Energy / Electricity Usage Tracking

[Mario from Spain]

I made a quick test with a 9 vots battery and a 220 ohm resistor and it's working!

Rigth now I guess the home power consuption should be arround 2.5 kWh. The counter is increasing in 1 minute from E2 03 to 0F 04 (45 pulses) and in 5 minutes to 92 04 (176 pulses), so if the output is 1000i/kWh in the first minute the power was 2.7 kWh (45*60/1000) and in the second 2.112 kWh (127/5*60/1000).

Now I turn off a heat pump with the counter at 38 05 in 1 minute it goes to 42 05 (10 pulses) and in 5 minutes to 67 05 ( 47 pulses), so if the output is 1000i/kWh in the first minute the power was 0.6 kWh (10*60/1000) and in the second 0.564 kWh (47/5*60/1000).

It looks like it works!!!!

This was done with the OneWireViewer son now I just have to integrate it with mcsTemperature (and redo it for the definitive instalation) and work in the web page to show the values.

REM: By mistake I connected for about 1 minute a 22 ohm resistor instead of the 220 ohm and everything is still working. Ufff...

MANY THANKS YOU ALL (specialy Peter, Jon and Rocco)

[Mario from Spain]

Yes, The TEMP08 will report the counter as Lightning counts. The DS9097U knows a counter as Rainfall, Windspeed, or Waterflow. Rainfall is 0.01" per count, Waterflow is 1 gallon per count. Windspeed is a little more complex. I think you can also declare the device as a "User" type and then define the label you want to use for charting on the setup. Perhaps something like kwh. One way or another we will get it to work.

Hi Michael.

It works!!!! Let's mcsTemperature show it properly!!

To continue in the mcsTemperature forum... http://forums.homeseer.com/showpost....30&postcount=1

Mario.-

[pbibm]

Mario

Congrats! Its great to start with nothing and get something like this going

I have watched this eagerly as I have led pointer, and think I could solder one of these together. While its a down-the-road project for me, maybe this summer, I have request of you...

Could you add a parts list to the thread; the number and types of parts by name. I think I can follow the drawing to assembel, but it would be good to have a shopping list to go get the parts. I would really appreciated it.

I am one of those who can take the drawings and the parts list and follow in your foot steps, but you guys were all way beyond me in how you solved this.

Thanks.

Paul

[peterpc]

Melkati,

I have the same scematic as Jon, only I added a led between the power and the resistor and use a 1K ohm resistor.
In that way you can visualy see everything is working.( powermeter and LED flash at the same time)
As power supply I use the 12 volt of the ocelot through a diode and a 9 volt battery through a diode.
So when the power of the ocelot is off, the battery takes over.
At this time I still did not connect the power of the Ocelot, so it is working now on the 9 volt battery for more then 4 months!

Peter

[Mario from Spain]

Peter,

Are you using the mcsTemperature to capture the 1-wire data?

[peterpc]

No,

I have the temp08 interface and a script that is called every time temp08 gives new data.
I configured it to scan every 5 minutes.

Peter

[Mario from Spain]

I have the temp08 interface and a script that is called every time temp08 gives new data.
I configured it to scan every 5 minutes.

The counter is now more or less working (with a lot of help from Michael and the many changes in the mcsTemperature plugin he did form me, thanks Michael!) and I'm right now looking into your scripts. I think I understand how it works and will try to adapt it to my system.

Thank you very much!

[Mario from Spain]

Mario

Congrats! Its great to start with nothing and get something like this going

I have watched this eagerly as I have led pointer, and think I could solder one of these together. While its a down-the-road project for me, maybe this summer, I have request of you...

Could you add a parts list to the thread; the number and types of parts by name. I think I can follow the drawing to assembel, but it would be good to have a shopping list to go get the parts. I would really appreciated it.

I am one of those who can take the drawings and the parts list and follow in your foot steps, but you guys were all way beyond me in how you solved this.

Thanks.

Paul

Hi Paul.

The issue here seems to be that there is not yet an available meter with pulse output for the US electricity model. Some people from this thread are looking for a sollution to this. Depending on what meter they find, the interface (and part list) will have to be redefined to that specific metter.

At the moment it looks lite the best way to measure electricity usage for you, the US friends, is to use a Current Transformer and the Ocelot controller.
After I finish this project I'll jump into the other as I have here already the CR Magnetic's CR3100-3000 current transformer to work in.

Mario.-

[Guest]

TED pricing and availability

All:

I recieved a message from Dolph concerning pricing see below:

We certainly do appreciate your interest in TED. TED is being manufactured right now, and should be available to the public by the end of April. As soon as we do have TED available, you will receive an email letting you know how to purchase. It will be available through our website at $139.95, plus s/h and any applicable taxes.

This particular version of TED (model 1000) is designed for single phase service (up to 200 amp). We will have a 3-phase TED out in the 3rd quarter of 2005, but it will be limited to 400 Amp service...which will be suitable for very light commercial applications.

