INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   With all the continuous price increases in electricity (especially where i live) many people have asked for my opinion on what their available options are if they want to save money off their electrical bills. Certainly this is something that i have also been working on for quite some time since i also pay far too much for electricity and so because i also happen to use quite a few accurate power meters to record the power consumption of various devices i thought it would be nice if i took a look at some of the latest products introduced in the market promising serious power savings. There are several manufacturers in the market today that offer such products but efergy is right up there amongst the well-respected ones and because of that their products will be the first on our test bench.

 

   efergy is a global manufacturer of energy saving products. Our name means “efficient energy” and our goal is to help you to reduce your energy use, save money and save the environment. Our wireless electricity monitors and other energy saving products help you to understand how much energy you use and to save money on your energy bills. We aim to be the leading manufacturer of energy saving products in the world. We state that efergy was conceived in 2005 and are proud of how far we have come in just 6 years. efergy has a worldwide presence with offices in the UK (headquarters), Hong Kong, China, Australia, United States, Canada and South Africa. Our focus is on new product development and customer satisfaction. We take pride ourselves on our great quality and innovative products and on our customer support. At efergy we really care about helping our customers to get the best out of our products.

 

   As you can all see from the intro picture efergy send us not one but three of their latest products to hit the market and it didn't take long for us to install and use them ever since (we've been using all of them for the past 40 days) in order to see if they actually work as advertised. Of course since all three products are directly related with power savings that helped us a lot during testing. Granted most power saving products are nothing more than information devices that show just how much electricity your devices are using (either separately or all together) so these can only make a difference on your electricity bill if you choose to use them wisely (unplug your TV's when not used etc.). However our job here is not to "guess" how the end user will actually use them but to show how one should use them and also see if they actually deliver on what they promise and that's exactly what we did.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

REMOTE CONTROL SOCKETS

ENERGY MONITORING SOCKET

E2 WIRELESS ENERGY MONITOR

 

 

 

EFERGY REMOTE CONTROL SOCKET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The box has a large product image at both the front and rear along with the efergy logo and the product serial number.

 

 

Installation instructions and technical information are present on both sides of the box in English and Spanish.

 

 

 

Inside the box you will find three remote control sockets, the remote control, one A23 type battery and the user's manual.

 

 

You can control a total of 5 rc sockets with the provided remote (you can buy 2 extra rc sockets directly from efergy).

 

 

The efergy remote control sockets are different from all the rc sockets I’ve used to date (they look a lot different).

 

 

And then there's the on/off power LED and a round button right beneath it which allows you to turn the socket on/off if for some reason you can't use the remote (for example misplaced it).

 

 

As expected the sockets feature a safety feature (nothing new here) so your kids or anyone else can't get accidentally harmed.

 

 

 

EFERGY ENERGY MONITORING SOCKET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The EMS or Energy Monitoring Socket arrived inside a small box with a product image again on both the front and rear.

 

 

A few words about the product and its technical specifications are placed on both sides again in English and Spanish.

 

 

Inside the box you will just find the EMS and a user's manual.

 

 

White and green may not be the best color combination around (especially if you want to use this in your office) but overall the EMS is a good looking device.

 

 

The extremely easy to read 3" LCD screen provides live information about your current power requirements, monthly/yearly ones and of course can also be configured to project the current and total power costs in one of the 5 supported currencies (£, $, €, KR, R).

 

 

Right beneath the LCD screen there are 4 buttons which you can use to setup the unit and navigate between all the available information.

 

 

The EMS specifications are also placed at the rear.

 

 

From the above pictures you can see almost every bit of information displayed by the energy monitoring socket.

 

 

 

EFERGY E2 CLASSIC 2.0 WIRELESS ENERGY MONITOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third and final product promises power savings up to 20% at the front of the box.

 

 

Both sides of the box show the elink 2.0 energy management software.

 

 

Basic installation instructions can be found at the rear.

 

 

The bundle of the E2 Classic 2.0 is quite rich and contains the main unit, transmitter, jackplug sensor, software CD and the instruction manuals in both English and Spanish.

