Any products to monitor electric usage via a network?

I wasn't sure where to post this, maybe Deej can start a new category for us nerds :)

 

I'm moving into a geothermal heated house soon, and want to really track my electric usage.  The builder added a second power meter in the basement off the circuit breaker panel, so he could record the readings off the geothermal heat exchanger.  This is great, but requires going into the basement and writing down the numbers.

 

Does anyone know of an electric meter that could be installed into a panel to monitor the usages on a particular circuit (pipe dream would be to have a reading for each circuit in the house to see how one's living utilizes power)

 

I'm trying to find a product to do this (I know there's P3's Kill a Watt, but that's for appliances, I'm looking at the overall circuit).  If it can be connected to my network in the house, I can record the data constantly (ever second if necessary) and then have a realtime usage graph, and then daily/monthly, etc graphs of the power consumption.

 

My goal is to build a "home page" hehehe for the house, showing the usage on the geothermal system, readings from an outdoor weather station (so that later data can be plotted against weather conditions).  There's more ideas too, but they're not related to this thread, so I don't know if I should mention it all in here, or if Deej should make a new section for data nerds like me :)

 

Kirk

 

I came across this little device from Energy Monitoring.  It's called the EM-2500.  It's a whole house energy monitor that can display the electricity used in either kWh or in dollars.  Looks like it costs $215.

Hi Kirk,

Any progress on the project - web site?

 

İf so İ would be interested to see it.

 

Russ

Toshiba FA System Co., Ltd. in Japan has applied a patent for a system they developed.

 

The system collects power consumption of different part of factory, and send data to central system for real time display. I don't know if they design a product for consumers.

 

 

Not to sound to dumb or anything..but this is something I've seen in the movies, and it sounds like something that is on the market these days.

And not to be funny, but somebody like Bill Gates probably has a system of that sort. 

In my research I have come across the following:
1. Veris      www.veris.com - nice units - the h663 seems easiest to use in a retrofit
2. Satec    www.satec.co.il model bfm136
3. Schneider  www.powerlogic.com - haven't yet seen a price
4. RFX      www.rfxcom.com  - rf units - nice but expensive - around 110 USD per circuit
5. Plugwise  www.plugwise.com - switching units at about 40 USD per plug.
6. Trend Point  www.trendpoint.com - similar to Veris but don't sell to private customers overseas
7. Obvius  www.obvius.com - similar to Veris
8. Lem    www.lem.com  - rf units look good but I haven't seen the cost
9. Kondra    www.kondra.com/circuit/circuit.html  - A system made based on the Veris board and Trendpoint software
10. Klein has installed a Trendpoint unit    www.klein.com/thermd/enersure.shtml - interesting

Dr Edward Cheung  www.edcheung.com  - a NASA engineer who is apparently an electronics whiz has good information on his site about building your own but I certainly don't have that ability. 

I just keep doing research on the matter and by the time I have the cash in have plus permission from the boss I hope to have found something at least a little bit cost effective and have the selection made.

Have a nice day,
Russ Bailey
 

Hi Russ Bailey,

 

It seems that you are a good researcher...

I wonder if you have seen devices that manage and reduce electricity consumption???

 

Regards,

Hayel Msherbash

The metering devices refered to are toys - and expensive ones for that matter.

 

Proabaly the best known piece of equipment to conserve electricity to date is the finger. One uses it to:

1. turn down thermostat

2. push to on button on TV's, computers etc when wanting to use them

3. follow words when they read - instead of driving for example

4. turn down the water heater temperature

5. dial a number to have someone come insulate the attic, water heater etc.

6. click the x (on the mouse) to get rid of many sites which tell you how wonderful residential wind power, residential PV power etc are. It is wonderful but mainly for the supplier as cost effective it rarely is.

7. click the mouse button to find sites to learn more about what is paractical to do for the whole GW thing.

8. click the mouse button on the little x for sites which offer to let any Tom, Dick or Harry (Jane, June or Jill) write for them. 

take a look at the TED

http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/overview.html

TED is a whole house meter - fine for what it is. If you want to see what is causing a spike in useage or what individual unit consumptions are you have to run around sutting everything off and take readings.

 

There are a number of this type available - see www.powermeterstore.com

Russ

My compliments to your reply. Why is it that we want technical solutions, and so seldom are willing to make the effort to do the simple things.

Can I add "hop out the shower a minute sooner each day"

Seriously, you can look at the work we have been doing on Computer energy saving. The solutions are almost all in the doing, the technology simply costs money, expends carbon in manufacture, and does little to address the issue.

http://open4energy.com/forum/grn/msr/energy_measuring_watts_up_09071445

It seems we want an automated litter picker upper, rather than to stop throwing it on the floor?

 Hi open4energy,

Welcome to the Green Home Huddler!

The article the link leads to is informative and good and details the fallacy of blindly following along.

I have found that simple and untrue or incorrect stories can gain fantastic credibility on the net. Most of the 'new' power sources, the Maglev Wind Turbine for one, get people all excited and posting comments about how wonderful! The next two years nothing more has been heard of the Maglev Turbine - wonder why? There will be a few good ones come through but 99%+ will just go away.

I like the story about the Kill-a Watt and the accuracy - plugged by someone who hadn't tried it.

Sometime back I took my amp meter (not an expensive one) and started an energy survey. I found out that certain items, though turned on and operating, seemed to be magically not using any power.

As one might guess, I soon figured out that my cheap amp meter was not accurate in the lower range. When I have extra bucks I will be buying a new meter from Fluke or some company like that. My cheap meter was carbon spent for nothing!

The minute less in the shower is one of the tried, true and easy power savers! 

Thanks open4energy!

After rereading the post by open4energy I spent more time on their site and found good articles and the following link. The link is to the lbl site and gives ranges of power consumption for many household and office items.

The horrible cell phone charge is the smallest offender of all it would seem.

http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-chart.html