Smart circuit breakers?!?

[gregking]

Not sure if I'm interested in this or not.
Like the idea of power monitoring, but don't know if I need/want to shut off a breaker with an app.
 
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/2/19/18231753/leviton-smart-load-center-app-control-circuit-breakers-ios-android
 
 

 

[wkearney99]

I can just imagine an electrician/electrical engineer's eye twitching thinking about what chaos something like that would cause!

Fun for parenting though, punishment is 'get the app and TURN OFF ALL YOUR POWER!" >evil Dad laugh<

I'm reminded of the saying "just because you can doesn't mean you should".

 

[pvrfan]

[Load Center] gives ridiculously granular data on energy use in your home, letting homeowners track power consumption on a per-appliance or branch circuit basis...

 
Ya gotta admit that this part is interesting!  Electrical usage is a black hole to most of us.  How much does the electric range use versus the electric clothes dryer?  Versus the central air conditioning.  Charging the electric car?
 
 
My Ecobee thermostat provides detailed environmental and run time information.  That can really help when deciding on heating and cooling schedules.  Having details of electrical usage by circuit and time of day might help find additional ways to save.
 
OTOH, the announcement doesn't say anything about price or release date.  Nor whether a cloud service (recurring fee?) is required.
 
Also, I'd be concerned about lifespan.  The traditional breaker box is something that just works for decades.  Hard to imagine that an IoT device is going to be usable for more than a fraction as long.  One would have to save a *LOT* of power to justify spending a bunch of money up front.
 
 
Craig

 

[wuench]

Yep, all's I see is proprietary technology that will probably be discontinued at some point, and when I need  to add/replace a breaker I won't be able to find them. If I bought one I would buy a bunch of extra breakers just in case.