Smart meters enable your utility company to communicate to your meter using wireless communication to create your bill without reading the meter and to create more detailed costing based on aggregate consumption, and energy costs tiered on time-of-day usage. Smart meters, on their own, provide very little benefit to the consumer because they are typically installed outside of your home and do not provide user-friendly information. PowerWatch can be used either with or without a smart meter to give you real-time information on your power use. It is your family’s conservation tool to monitor your energy usage, and costs while creating a conservation plan that delivers savings through reduced use.

 

 

Simply put, the SmartGrid employs digital communication across the power distribution network with the goal of improving its performance in a number of ways:

• Enable energy conservation, reduce the demand for electricity particularly during peak demand where overuse can lead to power disruption
• Environmentally friendly: reduce environmental impacts thorough improvements in efficiency and by enabling the integration of a larger percentage of intermittent resources than could otherwise be reliably supported.
• More efficient use of power generating assets
• Greater security: withstands natural disasters, physical and cyber attacks without suffering massive blackouts or exorbitant recovery costs

The term "demand response" denotes the capability to throttle back energy use during periods of high energy demand. During peak energy demand, electrical utilities may not have enough generating capacity to deliver the required power. This results in blackouts and other possible failures of the electrical grid. Utility companies and taxpayers alike want to avoid the capital costs of new generating facilities by distributing electrical use more evenly throughout the day so that existing facilities may be used more efficiently.

PowerWatch provides a demand response system that is designed to allow customers to determine how they want to respond during peak demand. For example: turning off the pool pump or throttling back the air conditioner by a couple of degrees when electricity cost reaches a certain threshold or the power utility signals the need for demand throttling.

PowerWatch systems do not require an Internet connection to work. However, the demand response model (PowerWatch-DR) may require an Internet connection depending on how the particular utility signals demand response information.

Optionally, an internet connection can be used for remote operation on some PowerWatch models. That way, the consumer can monitor and manage energy use with any web enabled device from anywhere on the internet.

ZigBee is an alliance of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. Key markets and applications for ZigBee include Energy Management and Home/Building Automation. While many smart meters in use today use proprietary communications, many key manufacturers are moving to ZigBee based solutions. PowerWatch is a member of the ZigBee Alliance. For more information, see the ZigBee Alliance web site (www.zigbee.org).

 

Z-Wave is a proprietary wireless communications protocol designed for home automation, specifically to remote control applications in residential and light commercial environments. The technology uses a low-power RF radio embedded or retrofitted into home electronics devices and systems, such as lighting, home access control, entertainment systems and household appliances. The Z-Wave Alliance is an international consortium of manufacturers that provide interoperable Z-Wave enabled devices. PowerWatch supports Z-Wave for load control due to the readily available supply of Z-Wave control devices such as thermostats and relays. PowerWatch is a member of the Z-Wave Alliance. For more information, see the Z-Wave Alliance web site (www.z-wavealliance.org).

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) refers to systems that measure, collect and analyse energy usage, and interact with advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, through various communication media either on request (on-demand) or on pre-defined schedules.

AMI is an evolution of the traditional Automatic meter reading (AMR) in that it enables two-way communications with the meter. Traditional systems which were only capable of meter readings don't qualify as AMI systems.

The PowerWatch-RIM uses a completely separate sensor than your utility meter. Consequently, they will have different readings. Other reasons for discrepancies are:

• Setup of the PowerWatch-RIM. Make sure that the billing is setup properly in the PowerWatch-RIM. This will need to be changed whenever your utility changes pricing.
• Installation of the PowerWatch-RIM sensor. Improper installation can results in either minor or major discrepancies.

Your utility provided meter should be regarded as the "true" measure of energy use. The PowerWatch-RIM should be used as an estimation tool that allows you to see trends and approximate your energy use. It is not intended as a replacement for your utility meter.

To get an overview of the installation proceedure, the Quick Install Guide is available here:

• Quick Install Guide for 120V Systems
• Quick Install Guide for 240V Systems

Note: more documentation is available through the customer login

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