Current Cost now available in the USA

[TechHA]

I was just browsing through some posts about monitoring power consumption in the home and decided to check out the Current Cost system. I was happily surprised that it is now available in the USA. This looks like a great device and it's cheaper than the TED.

Check out, http://www.currentcost.net for more info.

[bdraper]

Very nice.

[rmasonjr]

Wow! The price is attractive as well - $129

[Rupp]

Is there a pc interface for this device?

[rmasonjr]

Yes - on the web site, there is a usb cable and router interface: www.currentcost.net

[Rupp]

Yes - on the web site, there is a usb cable and router interface: www.currentcost.net

Thanks, and is there a plugin for this yet? I see the scripts but wondered if there was a plugin.

[stevea]

Thanks, and is there a plugin for this yet? I see the scripts but wondered if there was a plugin.

[PersonalOpinion]
Scripts are WAY better than plug-ins. You never here HST say that the problem with HS crashing is due to a script!
[/PersonalOpinion]

Steve

[Rupp]

[PersonalOpinion]
Scripts are WAY better than plug-ins. You never here HST say that the problem with HS crashing is due to a script!
[/PersonalOpinion]

Steve

Good point.

[Rupp]

I wonder how much distance transmitter distance the device offers? It's advertised as 100ft but what are you guys seeing in the real world?

[TechHA]

Here's a better view of how to connect this device to a PC and to Google's Power Meter.

http://www.currentcost.net/powermeteractivate.html

[macromark]

[PersonalOpinion]
Scripts are WAY better than plug-ins. You never here HST say that the problem with HS crashing is due to a script!
[/PersonalOpinion]

Steve

I can think of a few scripts that have caused crashes over the years... in fact, there was one very popular email script that had a significant memory leak in it at one time (fixed now).

[rmasonjr]

Thanks, and is there a plugin for this yet? I see the scripts but wondered if there was a plugin.

I'm not sure a plugin would be helpful with this. If it integrates with Google Power Meter, then all of the graphs and data would be in GPM. You could then just point a HS web page or HSTouch to the graph that you wanted.

I guess the only thing a plugin could do is trigger a HS event when your usage gets to a certain amount?

Still very interesting at a very good price.

[mrhappy]

Is there a pc interface for this device?

On the back of the unit is a CAT5 socket, its just a serial output (although at TTL levels, needs converting to RS232) which can then go into a serial port (I run mine on a serial over ip box)...i've never used the USB cable but all it is is a serial converter.

I don't think a plugin would be hard to do for someone with the appropriate knowledge, there is nothing that complex with it, bit of serial port handling and some XML parsing (and some writing to a database).

[mrhappy]

I'm not sure a plugin would be helpful with this. If it integrates with Google Power Meter, then all of the graphs and data would be in GPM. You could then just point a HS web page or HSTouch to the graph that you wanted.

I guess the only thing a plugin could do is trigger a HS event when your usage gets to a certain amount?

Still very interesting at a very good price.

I'm not sure if you've seen the script for it or not - whilst it produces its own graphs i'm not sure exactly what Google Power meter offers (other than they are nicer looking and you can share with friends) in advance of it, way back in 2007 when I wrote a script to handle the very first CC meters I was producing graphs which I had in HSTouch using Google Charts. Edit: Should add I was putting the graphs in webpages in 2007, I did'nt have HSTouch then...

I do have triggers (based on device value greater/less than - all the historical data is written to device strings/values) based on live useage...the only advantage with a plugin I saw myself is that it might be able to handle the volume of data (it outputs the data once every six seconds) a bit better...I am trying to sort out an issue that one person has reported where the script seems to crash after a while but there are a few other people that are using it who have not reported any problems.

[rmasonjr]

Thanks...

I just ordered one - you cant go wrong at that price.

It appears the web bridge will not be available until August, but at least I can get it up and running and just install the web bridge then.