You can fix a DHCP address in your router or in the device setup. Doing it in the router may require re-doing the device setup just because of how your router behaves, so I'd recommend doing it in the device setup.
The device seemed to survive a power outage, and Hohm reconnected as soon as the power came back on.
So, now that you can see all your data, go out and hunt for power vampires!
Description of Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi Gateway
Wi-Fi Accessory for POWER COST monitor - Connect via the internet to analyze your energy usage, save money by knowing the CURRENT cost of electrical usage at any moment.The Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi helps you better understand your household's energy usage. Compatible with the Blue Line PowerCost Monitor and the Black & Decker Power Monitor, this WiFi unit wirelessly relays information about your electrical usage to Microsoft Hohm. You'll be able to obtain details and charts depicting how much energy your household uses on a yearly, monthly, daily, hourly, and even 30-second basis. The BLI 31100 WiFi unit will help you discover hidden energy hogs in your home, learn how to reduce your carbon footprint, and save money. A Blue Line Innovations PowerCost Monitor or Black & Decker Power Monitor, an in-home wireless router, and a Microsoft Hohm account are required for operation.
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 The PowerCost Monitor WiFi works with accessible wireless broadband to securely relay real-time information from your power monitor to your Microsoft Hohm account. |
 Connect via the Internet to your Microsoft Hohm account and learn how to reduce your carbon footprint and save money. |
WiFi Unit Sends Real-Time Data to Microsoft Hohm
Compatible with the Blue Line PowerCost Monitor and the Black & Decker Power Monitor, the BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi lets you track your home's energy data using a Microsoft Hohm account. Once you've set up and installed Microsoft Hohm on your desktop PC or laptop, you can plug the WiFi unit into any household electrical outlet. The device works with accessible wireless broadband to securely relay real-time information from your power monitor to your Hohm account.
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Harness the Power of Information
Connect via the Internet to your Microsoft Hohm account and learn how to reduce your carbon footprint and save money. Hohm tracks your current and historical energy data, offering charts in yearly, monthly, daily, hourly, and even 30-second increments to help you view patterns in your energy consumption. Additionally, Hohm provides energy-usage breakdowns that help you identify "energy hogs" and better understand where energy is being consumed in your home.
Hohm also scores your household and compares it to others in the area, so you can determine relative usage. Hohm even offers a personalized list of energy-efficiency improvement recommendations with estimated savings and referrals to local vendors. Moreover, the Hohm community provides a great way to get tips, share energy-saving ideas, compare results with other households, and build project lists based on how much you want to spend or save.
Think Green, Act Smart, Save Money
The Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi is a wallet friendly choice for your home. Because this device helps you track and understand your home's energy consumption, it makes it easier than ever to see how you can improve your home's efficiency. The more efficient your home becomes, the more money you'll save, and the more you'll reduce your carbon footprint.
What's in the Box
Blue Line Innovations BLI 31100 PowerCost Monitor WiFi, AC Adapter, USB cable, and installation instructions.
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 Track energy costs over a 24-hour period. View larger. |  Discover overnight phantom power consumption. View larger. |  Track electricity usage down to the minute. View larger. | ||
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