Comments on: Monitoring home energy consumption

By: Roger Thomas

Roger Thomas — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:02:08 +0000

Well researched site! Can you recommend any forums I could join to learn more? Thanks

By: berend

berend — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:28:05 +0000

Related to this subject and perhaps of interest : free software that will run on any pc to keep detailed track of your domestic energy concsumtion.
Download at http://econote.nibfo.eu/

/cheers
Berend

By: Roman Dulgarov

Roman Dulgarov — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:50:40 +0000

Hello everyone, I’ve been a long time reader of this page and it is awesome. I just saw this article and some one mentioned TED and thought I’d mention that a new model of TED is going to be released with in a few month that has Zigbee support and load shedding. Can’t go too much into details but its going to basically have everything people have asked for in the old model.

By: Raging Computer

Raging Computer — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:57:37 +0000

Here's a couple links for the DIY hackers with no fear of electricity and a desire to monitor energy usage.
http://www.edcheung.com/automa/power.htm
http://www.kondra.com/circuit/circuit.html
http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/install.html

It's amazing how much energy can be saved just by being aware of how much is wasted.

By: putnam

putnam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:46:42 +0000

Bang on about home automation being a great way to get into energy monitoring on the cheap... but where is the "hack factor" in this article? *grin* When I go looking for home automation gear I want stuff that has a well defined and accessible network interface. And NOTE both hardware and software must be accessible. It must also have documentation freely available (or be self evident on inspection). These criteria have steered me ever more towards Modbus RS485 interfaces. Modbus used to be an expensive industrial protocol. Now it is available on just about any microcontroller and /further/ any meter manufacturer worth their salt will have a Modbus interface (even REALLY cheap meters - hint hint). And even more Modbus on RS485 is easy to convert to ModbusTCP so that you can speak to it with any TCP/IP stack and applications. Now that's hackable *grin*.

Wireless combined with power electric (read grounds, shields and safe enclosures) will make your life hellish. Inscrutable oddball protocols will also mangle you.

Give me a Modbus thermostat like
http://www.temcocontrols.com/

Tell me how to get Modbus from a Kill A Watt (P3) and that will make my day *grin*
http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

By: GhrayFahx

GhrayFahx — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:37:31 +0000

Am I the only one that saw NES mentioned in the post and thought someone hacked an 8-Bit Nintendo into a Home Automation System? Meh, guess I’ll have to be satisfied with Atari Jaguars being turned into Dental Imagers.

By: Jason Turner

Jason Turner — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:25:38 +0000

You could at least mention that name of the company that you stole the screenshot from:

http://www.coloradovnet.com

I don't currently work for them, but did a couple of years ago and worked on that UI software, as well as several bits of the underlying software.

By: Haku

Haku — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:03:50 +0000

Not wishing to come across as some sort of advertisment but I've been involved with this: http://www.ecoauditors.co.uk/commercial.html
And you can see some realtime energy consumption monitoring of a pub here: http://www.smallworld.cx/ecoaudit/todays_energy.html

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:23:27 +0000

Austin energy already has something like this and its free. More information can be found at http://www.austinenergy.com/Energy%20Efficiency/Programs/Power%20Partner/index.htm

By: AKMA

AKMA — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:43:36 +0000

[.... monitoring and home automation systems are coming to mainstream consumers. The New York Times covers the latest technologies (annoying login required) that ...]

surely, you must have heard of “bugmenot.com”??