Aeon Labs Home Energy Monitor with SmartSwitches

Other Devices & Integrations Power Management
1

I am wanting to better understand the consumption of energy in my home.

In the end, what I would like to do is know the whole house load, all the measured loads, all the accounted loads and the vampire load. I want to be able control the known loads and minimize the vampire load.

I am measuring the whole house load with an Aeon Labs Home Energy Monitor.
I am wanting to measure variable loads with SmartSwitches or Z-Wave Kill-A-Watts.
I am wanting to account for lighting, various fans and other fixed loads.

Vampire loads + variable loads + fixed loads = total consumption.
Vampire loads = total consumption - variable loads - fixed loads

I would like Vera to display the whole house load, the various fixed loads and the measured loads and compute the vampire load.

In this simple example, I measure the whole house load to be 764 watts and the known loads (430 watts measured from the refrigerator and 80 watts accounted from the switch) to be subtracted, leaving me with my vampire load.

I know my vampire loads are currently around 220-250 watts. The refrigerator is on the SmartSwitch reports that it’s 430 watts when the compressor runs. It properly reports 0 watts when the refrigerator just sits there. It also properly reports about 6 watts when the door is open. My kitchen lights are on a GE/Jasco 45609 switch. The light switch properly reports 80 watts when the lights are on.

-===-

Just about all fixed and accountable loads such as lights, dimmed lights, fans, stereo, etc. are on switches, dimmers and switched outlets.

My refrigerator is a variable load and is now on a SmartSwitch to measure it. I plan to measure the load for other variable loads such as my TV, washer, dishwasher, microwave, power strips (for the transformer farms). etc. This will require 6-7 more SmartSwitches. My hot water heater and stove are gas and don’t enter the equation. My clothes dryer is 220 and will show up prominently in the whole house measurement.

The vampire loads are things like my Internet modem, my router, Vera, my network storage drive, the doorbell transformer, the garagedoor remote control receiver and three transformer farms for charging cell phones, laptops, TVs etc.

2

Pretty sure that this isn’t supported.

What you might be able to do, with a plugin, is create a virtual device that computes your vampire load from all your real devices. Then everything will be counted exactly twice. Turn off the whole-house item on the graph and there you have it.

(That plugin doesn’t exist yet.)

3

Futzle,
I can see how that would work … you would have a virtual device whose apparent load to the system is the computed vampire load.

Vampire loads = total consumption - variable loads - fixed loads
Vampire loads = HEM reading at mains - readings from various smartswitches - settings in switches, dimmers, thermostats.

So now this virtual device presents its computed load to the graphing program. The whole house reading is turned off on the graph.

Perfect.

… now that we have the total vampire load computed, we can also trigger actions (notifications or scenes) if a certain limit is exceeded.

This sounds like it could be a very useful plugin!

4

@kgrr,
Out of interest, what’s driving you to install 6-7 individual load monitoring devices versus buying a multi-channel power measuring unit that can be wired into the breaker box?

eg. TED5000, CurrentCost or Brultech type of monitoring…

I definitely understand the convenience of 1-2 Aeon units, but I’m wondering what impediments there are that are preventing people from deploying one of the above multi-channel devices once their usage goes beyond 1-2 channels.

eg. ease of install, caution about entering the breaker panel, etc, etc

Inquiring minds… :wink:

5

Guessed,
The short answer - how well integrated is the solution? how flexible is it? will it provide the data I want?

The long and detailed answer:
My purchase of the Aeon Labs HEM and SmartSwitch were the result of a semi-educated purchase.

There were several factors that I considered in my selection:

  1. can be easily integrated into my Vera home automation system.
  2. granular enough to nail down consumption to one or two devices.
  3. wanted the ability to combine the accounting provided by all of the switches and dimmers that control the house, the ability to measure specific variable loads.
  4. wanted a way to calculate or measure the vampire load. If it was not being done already, I thought I would use the DataMine plugin and compute it with Excel offline or some way with some Luup code, etc.

From the surface, it looked like the Aeon Labs HEM and maybe four SmartSwitches solution was best integrated with Vera. The Aeon Labs HEM and the SmartSwitches were available from the MiCasaVerde store, so I assumed this Home Energy Monitoring solution had thoroughly been vetted. How to measure large electrical loads such as the range (mine’s gas), electric dryer, and water heater (mine’s gas) is still open. Currently, there are no 240v versions of SmartSwitches available for ranges, clothes dryers and water heaters. I was willing to resign to the fact that I would not be able to directly measure the electric dryer’s power consumption. The data samples from the HEM and the SmartSwitches are routed over the ZWave wireless network. The SmartSwitches connect right close to the load. Besides measuring the load, I can use the switch to turn on and off the load (such as a plug strip, etc). I can observe the behavior of an appliance for a while and then move the SmartSwitch to another appliance. In some cases, I just want to monitor the load and am not interested in shutting it off. My refrigerator and garage freezer fall into this category.

