I was reading in this forum about newer zwave hardware being able to actually monitor the energy used. Is this just a firmware type thing in regards to the vera hardware? Thanks.
I am not sure about characteristics of new Zwave units, but the monitoring on findvera.com allows tracking of power usage based on what units are on. I believe you can specify the power of a particular unit when it is on, and findvera will track the on/off status and estimate power usage.
Hope this helps.
RandyS
Actually i didn’t realize the zwave chip is actually in the dongle which can be changed when new versions come out. I just wasn’t sure how future proof it was but since its in the dongle i would assume it just requires micasaverde to update the software that communicates with it.
You can specify under Advanced settings the power consumptions for every device: [url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Watts]http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Watts[/url]. And when it’s on you can see the energy usage in your findvera.com account under Energy tab.
There are also devices capable of reporting themselves the actual energy consumption, but those are more expensive.