After your Wiser Energy monitor is installed and the signal check process is complete, Wiser Energy will start pulling in data to feed its device detection algorithms. The device detection process is not immediate; Wiser Energy needs to see many on/off event cycles of a device in order to start building up a model for it. Most customers will start seeing detections within the first one to two weeks. The first devices identified are often common devices that cycle frequently and consume large amounts of power, like your refrigerator or washing machine. Less commonly used, smaller load, or complex signature devices like coffee makers, televisions, and electric vehicles tend to take longer to find.

Please note that due to variances across homes in terms of power quality and in the types of device present, total detection coverage of your entire home is unlikely.

Wiser Energy needs to see devices in their usual context with their regular usage pattern to be able to accurately identify them. That means that “training” Wiser Energy by turning devices on/off and labeling them is not an effective method to help Wiser Energy learn. You can learn more about the challenges of implementing a “learning” mode here.

While you cannot “train” Wiser Energy in such a way, we have introduced a variety of features that take advantage of user input to help improve device detection in your home and for the entire user base.

Network Identification allows Wiser Energy to see some of the simple “handshake” messages put out by your networked devices.

Integrations with smart bulbs from Philips Hue and smart plugs from TP-Link Kasa and Belkin Wemo will net you instant detections for connected devices and provides great data to the Data Science team.

Renaming your devices, supplying the make/model, taking advantage of the Community Names feature, and filling out your Home Details feeds the Data Science team great data that improves detection for everybody.

When Wiser Energy finds a device, but you’re finding the detections to be inaccurate, you can report it as “not on.” This feeds our Data Science team valuable information so they can continue to refine the detection model.

Remember, even without native detections, you can still take advantage of Wiser Energy insights. The Power Meter is a fantastic tool that provides a real-time view of your energy consumption. Try turning on and off your devices while watching in the Power Meter, to identify how much they consume. You can do the same for the “Always On” devices in your home, identifying how much they’re costing you every day.

Not everything. We’re able to identify many electrical devices in typical homes and continue to expand our device detection abilities. As we get data from more and more homes, the performance and coverage of our device detection will improve.

To ensure you have the best experience with Wiser Energy, the following compatibility specifications are recommended:

Your home has:

2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network with consistent internet connection. Wiser Energy is not compatible with 5Ghz Wi-Fi signals.
Its own electrical meter and accessible electrical panel.
Your mobile device runs on iOS or Android and has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Your electrical panel:

Is a split-phase 120/240V residential panel up to 200A.
Must have enough space to fit sensor clamps with HxWxD dimensions of 3.375″ x 2″ x .75″ (85.73 x 50.8 x 19.05mm), and an inside diameter of 1”. The Wiser Energy current sensors may not be able to fit around busbars. Our sensor cables are 46″ (116.84cm) long and our power cable is 36″ (91.44cm) long.
Does not drop below 32°F (0°C) or exceed 154°F (68°C).
Is not exposed to water or areas with high condensation (Wiser Energy complies with ANSI/IEC 60529 Rated IPx0).

When speaking with your electrician, let them know that Wiser Energy is an energy monitor that installs in your electrical panel with two clamp-on current sensors around the mains, and a 240V breaker which Wiser Energy uses for its power supply and also to measure voltage on both legs. Unless you have a spare 240V breaker in your panel, your electrician will likely need to provide a new one.

Wiser Energy should only be installed by a licensed electrician. Installation itself is quick and easy, but it requires opening up your electrical panel and connecting current sensors to the service mains. These wires are live, even with your main breaker switched off, and are thus very dangerous. Only a licensed electrician is qualified to work in these conditions.

When speaking with your electrician, let them know that Wiser Energy is an energy monitor that installs in your electrical panel with two clamp-on current sensors around the mains, and a 240V breaker which Wiser Energy uses for its power supply and also to measure voltage on both legs. Unless you have a spare 240V breaker in your panel, your electrician will likely need to provide a new one.

With just two clamp-on current sensors, the Wiser Energy Monitor takes current and voltage measurements over 1 million times every second. From this incredibly high-resolution data, it derives the electrical signatures of individual devices. In comparison, most “high resolution” smart meters only take measurements every couple of seconds…hardly real time!

