The rollout of SmartHub last November came with the promise of additional tools for Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative members to understand and manage electricity usage. Some of those tools are being activated this month, and should appear as Bill Analysis during the first week of August.
Using powerful analytical tools, this system can combine your usage data, weather information and data you enter to create a customized assessment of your energy usage. It can help you go beyond simple numbers to show what systems in your home could be causing high bills or show you how your energy saving efforts are paying off.
In the SmartHub usage menu, you will see these new options:
• Bill Analysis. This section will show you a detailed view of your home’s likely energy usage during the selected billing period. Each major usage category is taken into account, along with the ability to compare usage amounts between billing cycles
• Build Your Home Profile. This profile allows you to input details about your home. When completed, this data improves the accuracy of the other analysis tools by eliminating some assumptions made by the system.
• Projected Bill. While daily usage alerts are great for watching your energy consumption, the projected bill tool puts a number to your usage statistics. By looking at usage and weather trends, the projected bill amount can help you avoid any surprises and maybe even adjust usage to avoid high bills altogether.
• Energy Detail. The energy detail screen puts all of the data together for you with charts and graphs to visualize your energy use and how that changes over time.
Knowledge really is power, and in this case, knowledge about your home’s electricity usage can give you the power to cut energy costs. It may also help you discover what systems in your home are in need of repair or replacment. 59479002
As with any automated tool, there are sure to be exceptions where the computer’s algorithms and assumptions are not right for specific situations. But with that caveat, I’m certain that for most TVEC members, this addition to SmartHub will be truly enlightening.
Visit the SmartHub page on tvec.net for more information or to download the SmartHub mobile app.
This article appeared in the August edition of TVEC’s Texas Co-op Power magazine.
