We are testing 4 tools to manage your electricity consumption in real time

No need to wait for your monthly electricity bill to know your consumption. Tools now exist to visualize it in real time. By knowing your consumption, it is possible to control it and thus reduce your bills without any compromise on comfort. Ecojoko, Voltalis, Conso Live, Lite: Révolution Énergétique tested 4 of these tools. You choose !

According to a study by CNRS, the simple fact of being able to consult your electricity consumption in real time allows you to reduce it by an average of 23%. Without reaching this figure, we clearly observed the phenomenon by testing the different consumer assistants. Their readings and analyzes encouraged us to turn off devices that were on unnecessarily or were consuming too much on standby. They also invited us to shift some of our consumption to off-peak periods, which are less expensive.

Here is a non-exhaustive example of the consumption that we were able to avoid or save

(Calculations carried out on the basis of the following tariffs: HP 0.184 €/kWh, HC 0.147 €/kWh)

We tested 4 of the best-known tools: the “ Ecojoko “, the key ” Atom / Conso Live » from TotalEnergies, the system “ Voltalis » and the 100% dematerialized solution « Lite “. Although they all allow you to know your electricity consumption, their quality of analysis, ergonomics and precision are not identical. Here is our comparison.

The Ecojoko box

The Ecojoko monitor. Image: RE

Sold for €199 or rented for €7.99/month, the Ecojoko box is one of a kind. It is made up of a contactless Hall effect sensor, which must simply be positioned on your connection circuit breaker. This element measures the consumption of your home and sends the information to a monitor.

It is a small box to place anywhere in your home, consisting of a screen and two needle dials. The screen and the upper dial indicate the instantaneous power drawn by your home (in Watts), the lower dial gives an overview of the energy saved compared to the previous week (from -20 to +20%).

Inaccurate measurements on three-phase installation

The Ecojoko kit is the only one to offer a monitor allowing you to directly view its power in real time, without using a smartphone application or a website. Although the instructions are very fun and really encourage you to reduce your consumption as much as possible, we have noted a significant weakness.

In fact, the power and therefore consumption data were significantly lower than reality: up to 50% at certain times. A shift probably due to our three-phase installation. The sensor is certainly optimized to operate on a single-phase installation and does not seem to be able to correctly interpret the radiation from our three phases. Despite this defect, we were still able to have an overview of the variations in our consumption.

A smartphone application to strip

The kit is accompanied by a smartphone application, on which we find the history of power and consumption, an estimate of the distribution of consumption according to the devices (heating, cooking, household appliances, etc.), advice for reducing consumption. as well as some superfluous functions such as an abstract ranking of the least energy-consuming housing.

This application, for example, estimated that a significant part of our recent consumption was due to heating, even though the latter had been completely turned off for several weeks. She also interpreted a fraction of our consumption as coming from cooking, even though we have a gas hob.

If the concept of the Ecojoko box is very attractive, it still needs to gain in precision and improve the clarity of its smartphone application. Finally, it requires being extremely rigorous in the management of its consumption in order to amortize its high cost. The €199 for the kit is equivalent to 1,170 kWh of electricity at the current base rate, or more than 2 months of consumption for an average household.

The Atom / Conso Live key from TotalEnergies

The Conso Live key connected to a three-phase Linky meter. / Image: RE

This little key to plug into the “TIC” port of your Linky meter is unfortunately only reserved for holders of an electricity contract with TotalEnergies. It is also necessary to have a WiFi network with a range extending to your meter. Indeed, the Conso Live key (formerly called “Atome”) retrieves the power and consumption data from the Linky meter then sends them to your smartphone via Wifi.

Originally free, this device is now offered for a subscription of €2 monthly. A fairly surprising price change given its relevance for energy efficiency. The energy company could have continued to offer this advantage to its customers without risking major financial losses.

Simple and efficient installation

Installing the Conso Live key is simple. Simply remove the cover of your Linky meter and plug it into the “TIC” (customer remote information) connector specially designed for this purpose. After a few seconds, the smartphone application indicates the instantaneous power drawn by your home. Despite some occasional display bugs, the application is very successful. The information is very precise since it is provided by the Linky meter and displayed in a clear, no-frills interface.

Precise and varied information

It includes instantaneous power data or over different intervals, the power record for your home but also consumption at different intervals (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly). The application also distinguishes your consumption made during peak hours from that made during off-peak hours, which allows you to consider the interest of such an offer.

Depending on your configuration, it can send you notifications if the instantaneous power is lower or higher than the chosen values ​​or is close to the subscribed power of your contract, if a power cut has occurred or the key has been unplugged. A daily, weekly or monthly report of your consumption can also be sent to you.

The Voltalis system

A Voltalis box. / Image: RE

The solution proposed by Voltalis is radically different from the others since it is above all a “diffuse erasure” service. Diffuse shedding is a mechanism that relieves the public electricity network by reducing household consumption, mainly during peaks. Clearly, Voltalis boxes cut off your heating and your hot water tank for a few tens of seconds to a few tens of minutes at the request of the network, to help stabilize it.

Micro-cuts without impact on comfort

The outage times are so short that they normally have no impact on your comfort. According to Voltalis, the system allows savings of up to 15% on your electricity bill, while making a beneficial gesture for the network. The installation is carried out free of charge by Voltalis at your request and you have absolutely nothing to pay. Why is it free? Quite simply because Voltalis is paid by the network for the service provided.

An electrician comes to your home and places a small box on each radiator and on your hot water tank. Depending on the accommodation, it can also install a larger box which centralizes your data (and that of your neighbors if they are equipped) via 3G. In return, Voltalis offers you an online management space which allows you to program the operating times of your devices and to know their consumption as well as the total consumption of your home (only on single-phase installations for the latter).

Effective on radiators, but watch out for cumulus clouds

If the system effectively reduces the consumption of radiators without significant loss of comfort, we regret having to dismantle the box connected to our hot water tank. In fact, there were too many outages during the tank heating phase during off-peak hours. As a result, our cumulus no longer provided enough hot water to meet the needs of the household.

If you have a specific electricity offer whose off-peak time slots are too small, do not hesitate to tell Voltalis that you do not wish to install a box on your cumulus. Otherwise, the solution is very relevant because it allows you to save easily: on the one hand, thanks to automatic cut-offs and on the other hand, by choosing the operating times of your devices.

The Lite solution

Every week, Lite can send you a report like this.

Lite is not a “physical” solution but a simple website. This free tool retrieves consumption and power information from your Linky meter. Simply register on the site and agree to transmit your Linky data to Lite. You can consult the first data one week after registration. The site goes to the essentials and displays the information in a very simple interface: consumption and power by period, estimation of the consumption of devices in standby, estimation of the origin of your consumption (renewable, thermal, nuclear, etc.). A simplified weekly report can also be sent to you by email.

Lite is by far the simplest tool for analyzing your electricity consumption. In addition to being free, it does not require any special box or installation. Having a Linky meter is the only condition. Its only fault is that it does not allow real-time consultation of the power drawn by its accommodation.

Tool comparison table