Within the first week of installation, Wiser Energy should be able to find some common devices that cycle on and off frequently, like your refrigerator or microwave. Some devices will take longer to identify, until the algorithms have seen enough contextual data to reliably detect them.

There are devices that Wiser Energy won’t be able to recognize right away, but as more Wiser Energy Monitors are installed across the US and Canada, our machine learning algorithms will have more data to generate models from, and the device detection capabilities will just keep growing!

No. There is only a one-time cost for the Wiser Energy monitor. Use of the Wiser Energy mobile and web apps is included. New features and enhancements are free via app updates and over-the-air software upgrades.

Most likely! Your incoming solar feed must connect directly into your main electrical panel, either through a breaker or a service-side tap.

If solar is set up in a subpanel, the incoming solar feed should be within 46″ of the main panel. This will allow the current sensor cable to reach and connect to the Wiser Energy monitor in the main electrical panel. Extension cables are available in lengths of 4′, 12′, 25′, and 40′ should your solar feed be further than 46″ from your main electrical panel. These extensions can be combined to achieve larger lengths, but the maximum length should be no more than 80′. For accurate solar production readings, there should not be any other live circuits connected to the subpanel.

The Wiser Energy Solar Monitor is available for purchase here, or you can add solar sensors to your existing Wiser Energy Monitor. If you aren’t sure if your particular setup will work, please contact our Support team.

In addition to extensive in-house testing, the Wiser Energy monitor has been tested to UL and IEC standards for safety, and certified by ETL/Intertek as safe to install in your home. Intertek is a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) and the ETL mark is functionally equivalent to the UL mark.

Wiser Energy, if properly installed, also meets all requirements laid out in the 2017 National Electrical Code (NEC). This means the Wiser Energy Home Energy Monitor has been through an extensive set of industry standard safety tests to ensure that it is safe to use when plugged into electrical power and safe to use inside an electrical panel. Per section 312.8, the Wiser Energy monitor and its current transformers are listed as a system, designed for field installation in a switch enclosure.

Wiser Energy also meets FCC Class B standards for electromagnetic interference. All electrical devices emit electrical “noise” (in fact, the electrical noise emitted by the devices in your house is one of the things Wiser Energy uses to identify them!) — and the FCC has a strict set of limits and requires extensive testing to make sure they are not exceeded. Wiser Energy has passed those tests and should not cause interference with other devices in your house.
Certified to CSA STD C22.2 No. 61010-1
Conforms to UL STD 61010-1
Conforms to UL STD 61010-2-032
Conforms to CAN ICES-3(B)/NMB-3(B)
Conforms to CISPR 32
Conforms to CISPR 35

At Wiser energy we take security very seriously and we do everything we can to ensure your data is secure. All communications between the Wiser Energy monitor, the Wiser energy cloud servers, and Wiser Energy apps are encrypted with AES 128-bit encryption and TLS/SSL (HTTPS). Wiser Energy uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud servers and online storage. Personally identifiable information like email address and account information is stored in physically separate systems from any application data. Physical security is managed by Amazon and access to these production systems is limited to a very small group of Wiser Energy engineering team members.

Automated systems process the data collected from Wiser Energy monitors to detect devices, send notifications, generate report emails, and power the Wiser Energy apps. Wiser Energy never shares any of this data with third parties without explicit user opt-in on a case-by-case basis (for example, when a utility wishes to provide discounts/services to their customers in exchange for sharing limited power data.) Wiser Energy support employees will on occasion need to access some of this data to troubleshoot issues, but again we will only access this data with explicit permission from you.

While other smart home devices are not required to use Wiser Energy in your home, they can certainly add to your Wiser Energy experience! We currently have an IFTTT applet that allows you to connect with other devices in your home as well as integration with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Philips Hue, and select smart plugs from TP-Link and Belkin. Stay tuned for future integrations.

No, for the time being we are focused on optimizing Wiser Energy for split-phase, 120/240V, 60Hz homes in the US and Canada.