 

 

Unlike the two previous products in order to use the E2 Classic 2.0 you actually need to install the transmitter onto your main power line with the help of the jackplug sensor seen above. You can hook up to 3 jackplug sensors into the transmitter (supplied extra).

 

 

The main transmitter (into which you plug the other end of the jackplug sensor) requires three AA batteries to run and can be configured to send the signal to the main unit in 6/12/18 second intervals.

 

 

 

The only problem with the size of transmitter is that if your electrical panel is outside from your house (and unprotected) it's not really hard for someone to locate and steal it.

 

 

As you can see the main unit (receiver) features a large easy to read LCD screen (i think it's also 3" like the one on the EMS).

 

 

You can adjust the various settings of the unit and also scroll between all the available pages with the 4 buttons at the front of the unit.

 

 

The function button lights up the green backlight and also scrolls through all the available information pages.

 

 

You can choose to have the main unit placed vertically or diagonally as seen above.

 

 

The rear of the E2 Classic 2.0 is even more populated than the front.

 

 

So here we see the link button which is used the first time you connect the transmitter with the main unit (and if ever the signal is lost), the timer (set the time and the alarm), a mini USB port (used with the elink 2.0 software) and the AC power port (if you don't want to use batteries).

 

 

If you choose to use it with batteries then you need to install 3 AAA ones.

 

 

Before you install the transmitter in your electrical panel and press the link button the screen on the main unit will naturally only show zeros.

 

 

Above i have taken a few pictures of the various information pages displayed on the E2 Classic 2.0 wireless energy monitor.

 

 

 

ELINK 2.1 ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can download the latest elink software version from the official efergy support page.

 

 

The elink 2.1 energy management software basically takes all the recorded data from the E2 Classic 2.0 wireless energy monitor and transfers it as charts onto your computer for easier reading and management.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   After using all three products send to us by efergy for well over 40 days i can say with certainty that they help a lot if you want to know the electricity demands of the various devices inside your home (and act accordingly). Especially the E2 Classic 2.0 wireless energy monitor proved to be a very convenient and innovative device since it allows you to check the total electricity demands of your entire household at any given time. The EMS (energy monitoring socket) also proved to be quite more accurate than the two other monitoring sockets I’ve been using for the past months (something which i have to admit caught me off guard). Certainly i can't comment on their ability to lower the electricity bill especially since my next bill is due in a couple of months but even by just using the remote controlled sockets to turn off the power from the devices you are not using (my Panasonic Plasma TV for example uses almost 20W on standby mode) should be enough to save quite a bit of money. The only two tiny issues we can think of is the size of the energy monitoring socket due to the large LCD screen which may make it hard to fit in some places and with the size of the E2 Classic 2.0 transmitter which makes it very easy to spot and so if your electrical panel happens to be outside from your house (most here are) you will have to go the extra mile in order to hide it.

 

   Availability is perhaps the most serious issue with efergy products since currently most of them are only available for purchase from their European online store. More specifically the Remote Controlled Sockets retail for 29.90Euros in their EU online store, the Energy Monitoring Socket retails for 24.90Euros and finally the E2 Classic 2.0 Wireless Energy Monitor sells for 64.90Euros in their EU online store and USD126.95 in their USA one. Bottom line all three products can help you save money off your electricity bills and although it may indeed take some time before your electricity savings can cover their cost in the long run you will not regret going the extra mile. Of course as mentioned earlier on their own these products will not do anything so unless you are willing to dedicate sometime into learning how to use the information provided by them then these will not be of much help to you. However for people who will take advantage of what these high quality devices have to offer i see no better way to cut down on your electricity bill and that's why they all get our Golden Award. 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Large LCD Screens (EMS/E2)
- Wealth Of Information (EMS/E2)
- Innovative (E2)
- Failsafe On/Off Button (RC Socket)
- elink 2.1 Energy Management Software (E2)
- Data From Up To 3 Different Tariffs (E2)
- Backlight (E2)
- Price (For Some) 

 

CONS

- Availability
- Size (E2 Transmitter/EMS)
- Lack Of Backlight (EMS)