As an alternative, I could have bought a Brultech ECM-1240 with a small collection of CT’s (current transformers). It would have done everything that the above solution would have solved, PLUS it would have provided a solution to measure the larger loads. What prevented me from doing this solution was 1) not knowing how I would connect the RS-232 data from the ECM-1240 to my Vera and, 2) to a smaller extent not knowing how well the ECM-1240 and its plug-in would work with the graphing software on the energy tab. Working inside the switchbox and disconnecting circuits, threading-on the smaller CT-doughnuts and re-connecting circuits really was not an issue I had considered to be a barrier. I would expect that someone not comfortable with installing any Home Energy Monitor would call a qualified electrician to do it for them. The biggest barrier for this solution is the long distance between my electrical panel and where my Vera is situated. This solution really begs for a Zwave connection between the ECM-1240 and Vera.

I suppose I could have bought TED5000’s as an alternatives to the Aeon HEM(s). 1) The CTs looked tiny and flimsy. 2) I did not feel confident about yet another wireless protocol between the MTU and the Gateway. 3) The Gateway was yet another box that would need to find a home on my already crowded data shelf. 4) I did not know how well the plug-in would work with the graphing software on the energy tab.

I was not aware of the Current Cost ENVI solution until you mentioned it today.

kgrr

6

I’m waiting for the GreenEye to materialize (and @guessed’s plugin, compatible with Ergy ;D) for per-branch measurement, combined with a few SmartSwitches for per-device measurement and on/off detection.

7

oTi@,
I’m assuming GreenEye is a z-wave compatible multi-channel home energy monitor?

I second the motion on developing @futzle’s vampire slayer plugin or getting ERGY to read the enumerated type of the measuring device and understanding which is the mains measurement, which is a circuit measurement and which is a particular appliance or group of appliances. I really need it to keep a lid on my 24x7 phantom loads:

[ul][li] Internet modem, Wi-Fi router, Vera, Network storage[/li]
[li] Countless “wall warts” - cellphone, cordless phone, laptop and tablet chargers[/li]
[li] Ventilation timer[/li]
[li] AC powered smoke detectors (with battery backup)[/li]
[li] Security systems and fire alarms [/li]
[li] Doorbell transformer[/li]
[li] Receiver for garage door[/li]
[li] Programmable thermostats[/li]
[li] Indoor/outdoor thermometer / weather station[/li]
[li] Motion sensors, light sensors, built-in timers and automatic sprinkler timers[/li]
[li] Instant on circuitry in TVs and Stereos[/li]
[li] Clocks on microwave, stove, alarm clocks[/li]
[li] Status display on refrigerator and dishwasher[/li]
[li] Idle current from Zwave switches and dimmers[/li][/ul]

I have it down to 131 watts now. 131 x 24 x 7 x 4.35 = 95.7 KWh or $8.15 per month

8

@kgrr,
Thanks for the detailed responses. I’ll use them to update my documentation, to hopefully make it clearer to people what components are needed (for Vera integration, wireless), and what you get when you do that.

When you first look at some of these devices, they seem like an uphill battle, or at least a wiring headache :wink:

To give you a few quick answers, yes they integrate with the standard Vera power monitoring/graphing stuff. I’ve attached two pictures to better show that (I have 14 channels, via 2 ECM-1240’s running wirelessly)

One picture is the power usage for the last few days, and the other is for just this morning (you can see when the heater motor kicked in this morning)

The numbers will look larger than they really are as I have a “total sub-panel” clamp in place, as well as a computed value that’s mimicking the total sub-panel load.

I'm assuming GreenEye is a z-wave compatible multi-channel home energy monitor?
The ECM-1240 is about 2-3 yrs old at this point, and requires a few "bits" from Brultech to get it all connected up. In addition, each ECM only reads 7 channels, so more than a few people had "several" of them in their configs".

These all probably created a barrier to entry.

I have 2 of them, reading 14 channels of data, but these guys went completely nuts, and used 60 channels of data:
http://lancet.mit.edu/~mwall/projects/power/

Anyhow, the GreenEyeMonitor is Brultech’s next-generation device. It looks like they pulled down the spec sheet, but they basically have 30 (or 32?) CT Inputs, a Temp gauge, 1-wire input, and WiFi all built into one package (for about US$320 or so + CT’s).

It’ll still need the Plugin, in order to talk to it over it’s WiFi channel, but it’ll be a lot easier to install since there’s one thing to purchase (plus whatever CT’s you need)

According to their Forums, they’ll be shipping it in the next two weeks. I’ll be getting one ASAP, and making mods to support all the extra stuff, I have people tapping me on the shoulder for it already…

UPDATE: GreenEye spec is here GreenEye Monitor (Residential) - Brultech Research Inc.

9

Guessed,

So they are finally release the greeneye? Finally!!! I may have to pick one up now. I was holding off for either the greeneye or looking into something else.

  • Garrett
10

@Guessed,
I’m glad I’m of help to you. The Aeon Labs HEM and SmartSwitch are installed in my weekend townhouse. I’m highly concerned with vampire loads there because I’m not there during the week. Furthermore, a lot of that house runs on natural gas.

