Should You Monitor Your Properties' Energy Consumption?

Dustin Edwards • November 26, 2022

Monitor Energy Consumption To Understand Your Properties Needs

Homes nowadays have more appliances than just a refrigerator, blender and television. It's common for homes to have many devices that are constantly turned on and consuming energy, such as tablets, routers, security cameras, auto feeders and the list goes on and on.


Although there isn't much that can be done about how much these devices consume energy, you can take steps to monitor the energy consumption of your Long Beach rental properties. This can be beneficial to your tenants to lower their electricity bill, for yourself if you include electricity into the rent and for the city to help curb over consumption.


Importance of Monitoring Energy Consumption

Besides saving money on electricity bills, monitoring energy consumption can be used to inform your tenants how their devices affect the environment. Having additional information such as energy monitors can attract tenants who are looking to curb their power usage, be more mindful and healthier. Tenants, much like everyone, are generally looking to save money anyway they can. By giving them the tools required to monitor their power consumption they develop better electrical usage habits which can prevent unnecessary wear and tear on your electrical system and HVAC system. This can result in happier tenants, who in turn can be more likely to stay at your rental property for extended periods of time. This can minimize vacancy periods and ultimately improve your bottom line.


For landlords, monitoring energy consumption can promote building efficiency practices. Especially in apartment buildings with communal zones. As well as predicting when systems and equipment may require maintenance before there is a failure.


How to Monitor Energy Consumption

In order to monitor energy consumption you’ll have to invest in a few products such as smart plugs or power strips like the Kasa Smart HS300 which are compatible voice assistants and each socket can be monitored individually. Home energy monitors such as the Emporia Vue can be installed at the main service of the home or apartment allowing you to monitor as many as 16 circuits on your phone or smart device. This installation will likely require an electrician.


Detecting Vampire Loads

Also referred to as idle loads, vampire loads happen when devices appear to be off but are actually on standby. Electronics such as televisions, computers, gaming consoles and cell phone chargers often enter a sleep mode when turned off or not in use. Over 20% of household energy consumption in California are these vampire loads and this number is set to rise as more products come with this kind of feature.


Though many devices consume energy throughout the day, keeping a charger constantly plugged in won’t cause a major shift in energy consumption. Electronics such as smart televisions, desktop computers and gaming consoles can consume as much electricity as a refrigerator due to often having many system updates.


Simply unplugging everything from their respective wall sockets would help alleviate the issue though convincing your tenants to make this a habit is unlikely to happen. A better solution is to upgrade the rental property with devices that allow them to make the conscious decision to reduce their consumption.


With more and more use of electricity in the world it's a good idea to future proof your Long Beach rental property. If looking to update your property with modern smart devices or are interested in installing solar to help reduce the use of power on the city and save your tenants even more money call us at (562) 888-0247 or feel free to fill out our free rental analysis to see what your rental could yield today.

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5 Signs It's Time To Replace Your Rental's Roof

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