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Current Cost vs. TED5000

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    Current Cost vs. TED5000

    I've been looking into these power monitors the last few days. I was originally thinking about the TED because of the gateway device and not requiring a PC. But there are a lot of negative reviews for it on Amazon. I don't really use X10 so that is not an issue for me, but it appears to have low quality.

    That brings me to the Current Cost. This device is a little more confusing to me how it hooks up to HS. It looks like you have to wire the display to HS all the time which is bad for me because my HS PC is in the garage media cabinet. I'd like to be able to see the display in the house. It also looks like you need to buy this Webbridge device to make the readings available online.

    How does the current cost work with the web bridge and HS at the same time? Can you locate the Display away from the HS PC?
    -Tim

    HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
    Way2 Call
    Elk M1 Gold
    UPB HAI switches
    HAI RC2000 Thermostat

    #2
    Whilst I don't use the plugin I do use the hardware and have done for some years.


    That brings me to the Current Cost. This device is a little more confusing to me how it hooks up to HS. It looks like you have to wire the display to HS all the time which is bad for me because my HS PC is in the garage media cabinet. I'd like to be able to see the display in the house. It also looks like you need to buy this Webbridge device to make the readings available online.

    How does the current cost work with the web bridge and HS at the same time? Can you locate the Display away from the HS PC?
    You don't need to buy the bridge, you only need that if you don't want to run a PC 24x7. As you use HS I would guess you are running a PC 24x7 to connect the receiver to.

    You can use multiple displays and sync them to one transmitter without issue so you could have one receiver in the garage connected to HS and another in the house just as a display (or as many as you want). I know you can buy the displays seperately from the eBay Current Cost store at a reasonable price.

    The receiver has an RJ45 socket on the back of it, this outputs TTL level serial commands in the form of an XML file. Due to the lower signal voltage I only had limited success in extending this cable before I had corrupted data. Due to the speed (57600 baud) I believe even if you converted it to RS232 straight out of the back of the unit it still has rather a limited cable range, not like the lower baud RS232 which can run for miles. The receiver comes with a USB lead which has a decent length cable on the end of it.

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      #3
      Thanks for the info. Thats what I suspected, but I didn't know that you could have a second display.

      Since this post I found out about the Brultech. And that lead to the not yet released GreenEye.... So the rabbit hole deepens....
      -Tim

      HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
      Way2 Call
      Elk M1 Gold
      UPB HAI switches
      HAI RC2000 Thermostat

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by mrhappy View Post
        Whilst I don't use the plugin I do use the hardware and have done for some years.
        I just ordered on of these to give it a try. I'm curious, why aren't you using the plugin?

        How do you like the hardware?
        -Tim

        HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
        Way2 Call
        Elk M1 Gold
        UPB HAI switches
        HAI RC2000 Thermostat

        Comment


          #5
          I'm in the same boat - I use the CurrentCost hardware, but not the plugin. The plugin had some issues where a large database would peg the CPU during graph displays. Since then I think it might have been updated to address this and I believe there is a 3rd-party plugin available.

          My wiring closet is at the opposite end of the house from the CC transmitter. I'm on hold on extending that until I get some (much needed) electrical work done on my meter box.
          HS4Pro on a Raspberry Pi4
          54 Z-Wave Nodes / 21 Zigbee Devices / 108 Events / 767 Devices
          Plugins: Z-Wave / Zigbee Plus / EasyTrigger / AK Weather / OMNI

          HSTouch Clients: 1 Android

          Comment


            #6
            Do you use the software for the meter or just use the display?

            I have not hooked mine up yet so I'm not sure what all you can do with it. Its sitting at the house now waiting for me. ;-)

            I wonder if you can run the software and the plugin at the same time.
            -Tim

            HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
            Way2 Call
            Elk M1 Gold
            UPB HAI switches
            HAI RC2000 Thermostat

            Comment


              #7
              I strictly use the display at this time...
              HS4Pro on a Raspberry Pi4
              54 Z-Wave Nodes / 21 Zigbee Devices / 108 Events / 767 Devices
              Plugins: Z-Wave / Zigbee Plus / EasyTrigger / AK Weather / OMNI

              HSTouch Clients: 1 Android

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by email68 View Post
                I just ordered on of these to give it a try. I'm curious, why aren't you using the plugin?

