Hendricks Power wanted to offer members as many tools as possible to monitor and control their usage and bills. The new analytics help forecast statement balances, notify members of significant usage changes, and offer personalized tips on energy conservation. 

For the most accurate information and estimations, we encourage members to complete the Build Your Own Home Profile feature.

We use patented technology to analyze meter data (the same data we use to calculate your bill) to determine how much energy your major appliances consume. This is commonly called disaggregation.

Disaggregation is the process that takes usage data from your meter and identifies individual appliance types within the home that are actually using the energy. Basically, appliances like air conditioners and electric heating leave distinct fingerprints in your energy use data. With the right software algorithms, usage of specific appliances can be identified and estimated.

Always On represents electricity that is used every day, constantly, throughout the month. It includes standby power, as well as electricity being used by devices such as routers, cable boxes, chargers, thermostats, security systems, and fish-tank pumps

• Refrigerator: The cooling mechanism of refrigerators turns itself on and off throughout the day. Our algorithm detects this on/off cycle, which helps separate refrigerator electricity usage from Always On.
• TV/Desktop PC: When the TV/computer is being used, it is included in Entertainment. When the TV is off, but still plugged into the wall, it is included in Always On.
• Space Heater/Air Conditioner: Heating and Cooling systems turn themselves on and off depending on your thermostat setting. Our algorithm detects when these systems turn on and off, which helps separate Heating and Cooling energy usage from Always On.

Note: Appliances marked as “do not own" will not appear in the breakdown.

• Heating/Cooling: The algorithm may have missed your usage if usage is quite small and/or is only running for a very short duration, particularly if it is towards the beginning or the end of a heating/cooling season.
• Pool Pump: The algorithm may have missed your usage because a pool is not a common feature in a home across the Utility service area. Please update your appliance profile to indicate that you run a pool pump.
• Water Heater: The algorithm may have missed your usage because electric water heaters are not as common as gas water heaters across the Utility service area. Please update your appliance profile to indicate that you run an electric water heater.
• Other appliance categories: Some appliance categories might not show up if they're not commonly seen across the Utility service area. Please update your appliance profile to indicate that you own the appliance(s) in question.

In these cases, the algorithm typically categorizes undetected appliances under the Others category.

Some gas-based heating, such as a central furnace, consumes some electricity. To circulate hot air throughout the home, all central furnaces have an electric blower, pump or fan, which our algorithm recognizes and attributes to Heating.

Yes, the algorithm detects the electric energy consumption of all types of space heaters.

It may take some time for our algorithm to learn how you tend to use energy throughout the year. Also, the algorithm is designed to take into account how a typical home uses energy as the default behavior for a given geographic region. If a specific estimate looks wrong to you, please update the appliance profile to indicate the exact appliances you own or provide feedback comments.

You're receiving email alerts and notifications on a regular basis with personalized information to help you better understand your electricity usage and costs.
There are multiple types of emails:

• A Monthly Summary email captures how much electricity you used during your last billing period, provides insight into electricity usage by appliance, and includes tips on how to save.
• A Budget Alert informs you if you're approaching certain thresholds of your budget (as set by you) before the end of a billing cycle.
• A Bill Projection alert the customer to their estimated bill for their billing cycle
• An Energy Highlights alert shows personalized suggestions based on energy consumption. The purpose of these brief emails are to educate, raise awareness on current inefficiencies/efficiencies in usage management, and drive engagement with CTAs (Call To Action) that navigate to specific Web pages.
• A High Usage Alert which indicates you have increased usage compared to your average usage for either a weekend or weekday in the last 3-5 days.

Members are free to unsubscribe from all of these emails, or sign up for additional notifications, through SmartHub, clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of emails, or by calling our office at (317) 745-5473.

Yes, these email alerts are managed separately and don't impact how or when you receive your bills.

These email alerts only include energy charges and not the total bill amount. Also, the projected amount differs slightly from the actual amount due to various fees, etc.

Insights can be generic or personalized based on a customer's usage. Two samples are below. Any insight is paired with a CTA (Call To Action) that could include tips to reduce usage or direct a customer to a specific Utility program.

• Sample Message #1: Using more energy lately? Your last bill increased XX% compared to your previous bill.
• Sample Message #2: You're in the top {Value}% of similar efficient homes. Great job!

Submitting the Home Profile Survey ensures that your breakdown is a true reflection of your home, particularly if you recently bought a new appliance or if you own appliances that aren't commonly seen within the Utility’s service area. By understanding more about your home and the appliances you own, our model will know what to look for and what not to look for as it works to breakdown your energy usage.

Yes, you should select all appliances you use, no matter the frequency. Our algorithm estimates itemization based on the usage of the appliance.

Once you have filled out your Home Profile Survey, you don't need to revisit and update it on a regular basis. Consider it a way to make sure that our model is aware of any big changes to the way you use energy at home. If you bought or replaced appliances, or have new members of the family or roommates, it would be a good time to update the survey so that our model can most accurately estimate the consumption of the new appliance.

For every answer you provide in the survey, you're helping us further personalize your home’s energy breakdown. Prior to answering any questions, the itemization values were based on what a typical home in your region is like. With each answer you provide, you are improving the accuracy of the model.

Appliance categories such as Lighting, Water Heating, Cooking, Laundry, and Entertainment are influenced by the number of bedrooms, the number of occupants at a home, or both.

The type of home helps the model more accurately estimate the usage pattern of different appliances in a home. For example, the typical Detached Home has a different energy consumption profile than an Apartment.

Please mark "Yes" to both cooktop and oven in the survey.

No survey information is shared to any 3rd party. However, these survey responses do take precedence in the information displayed.