I could imagine using a product like Greeneye in our main home where there are more branch circuits and lot of electric appliances - water heater, electric dryer, electric range, etc. Nevertheless, I think I still would measure the whole house consumption at the mains. And, since it’s easily computed, knowing the total vampire loads at this house is good to know. I certainly would like to know when GreenEye is out.

-==-

I’m thinking the next obvious step is to mark all the switches and dimmers in the home with two new variable that indicates if a load can be shed or not and the other a priority. So if a power emergency is declared by the power company or if the realtime electric costs go up past a certain limit, then loads can be shed starting with the least important on the list.

11

When they open orders, I imagine there will be a few people that’ll order. I’ll post something here once I see the formal announcement on their site.

For my deployment, I’ll keep one of the ECM-1240’s to monitor the Main Panel (AirCond, Oven, SubPanel), and probably convert it’s “Aux5” input to do pulse readings of either the Water line or the Gas meter.

The GreenEye will then do my SubPanel breakouts, at a level finer than my current bundling, and maybe garage temperature.

I'm thinking the next obvious step is to mark all the switches and dimmers in the home with two new variable that indicates if a load can be shed or not and the other a priority. So if a power emergency is declared by the power company or if the realtime electric costs go up past a certain limit, then loads can be shed starting with the least important on the list.
Oddly enough, I was at an offsite a few weeks back where they were discussing device classification, power shedding technologies, alternative power supply/storage options etc. There is some great, practical, research being done in this space... You can definitely see a day where it won't require us to do all this manual device classification ;-)
12

While the Brultech ECM-1240 adds a lot of functionality, it still does not solve my fundamental problem with Vera’s rather simple graphing software.

I would like Vera to display the whole house load, the various fixed loads and the measured loads and compute the vampire load.

Vera’s software should know the difference between recording CT’s that measure the whole house. CT’s that measure branch circuits in the house that are part of the whole house load, and Smart Switches and modules that report the consumption of individual appliances (that are included in various branch circuits and the whole house loard). It should also be able to know the loads that are calculated energy use for ‘switch’ and ‘dimmer’ devices with configured ‘Watts’ variable are part of branch circuits and whole house circuits. It should be able to calculate unaccounted electric consumption from differences between the mains consumption and measured branch circuits leaving unmeasured branch circuits. In the same way, it should be able to measure a branch circuit and subtract the calculated and reported loads and compute the remaining load on that branch circuit.

Because I have usage (measured and calculated) at several levels, the graphs are simply not indicative of what’s going on. The energy monitoring system is not delivering reliable numbers as a result. The plug-in suggested is a temporary work-around. How do we address this problem so that we can get this issue fixed?

13

Hi,

I have the same problem, but only with a Kamstrup Plug in. There is also a diffrent bug with the Kamstrup plug in.

The UI, shows the watt *1000, right now i’m using 867.000W (Hope, I don’t have to pay for that load… GG) But the “energy graph” shows the correct amount of Watts.

And also the Kamstrup shoes as having 4 embeded reading point, but only 1 work, and the 3 others generate a lot of “unable to pull” noice in the logs.

But I hope they can figure this out… would be nice to have this working…

/Cokeman

14

Hi Cokeman (and others),

This is what my three Home Energy Monitor “devices” sometimes look like on my Vera. At times, clamp 1 shows more load (Watts) than the total for the whole house. The pseudo-device shows zero KiloWatt-Hours. Clamp 2 always seems to register zero watts and zero KiloWatt-Hours. The third device is supposed represent the whole house load the sum of Clamp 1 and Clamp 2. Aren’t the KiloWatt-Hours are supposed to accumulate?

It’s my understanding that the new push for Vera is in the area of Home Energy Management. So why does it look like that the products are not ready for prime time yet? Is anyone at MCV looking into the bugs?

kgrr

15

Did you get this figured out? I’m thinking of buying one of these.

J

16

i have one aeon hem ,but in my case does not indicate any watts? What should I do?
There are any settings I need to make?
Viorel

17

Have you done a search. There have been many discussions with the aeon hem having issues reporting correct usage and data etc.

  • Garrett
18

I did search and I tried many values for parameters 101, 102 and 103 and nothing was working
I found some values that works - 101, 102, 103 = 3F0F, 3-Enable delta = 0, 8-Percent delta = 0;

Now it is OK - I have the readings for Watt and KWh for the HEM and also for the clamps.

Thanks a lot,
Viorel

19

I’m sorry I’ve left this thread dormant for a while. I am still interested in monitoring my electrical load. I’ve had to wrap-up some other projects first.

20

Hello !

Here I am…

I have one: Aeon Labs DSC27103-ZWUS - 300W In-Wall Micro Dimmer Module - US Frequency , installed and in Vera dashboard shows the watts consumption…

is another way to have this information and statistics about this comsuption (a plugin ? ) I have interest in acquire more that devices and monitoring energy is a good information to have in a home…

thanks