Better Understanding of Your Home’s Electricity Use
Energy Insights in SmartHub, our online account management portal, is a tool available to residential locations designed to help you better understand your home’s energy use. Whether you check SmartHub every month or haven’t explored it yet, Energy Insights gives you “insight” into how electricity is being used in your home and where you may have opportunities to save.
SmartHub has always allowed members to view their electric usage down to the hour. Now, with these new features, you can see an estimated breakdown of your energy use by major categories, such as heating, cooling, water heating, cooking and more, right from your phone or computer. These insights make it easier to understand where your energy goes each day and what factors may have the biggest impact on your bill.
Energy Insights also includes additional helpful tools like:
- Bill projection estimates
- Personalized energy‑saving tips
- Comparisons with similar homes
To view these features, simply log in to SmartHub and scroll down to the Usage Overview section on the homepage. If you aren’t registered for SmartHub yet, now is a great time to start—visit the Manage Your Account page to get started.
A Closer Look: Why Building Your Home Profile Matters
Energy Insights is most accurate when the Build Your Home Profile (BYHP) in SmartHub is complete, allowing you to better estimate how energy is used in your home. This short questionnaire asks for basic information about your household—such as how your home is heated, the types of appliances you use, and how many people live there. With these details, Energy Insights can better analyze your energy use based on your actual home instead of general assumptions.
The energy detail page (see screenshot at right) is an estimate based on an analysis of your meter data. Many appliances create distinct “fingerprints” in energy use patterns, and with advanced software algorithms, the system can identify and estimate how different appliances are being used. While this technology is powerful, it is still an estimate—which is why completing the BYHP is so important.
It takes a few minutes to complete and it improves the accuracy of energy breakdowns, bill projections, and personalized tips.