You let this out the door, in this state???
Reviewed by: Laurence wilkins - 12 September 2015
This energy meter promises a lot, for a most modest fee. It does this in part, by using your smartphone as the display and control. This is mostly good, but also a bit bad.
The unit comes with an impressively thick looking booklet of instructions that run to 62 pages! But since only 13 of those pages are in a language of my understanding, perhaps a little less impressive.
Unlike earlier other energy meters I have owned, this one resolves down to around 1/4 of a watt, which is good for seeing how those devices on standby can still chew energy away. It can track energy use in monetary and kWh terms, as well as Kg of CO2 (who cares?). The device only offers one electricity rate, however, so it cannot accurately track energy costs if you are on Economy7. (I rather suspect that the device itself has no knowledge of the current time, anyway).
The exterior construction (most unlike me: I've not taken it apart!!) seems clean and functional enough, with just two buttons and a bicolour LED. Everything else is controlled via an app on your smart phone. The link is over Bluetooth, and the range is rather limited - about 3-5 meters, best. So to the app, where all the device's functionality is to be found.
And it is here, dear reader, that the product lets itself down woefully. I must assume that whoever was in charge of Voltcraft's Software QA dept. was on holiday, on the day this code made it out of the factory. It is full of small, silly bugs (typos, wrong currency symbols, graphs that are just plain wrong), not to mention features that I can't see any use for (nor could I imagine anyone else finding a use for, either). Other functions are just plain hard to use. Does anyone actually try to USE this stuff, before sending it out?
I wrestled to maintain a Bluetooth connection at times, even when standing next to the meter. When out of range, no previously captured data is available. You have to be back in range to see it. I suspect some of the timer functions only work if you've left your smartphone in range of the device, too. Fancy dedicating your new Samsung Galaxy phone to this app alone? No,thought not.
It is possible to remotely switch the meter output on and off (think: remote controlled power switch), but it is far too easy to do this, accidentally! If you happen to be monitoring something like a freezer, you might not notice you've switched the load off, until the following morning. Ask me how I might know this.
The CSV data extract is at least a start, but rather limited (no options to control what is output, or how frequently), and the file headings are in German only.
Show stoppers? No. Disappointing? Yes.
So, Voltcraft, you have a potentially impressive product, here, let down by poor, unfinished software (Revision 1.21 as at September 2015). Sort it out, and I will review my review! Until then, I cannot recommend this Energy Meter, particularity to anyone who thinks software should just work.
