Intro Energy Conservation
Vera can save you hundreds each year on your energy bill and let's you carefully track where your energy is being used. See also: How much money will Vera save me on my energy bill?
Some utility companies have started implementing alerts where they announce when the power grid is being overloaded and power must be reduced to prevent brown-outs. Soon you will be able to tell Vera to listen for these alerts so she can help out your community by automatically reduce your energy usage at those critical periods, and then restoring your settings when the critical time has passed.
What you'll need:
Z-Wave lamp modules, light switches, thermostats, and appliance modules:
These devices allow Vera to remotely turn on and off the lights or other devices and to dim your lights. The lamp and appliance modules are very to install, just plug them into your wall outlet, and plug the lamp or appliance into the module. Mi Casa Verde can also arrange an installer to swap out your old light switches and thermostats with new Z-Wave models that Vera can control.
Z-Wave energy monitoring power strips:
Coming soon... Mi Casa Verde will offer Z-Wave power strips which report to Vera how much energy is being used by each outlet on the strip, and will let Vera turn on and off the power at each outlet.
How to do it
1. Follow the Quick Start Guide to get Vera up on running.
2. On the Devices tab click the '+' sign next to each of your lights and input the correct 'Wattage' for each light or similar device. Vera regularly polls all the devices to see if they are on or off or dimmed, and keeps a log, so you can see how much energy you're using in real time and in the past on findvera.com
3. Create Scenes, like 'Leave the house', which turn off all your lights and the thermostat. Remember to choose this scene on your mobile phone or web panel when you leave the house.
4. Vera's automation let's you create timers and events that automatically turn off devices for you. For example, you may create a timer that turns off the porch light at 11pm. And create an event that turns the porch light on at sunset. Perhaps create another timer that turns off all the interior lights at 9am.
