Hacker News Reader

SDGE started breaking down our energy usage by "type" a few months ago. Not exactly sure how but they can categorize things as laundry, lights, entertainment, computers, always on, etc.

There are some screenshots here that kind of give you the idea: https://www.sdge.com/energy-management-tool

View on HN

My PGE (Bay area) does the same but I'm pretty sure it's an estimate according to house size, # of people, and a questionnaire I filled out such as "how many times do you run the dishwasher per week". Your house pulls electricity through the breaker box or doesn't.

Then again, it's possible different appliances have a specific electrical signatures like +5KWH x 1.5 hours = dishwasher.

> I'm pretty sure it's an estimate Yeah, I (cynically) assume this utility-provided breakdown data is worthless. There's no way around circuit-level monitoring.

I was on mobile and unable to find it but here it is: https://sdge.bidgely.com/dashboard/faqs

How does it work? Magic? Not really. Each appliance uses electricity in a unique manner - think of it like an appliance fingerprint. We detect and extract these "fingerprints" and convert the data into useful insights and recommendations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com