Your utility bill keeps climbing, but you have no idea which device is quietly draining power while you sleep. In this episode, Marcus Chen breaks down how to choose an energy monitor that actually integrates with your Matter or Zigbee smart home setup—and explains why measuring at the right level of granularity is the difference between vague data and actionable insights. Whether you're trying to catch a rogue pool pump or automate EV charging around peak rates, this guide covers the protocols, products, and automation logic that will help you finally understand where your electricity is going.

• Native Matter devices with Thread report power changes in 200–500 milliseconds, while Wi-Fi devices bridged to Matter can take 1–2 seconds due to cloud round-trips—a critical difference for automations that need to prevent breaker trips.