                How do you like the hardware?
                The device has been available here in different versions since at least 2007 (my power company sent me mine for free) so I have written various scripts and my own plugin for it so I use my own plugin rather than the HS one. The HS one does not use the devices in built database which I do.

                I like it due to its simplicity and how easy it is to interface with, although I changed the receiver a couple of different times I still was using my original transmitter until last year and it never skipped a beat apart from needing some new batteries. I have a set of individual appliance monitors (not sure if available in the US yet, are in UK/EU) that I am also using and whilst I don't really use them for metering I use them to sense whether devices are on/off to run events (one being when I turn my DVD player on it senses it and a HSTouch screen pops up asking me whether or not I want to set a scene), easier than a CT sensor and DS10 or whatever.

                I did try once using a COM port splitter app to try and use it in HS and with some 3rd party software from CC themselves and it did not go well, in theory I could not see a problem as the serial port is strictly receive only but the splitter app caused my PC to crash.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Interesting. I'm glad it's working well for you all this time. You got a great deal on it! I just got it hooked up tonight. I need to fine tune the voltage setting and kwh fees still. The seller from amazon is supposed to be sending me the USB cable since its not normally included. My plan is to use cat5 USB extenders so I can put the display in the house and get the data to my HS pc in the garage.

                  The appliance modules are not available in the US yet. They look interesting. I hope the cost is reasonable.

                  What is this difference in your plugin? I'm not understanding about the database.

                  I'd like to be able to see historical data, graphs, etc on HStouch or a iPhone formatted web page. Being able to kick off events like you are doing is ideal.
                  -Tim

                  HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
                  Way2 Call
                  Elk M1 Gold
                  UPB HAI switches
                  HAI RC2000 Thermostat

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The original intention I believe for the CC meter was that it was cheap enough to send out to customers in the UK for free by the power companies - I only was lucky enough to get the first version free but I think others on here received the Envi/EnviR for free aswell the lucky people.

                    The CC meter (Envi/EnviR/Classic) has its own internal database, this database stores IIRC 90 days, 700 hours and 84 months worth of data for each sensor (max of 10). The problem is that the meter whilst it knows todays time it does not know todays date, it reports the days worth of data as day 1, day 2, day 3 etc.

                    If you connected the meter for a month so day1-day30 had exactly a months worth of data inside then each day would represent a day of the month. If you then disconnected the meter for two months and connected it back up for a week you would find day1-day37, day1-day7 being this new week and day8-37 being the last month when connected. The meter does not actually know it has been disconnected for a month and starts off where it left off.

                    I work on the principle of the fact you would not disconnect the meter and would leave it running pretty (the odd hour or two won't hurt things) much 24x7 so all of the data will be representative of the last year and in all likelihood day10 will be 10 days ago. HS's interpretation (of which I do see the logic to it) was that because the device does not know which day the data actually belongs to then it ignores this internal database and stores all of the raw values every six seconds in a database on the HS PC which grows in size but you do truly know which day the data has come from.

                    I did'nt include any HSTouch screenshots in the opening link but there is one in post #99. I am sure you would but perhaps trying both plugins might be the best.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by mrhappy View Post

                      I did'nt include any HSTouch screenshots in the opening link but there is one in post #99. I am sure you would but perhaps trying both plugins might be the best.
                      Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation on the database issue.

                      Where is the link you mention?
                      -Tim

                      HSPro - 3.XXX - Dell mini W7 x32
                      Way2 Call
                      Elk M1 Gold
                      UPB HAI switches
                      HAI RC2000 Thermostat

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Anyone have an opinion of Current Cost Vs. "Ted Pro Home". And any ideas if there will be a HS3 Plugin for that?

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