Are there any whole house (current clamp on meter tails) that are any good?
In the worst case, a basic one with USB output so I can log into my database would be OK.
But I'd really like one that "just worked" with Android - many have terrible reviews, eg OWL.
Anyone any experience of one that is not crap?
Cheers
Tim
AFAIK, none of the standard ones will work with PV or other micro generation systems as they do not measure phase and so stupidly add the export and import together. This also means that they are pretty inaccurate especially on small loads and anything with motors in or other reactive loads. There was an outfit called ECO-EYE claiming to be a bit smarter than the average monitor but their website seemed to be suspended when I looked to check the URL??
On Saturday 02 November 2013 14:11 Bob Minchin wrote in uk.d-i-y:
I did notice one that clipped a sensor over the led on a modern meter to take an accurate reading (PV excepted).
Not too worried about perfect accuracy - just usability :)
Or one that speaks etc... Brian
I'm happy with my CurrentCost. Accuracy is better than 1 unit/day at
20 units used each day. I haven't checked it against the bills since I include the switched E7 tails in the clamp. It is a bit finickity about position of tails through clamp. So if you let the clamp just dangle around the tails and it moves the readings will be unreliable but fix the relative positions and it's pretty good. I've had mine for a good few years and the clamp is quite large (probably just big enough to get 4 x 16 mm tails through, mines currently got 3 x 16 mm tails through it) they do a smaller clamp these days. IIRC you can have up to three sensors for different feed (peak/off peak), each phase of a 3 phase supply etc.If you want gas/water/oil monitoring as well then they have the EnviR but not sure that all the sensors are available.
Has a serial TTL output but CurrentCost sell Anne Adapter to USB. It squirts out live data in a published XML format every 6 seconds or so and historical data every hour (or something like that, I just log each live data burst).
Wha do you mean by ""just worked" with Android"?
Mines got the TTL > USB adapter plugged into a linux based server and a tiddly bit of perl to log each live data burst. The web server has a web page that plots that days use (or any other day from the log files).
I have been tempted by this:
On Sunday 03 November 2013 00:32 Michael Chare wrote in uk.d-i-y:
I'd have a set if they sold them ready made :)
On Saturday 02 November 2013 23:22 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Ah - thanks Dave. That will do.
Just electric will be OK...
I wonder if there's any fancy opensource software I can run - I'll go and have a look at FreshCode.
I should have been clearer - something that comes with a cloud service and apps.
Thanks - very interesting :)
I don't know what has happened to their web site.
I have an Eco-Eye Smart PV, which (provided your mains cables have been separated to permit this) can show both usage, generation and net import/export. The display includes a special SD card, from which data can be downloaded when convenient, and there is an included analysis program.
If you have no PV, they have a slightly cheaper option.
You can also connect via a USB lead to graph the data in real-time, if you wish, but it is not essential to do this.
Basically it does what is claimed. Like all such devices there is a degree of error in the readings, but it seems sensitive enough to changes. There doesn't seem to be a wired option, so you need the display to be able to receive a reasonable signal from the transmitter.
Chris
There are several/quite a few programs, or links to, on the CurrentCost site. They have always published the XML format and give techincal details of the interface. So plenty of people have developed code for a variety of OS's, languages or scripts.
It does, I think but may require an extra "cloud box" for a plug 'n play solution. Not having any interest in the cloud at all (for anything) I haven't bothered investigating.
Seems to be back now:
Chris
Why not go for one which monitors the led/lcd/dial on meter ? you can then be confident that the recording matches the meter
Martin
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