Let’s avoid the whole “smart” meter debate perhaps. I’ve ordered the cheaper one with intent of tapping the data stream at some point in the chain and logging it.
edit there is a USB port too it would seem - http://rainforestautomation.com/developer/
I thinking about this the other day after I found out BC Hydro doesn’t really have an API to pull data off their web interface (and besides, it’s not exactly real-time, usually a day out of date). I’d be interested in how you make out. Keep me updated on this.
I have seen several new “clamp-on” dongles attached to meters around my neighbourhood. They are attached with BC Hydro’s seal. This may be what they mean by “BC Hydro will configure the meter at your location to communicate with a specific energy monitor based on your selection.” I’ll take a picture and post it tomorrow. If that’s the case, there may be a way to tap onto that data stream to do your own data collection.
@TomKeddie - That looks like fun. Is this something you’re buying to play with at home? Or at VHS?
Neurio is a local company that came out to the hardware meetups that Maker Labs was putting on recently.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/energyaware/neurio-home-intelligence
It uses a CT to clamp on to your power box and does real time measurements. The big thing for me is that you OWN your own data. You can have it stored in the device or sent to a local storage system instead of the cloud. It also plays nice with IFTTT and other online services.
They are shipping this month.
I’m a bit confused, how does the Rainforest thing actually get the data, and how does it differentiate between your data and the data of your neighbor?
The smart meters have ZigBee radios. I’m not sure how you associate it with the correct meter, or how they deal with privacy issues. Maybe they are able to send the MAC address of your registered device to the meter over the reporting back channel or something like that.
Did some reading:
http://rainforestautomation.com/rfa-z105-2-emu-2/
Looks like you “register it” with your meter. Sounds neat… I want one too.
They set the Rainforest device to pair with your electrical meter before they send it to you. So it only gets your data. And you can do what you want with it. I saw a demo of the Neurio somewhere and I think the advantage of it was that it could extrapolate from the usage data what actual appliance was using power at what time. The Rainforest device as far as I know just shows total usage data and it’s up to you to determine what appliance is using what power. The advantage of it is it gets the data from the power meter so you don’t need to install CTs, etc in the breaker panel…
I sent away for the unit with the embedded web server and want to setup some sort of uC based large display that parses the device for the current cost per minute value and displays it on a large LED display in the kitchen…
So, as I’m moving in a month, I should wait? Any idea how the device is re-registered?
I don’t see anything about how to deal with moving the device from one meter to another so you may want to wait till you move…
But right now Hydro is paying $35.00 of the device cost so you may not want to wait…
How would this work for folks that live in a condo?
I saw one device ( can’t find it now for the life of me ) that clamped to the power output of the circuit breaker and could apparently track each device separately based on how many amps were being used. Not so sure about that one.
Also found an Arduino IDE compatible open source solution just now while searching.
What I really want are some simple devices that I can use to send the power usage of various devices to a Graphite install so I can graph power usage over time.
According to the specs it’s range is up to 150 feet from the meter so it would depend on how far away you are from wherever the meters are installed.
If these work with your distance to the meter, then it would be the easiest way to monitor power. Any other solution pretty much requires you install current transformers on the wiring in the breaker panel.
Mine arrived today. I got the more expensive deluxe version. It’s actually pretty slick. It has a local web server that you connect to directly, and that web server has decent graph support for the hour, day, and week and shows your current usage. The current usage updates every few seconds, so it’s very convenient to walk around the house with the page loaded on your tablet, turning things on and off and seeing how much they contribute to your usage.
They have a developer page with a lot of detail about how to connect to the device. For example, there’s sample Python code to grab data from it over your local network (a “pull” interface), and if you want to hook it up to a web server of your own, there’s a simple RESTful interface that it’ll use ( a “push” model, basically)
If you want, you can hook it up to an existing cloud service. I tried Bidgely, which seems like it might be useful. Theoretically, it analyzes your data over time and tells you how much you’re paying per month for heating, dishwashing, TV, etc. There’s a lot of privacy implications there, but I’m fine with trying it out for a bit to see if it actually gives me any useful information.
My cheap one arrived last night. Seems to work well, is very responsive to changes in consumption. I haven’t tried the usb port yet.
For anyone that has tried Bidgey (or any of the other cloud based analytically services), how accurately can they fingerprint your various appliances to be able to tell what is drawing the power?
I’m about 5 days into testing Bidgely. They say it takes a week to figure things out. So far it’s automatically identified my refrigerator. I also manually made it identify a space heater, just to see how that would work (you press Start on their web site, turn the device on, and wait for 2 minutes). Seemed to work well for that.
I’ll report back in a few days and let you know how it’s coming along.
Here is what I see on the serial port (usb cdc 115200), seems like it should be easy to grok.
<CurrentSummationDelivered>
<DeviceMacId>_________</DeviceMacId>
<MeterMacId>__________</MeterMacId>
<TimeStamp>0x1c817523</TimeStamp>
<SummationDelivered>0x0000000002747383</SummationDelivered>
<SummationReceived>0x0000000000000000</SummationReceived>
<Multiplier>0x00000001</Multiplier>
<Divisor>0x000003e8</Divisor>
<DigitsRight>0x01</DigitsRight>
<DigitsLeft>0x06</DigitsLeft>
<SuppressLeadingZero>Y</SuppressLeadingZero>
</CurrentSummationDelivered>
<MessageCluster>
<DeviceMacId>______________</DeviceMacId>
<MeterMacId>_______________</MeterMacId>
<TimeStamp>0x1c817525</TimeStamp>
<Id>0x00001287</Id>
<Text>Registration Successful</Text>
<Priority>Medium</Priority>
<StartTime>0x1c6f7723</StartTime>
<Duration>0x52b9</Duration>
<ConfirmationRequired>Y</ConfirmationRequired>
<Confirmed>N</Confirmed>
<Queue>Active</Queue>
</MessageCluster>
<PriceCluster>
<DeviceMacId>_______________</DeviceMacId>
<MeterMacId>______________</MeterMacId>
<TimeStamp>0x1c817407</TimeStamp>
<Price>0x00000467</Price>
<Currency>0x007c</Currency>
<TrailingDigits>0x04</TrailingDigits>
<Tier>0x01</Tier>
<StartTime>0x1c817527</StartTime>
<Duration>0xffff</Duration>
<RateLabel>Block 2</RateLabel>
</PriceCluster>
My Bidgely update:
It hasn’t actually automatically identified any new devices, but somehow it seems to think it knows how much I’m paying for heating. So this may be a true value or not, because I’ve got a natural gas furnace, and while it does have a fan associated with it, I’d expect it to be fairly low in terms of total energy usage, but Bidgely claims I’m spending more on heating costs than my neighbours. Not sure what to think about that. Maybe all my neighbours who use Bidgely (and considering how few that is, maybe they’re including Seattle) are using natural gas heating as well. But it is quite specific in terms of things like my refrigerator and my dryer, so that’s nice. I’ll leave it running for a few more months. If the heating cost doesn’t drop to zero in the summer, I’ll know something’s wonky with it.
Thank you!
You helped us make one of the most successful programs
in North America!
Thanks to you and all of the other energy-conscious people who bought Rainforest Automation devices, the BC Hydro Home Energy Monitor program is a great success! More people than ever are now able to see their electricity usage as it happens, so they can take action immediately to save power.
However, the first phase of the program is coming to an end. This means that the generous BC Hydro rebate that you enjoyed will soon no longer be available. So, if you know anyone who might be interested in getting an energy monitor, please let them know that they have until the end of the month to claim their rebate!
The BC Hydro rebate ends March 31!