When Wattwatchers first released the MyEnergy app in 2021 we promised continuous improvement to help our home and small business users to better understand and manage their electricity. Now, as our CEO Gavin Dietz explains, we’re starting rolling releases for the biggest refresh of MyEnergy yet. Get ready to get into the ‘Flow’ of our new features!
MyEnergy Flow is a new way of interacting with the energy flowing through your home.
Imagine having a ‘conversation’ with your energy data. A kind of messaging app where you receive and respond to notifications, like you do in Facebook or LinkedIn, but for energy.
Items of interest appear as they happen, and you can interact immediately, or later—whenever works for you.
MyEnergy Flow provides more than just information, presenting you with insights—why it matters, and what you can do about it. Prompting you only when something warrants your attention, at a time when you can take action.
Supporting information intuitively unfolds for you as you ‘dig in’ to each insight, providing further guidance on what to do, and ultimately, so you can see the results of your actions.
You can save items or get reminders to review things later, so you can keep on top of your home’s electricity, avoiding the costly ‘blow-outs’ that can happen, and ‘bill shocks’ that can follow, when you don’t.
Improving as we go
It’s always been our plan to keep on improving the app, improving anything that isn’t working well for users, and introducing new features along the way.
MyEnergy already includes key features that you would expect from an energy monitoring app, including:
- Real-time, live energy monitoring
- Up to 6 circuits (per device)
- Solar monitoring and optimisation
- Bill upload and tariff comparison
- Budgeting and alerts
MyEnergy Flow, however, will make energy data even more engaging, by exposing these powerful features in new ways that are easy to take in and understand. And importantly, to take action to save money, reduce emissions and inform efficiency and electrification upgrades.
New ‘Flow’ features will be gradually introduced via the intuitive MyEnergy feed, and the detail is only exposed as you dig deeper, and want to learn more.
Device installation gets you started
Here’s an overview of the expanded features being rolled out in the six months September 2023 to February 2024.
Already having or installing a new Wattwatchers real-time, cellular Energy Monitor will progressively unlock the full benefits of MyEnergy Flow, including:
- Budget and other alerts in real-time
- Additional insights, like detecting issues with your hot water service
- See what’s using the most energy in your household, with circuit-level monitoring
- Learn how much of your solar is powering your home, versus being sent to the grid
- Make the most of your solar by working out when you should run energy-intensive appliances and equipment
- Targeted tips tailored to your specific energy usage patterns
- Access to a wide range of offers, apps and services that help you save money and gain energy independence
Key examples of enhanced features that will be added through the series of Flow releases include hot water insights, opt-in data sharing and ‘high-resolution carbon accounting’.
Hot water insights
With over a third of Australian households now generating electricity themselves, coordinating electric heating of hot water with rooftop solar availability is a rapidly-growing focal point.
Even for homes without solar, using energy monitoring to troubleshoot for problems with electric hot water systems is a great way to avoid the consequences of undiscovered faults.
Enabling opt-in data sharing
The MyEnergy app, and the emerging Flow features, have been guided heavily by Wattwatchers’ leadership work over several years on secure and ethical sharing of energy data under the control of consumers themselves.
Third parties that provide services based on energy data will be enabled to promote their services in the Flow feed, which will act as a mini marketplace and data exchange.
For example, installers might want the data to help ‘right-size’ solar systems and home batteries for you, or university researchers might offer cash or other rewards to get customer-approved access to your home’s energy data.
If a MyEnergy user wants to join a service, it’s a simple ‘one-click’ process to provide the third party with access to their energy data.
The user remains in control—access can be revoked at any time. Periodic reminders are provided so that users don’t lose track of who they have provided access to.
Sharing data supports a range of use cases, including:
- Energy app developers
- Quoting & impact analysis for energy-related services (e.g. system sizing etc.)
- Researchers engaging cohort participants
- Emissions reporting (e.g. financial services)
High-resolution carbon accounting
With the concept of counting carbon 24/7 taking hold, Wattwatchers is turning its in-house work on ‘high-resolution carbon accounting’ into a service for app users.
Most currently-available carbon accounting solutions use annual averages to calculate carbon emissions. These do not take into account time of use, and can result in significant inaccuracies.
Timetable for further ‘Flow’ upgrades
Following the release of MyEnergy Flow v2.0.0 in September, there’ll be further updates later in 2023 and early in 2024: v2.1.0 will include: system health card, ‘% self powered’ card (for solar owners), hot water insights and data sharing options for offers; and v2.2.0 will include high-resolution carbon accounting.
Learn more about the new features for users here.
