Meet Curb: Energy monitoring for all of the devices in your house

@trunolimit

Daniel, Yup the example you gave is correct. Curb employs two methods to identify devices in your home. The first is by directly monitoring the individual circuit. Often times major appliances (washing machines, AC, furnace, range, water heaters, etc…) are on their own circuit.

We also collect extremely high frequency data (think kHz) which can enable Curb to identify individual devices through a process called disaggregation. Each device has a unique electrical signature (drawing different amounts of current and effecting the voltage), much like a fingerprint which enables specific devices identification.

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@trunolimit

We agree! Curb lets you put in your zip code and select different rate structures available to see which would save you money!

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Come to think of it, how would one measure the current being pulled by a single thing? If everything is on the same circuit would it matter if you took a reading at the panel or at the wall socket the thing is plugged into?

I need to sit and ponder this for a moment.

That’s a pretty neat way to identify individual device. My question still remains. Can we log each device as individual chart? I can see this could be very useful if integrated with ST.

Disaggregation has been theoretically possible for awhile, but requires a lot of calibration and so far has been hard to make cost effective. Several small academic projects as proof of concept over the last 5 years. The following is a good example.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.187.8177&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Verlitics has been trying to make this commercially viable for awhile. They hold 2 patents and have another 3 or 4 pending.

But it’s one of those things that sounds great but just hasn’t proven out in practice yet.

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Any anticipated retail pricing yet?

Looks like they have of officially launched the crowd funding page.

Campaign referal link:

Looks like pricing is as follows:

$249USD
Curb Lite: for Apartment
Estimated delivery: September 2015
Ships Worldwide
Monitor whole home (<800 sq. ft.) plus 4 zones of appliances in real time! (1) Curb Lite + (6) circuit sensors.

$309USD
Pro: Home - EARLY ADOPTER
Limited quantity offer of $40 discount! Monitor whole standard home (one electric breaker panel) plus 16 zones of appliances in real time! (1) Curb Pro + (18) circuit sensors.

$549USD
Duo: Large home -EARLY ADOPTER

Limited quantity offer of $100 discount! Monitor whole large home (two electric breaker panels) plus 34 zones of appliances in real time, including solar! (2) Curb Pros + (36) circuit sensors.

Campaign referal link:

Just got this email.

CURB has been working with the team at the SmartThings Innovation Center for the past several months and are pleased to announce that we’re received SmartThings certification from Samsung.

With SmartThings integration, CURB customers can increase energy savings by turning off individual lights, switches and other Z-wave and ZigBee devices, directly through the Energy CURB Mobile App. Additionally, because the SmartThings platform is designed to be open, many products (existing and in the future) are already compatible and seamlessly integrated with CURB systems, enabling customers to manage and track their energy usage more effectively.

Many of you indicated that this was an important factor in your decision-making process, so we’ve extended our Indiegogo Campaign by 30 days and added two SmartThing bundles, so you can take advantage of our pre-release discounts and control devices directly from the CURB app.

Erik,

We have solar net metering, but I am interested in just the base Curb product for Home now. Would I still capture actual consumption (vs my Net for the day) with only the one Curb, or do I need two to do that?

Thanks

Scott

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted thank you all for the great support during our campaign (only 4 hours left!) and give you a quick update on our integration with SmartThings. We’ve already completed Phase 1 of our integration with smartthings (an approved app and controls in the Curb app to see how much things cost when you toggle them on/off) and are on to Phase 2. The goal of this second part of our integration is to push all of the Curb sensor data into SmartThings so that you make your own triggers based on any changes in energy consumption on any of the Curb 18 sensors. We’ve been out to the ST offices in California multiple times over the past couple months getting a test unit setup with their team and working on the details and we are making great progress and already have a prototype running.

Also, I wanted to share that we just finalized our new enclosure for all of the pre-order units. Take a look below!

If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know! And if you want your own Curb system - buy it now to get in our first batch shipping in September!

Thanks,

-Erik

Sorry if this has already been asked, but has this been tested on UK / European infrastructure. It looks exactly what I’m looking for to replace my AlertMe system that is no longer being supported or developed.

Jim

Did CURB get certified by Smart Things?

I don’t think so… at least not yet… i’m expecting them to swing by my place on friday and install it, i already have a neurio in place, so i’ll be able to compare accuracy.

SidJohn1, I also have a Neurio and would love to hear pro’s and con’s of CURB versus Neurio!

Thanks in advance.

@sidjohn1 what are your thoughts of Curb? I purchased but still waiting on mine.

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I’m still in the same boat as you.

Oh I thought you mentioned you had an install scheduled. Bummer I am anxious to get mine.

I did, the install never happened. Curb is having serious issues with scheduling.

Eric, a couple of things I was wondering if you guys have directions for:

-How to integrate Curb with Smartthings (is this done through ST app, curb app?)
-How to get device level data, as in you mentioned that Curb could disaggregate a circuit down to the devices on that circuit. How to do this?

I’m installing my first CURB unit today. Anyone else?

I started growing my ST network in September. As luck would have it, my ST hub is misbehaving (since a power outage a week ago) so I’m working through that too. ST Support is swamped so I’m ‘‘on my own’’. I’ve already deleted most of my Things (I’d kind of like to start over from scratch now that I’m more familiar and will now look to see how hard it is to wipe out my hub completely).

Curb doesn’t offer a support forum yet but I’d be happy to interface with fellow installers here. As long as Curb does what it seems to do, my Company will offer them as an energy saving measure (we already install home improvements to boost efficiency and comfort)…probably leading into SmartThings sales/installations as well.

This is the beginning of a journey!