As you likely saw on our website, TED measures the entire electricity usage of your home. TED is designed to help people manage their energy use, save money, and ultimately help with environmental resources. For example, while looking at the LCD, turn on a light, and TED immediately tells what it cost to have the light on. Turn on a clothes dryer, stove....it does the same. You can determine what it costs to cook a meal, turn on the heater, air conditioner, etc. You can see how much money you have spent today, as well as this billing cycle...and TED will also tell you (accurately) what your electricity bill will be...and much more.

Thanks again for your interest. If you have any specific questions, please let me know, and I'll do my best to answer them promptly.

Kindest regards,

Dolph Rodenberg
President
Energy, Inc.
(843) 849-7008
drodenberg@theenergydetective.com

Energy, Inc. does not share or sell email addresses, nor have advertisers associated with our website.

[picta]

OneMeter

Being impatient to wait for TED and guess if it comes with pc interface, I have ordered and installed OneMeter product from brandelectronics.com. The meter was $400 for the whole house, plus I ordered an extra channel to monitor my dryer. It was relatively easy to install, one drawback being that the "data module" box is rather large, so it had to be installed outside of the panel. The module connects via cat5 cable to a display unit that shows amps, volts, watts and total energy used. The display in turn connects to a PC and can be polled via very simple protocol. I use the latest version of mcsTemperature to graph the power rate, and I also get notified when the dryer cycle has finished. Expensive, but works.

[WayneW]

Picta,
How much of the $400 was for the core OneMeter product? They don't have prices for this unit on their web site and I was wondering how expensive it would be to scale to monitor a bunch of branch circuits in addition to the main feed. Did the $400 include openable CTs (snap-around)? I assume you are using 3 CTs, 2 for mains and 1 for the dryer?

It appears that TED would be good for whole house monitoring, but won't do anything for branch monitoring.

[picta]

The pricing was $400 for the whole house (everything included, even cat5 cables) and $75 per additional split-phase (basically the price of an extra CT), you will need two CTs for a 220V circuit and one for a 110V.
The CTs were very easy to install, I am thinking of getting a couple more to monitor other devices.

[wolfe4656]

Ted

I have been watching this thread because I am interested also in monitoring my energy usage. I had sent a email to Energy Inc requesting info on the ted unit too. His reply was very good with a delay in the interface till fall. However he did state that the unit due out in May will have the interface built into it and only the software and a cable will be needed. Purchasing the unit in may will have the interface available, a cable will have to be made and the software Dolph is speaking of will be available in the fall, however a HS plugin would do the trick and interface it to HS. I will probably wait because there is a big cost difference $139.00 vs $400.00. Here is a copy of the letter.



We certainly do appreciate your interest in TED. We have had quite a bit of interest from folks at Homeseer.com regarding an interface-version of TED. We have designed a PC interface into the hardware and are working on the software to allow TED to communicate with a PC for load shedding, historical data display, automatic download of utilty rate structures from the internet and possibly tools for communication directly with your Utility. We hope to have this program ready in the 3rd quarter.

TED is being manufactured right now, and our basic model (not able to communicate with PC) will be available to the public sometime in early May...in 2-3 weeks. We realize we have made some misstatements about availability...postponing the delivery date...but, barring any calamity, we will be shipping in early May. The price is $139.95 plus s/h and any applicable taxes. While this version of TED will not sync up with a PC, it does provide a wealth of very useful info.

The upgrade version will be a software modification, so the basic model of TED will only need a 'CD conversion' to apply the upgrade, along with a custom designed RJ-to-USB cable.

As you likely saw on our website, TED measures the entire electricity usage of your home, and not separate circuits (although, a trained electrical-oriented person could make it work on individual circuits). TED is designed to help people manage their energy use, save money, and ultimately help with environmental resources. For example, while looking at the LCD, turn on a light, and TED immediately tells what it cost to have the light on. Turn on a clothes dryer, stove....it does the same. You can determine what it costs to cook a meal, turn on the heater, air conditioner, etc. You can see how much money you have spent today, as well as this billing cycle...and TED will also tell you (accurately) what your electricity bill will be...and much more.

I hope this answers your questions. Thanks again for your interest and your patience. Please convey our appreciation of patience to your friends on Homeseer. It'll be worth the wait!

Kindest regards,

Dolph Rodenberg
President
Energy, Inc.
(843) 849-7008
drodenberg@theenergydetective.com

[WayneW]

Picta,
Was that $400 for the whole house, including 2 CTs for the main feeds? Or were the CTs extra? I was confused about your $75 comment - did you mean $75 per additional branch circuit or for the second leg of the main feed? $75 for a CT seems awful expensive. Do they look like standard CTs that could be obtained elsewhere for less or are they some custom thing? How many CTs can you add before you need another "data unit"? How many $$ for another data unit?

wolfe4656,
I interpreted Dolph's letter a little different than I think you did. It sounds like the unit available in May will not have a fully functional serial port. It sounds like their upgrade will not just be a PC software release but a firmware upgrade to the actual TED unit. Might you care to follow up with Dolph? I am also curious if they will publish the serial protocol to make scripting or a plug-in easier to develop.

[Michael McSharry]

I have initiated contact to work with them with the outcome being a TED Homeseer plugin. No response yet. I'll post when I get their reply.