Energy Overview

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
1

Hi,

Today I installed the datamine app and it works great.
I have a Vera-lite with a 4 way USB hub.
The app found the USB 500MB right away, so that was fine.
Every data is collected and displayed.

I just wonder: On the second tab DASHBOARD there is a energy overview.
There is nothing to see there for me.
Has the app to collect more data before its got displayed?
I have no live wattage in the meter on the right side!

2

Hi,
I’m pleased the app installed well :slight_smile:

[quote=“A.Ardon, post:1, topic:175440”]I just wonder: On the second tab DASHBOARD there is a energy overview.
There is nothing to see there for me.
Has the app to collect more data before its got displayed?
I have no live wattage in the meter on the right side![/quote]
It should display a live energy right away, however, there are somethings to configure. In your “whole house” energy monitor, you need to go to the configuration page, and in “Energy Category”, select “Whole House” (remembering to press SAVE after any changes). This should hopefully then display the gauge in the top right. For the energy donut, you need to configure other energy devices in a similar way, but selecting the appropriate category depending on the device. After changing this config, you probably need to refresh the dataMine GUI…

If you have done this, and it’s still not working, then let me know and I’ll have another think.

Cheers
Chris

3

Hello Chris,

It’s not working.

This is what I did:
Under configuration > E-G meter > Wholehouse > set to true (and saved it)
Under the same meter I have set Watts to true.

I can see the live usage under the CHART .

I do see there is a error in the debug page.
I will put it in the attachment.

Hope you can see what I miss

Andr

4

Hi,
Thanks for the log - it helps. The read error you see is actually ok.

I dont think you’ve configured it correctly. In the debug log, all the variables are set to energy category 0, which is NONE. For whole house, this should be set to 1, but it’s not.

[quote=“A.Ardon, post:3, topic:175440”]This is what I did:
Under configuration > E-G meter > Wholehouse > set to true (and saved it)
Under the same meter I have set Watts to true.[/quote]
Reading this, I think you’ve got it wrong. Something doesn’t get set to “true” - I’m not quite sure what you’re doing, but it’s the “Energy Category” that needs to be set to “Whole House” (see in the attached picture).

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Chris

5

::slight_smile:

Hello Chris,

I found it! You where right. I actualy did someting wrong.
Because there is a item called ‘Whole house’ on the left. Thats where I tried to set the category.

I have done the same thing under ‘Watts’. and now the meter starts working!

6

Forgot something ;D

Did I tell you that i’m very happy with this app?
I have used the ergy app for a while, but its not ‘good’ enough.

I have running dataMine for 2 days now, and now I see much more trough the charts.
This because I don’t monitor all wall-plugs directly right now!

Thank you for making this great app!

7

You’re very welcome, and I’m pleased it’s now working ok.

Cheers
Chris

8

Chris, I don’t have any device called “Whole House” or equivalent. Do I need to manually create an energy monitor ?

Thanks,
Vasco

9

By “Whole House”, I mean this is the device that measures your energy for the house - this is normally located near your main consumer unit or electricity meter. It could be a clamp on meter, or it could detect the pulses from your power meter. You will need to have a device like this that can physically measure the power in your house otherwise it’s difficult to do the energy monitoring.

There are a number of options available for this - both z-wave (eg Aeon), or units like the CurrentCost. Once you have one of these units then you can follow the previous instructions to configure dataMine to display energy use.

I hope that helps?

Cheers
Chris

10

Chris, now it’s clear :slight_smile: I was planning to buy an Aeon Labs clamp power meter so I guess it’s time to go for it…

Now that you have the new file system up and running, any plans to release historical energy consumption functionality ?

Thanks

11

Hi Chris

I’m interested in how this all works in dataMine , noting I currently don’t have a “Whole House” measuring device. In dataMine I can see a one only, circular dial, labelled Watts. What (excuse the pun) does this dial show. I assume it’s showing power consumed at the current instant? Assuming everything in the house was individually metered and from what I have read; I assume a pie chart pops up to the left of the dial based on the categories you have eg heating, lighting, etc? Once again this would be an instantaneous reading - noting that depending on polling intervals, it could very easily miss a power consumption event - say like a fridge going on or off or a hot water kettle being used.

I have been playing around with some code that effectively does what a simple spreadsheet can do. That is - you can set up an array that describes electrical devices in you house and how much power they consume in running & standby modes and how long during in each 24 hour period they are: off, in standby, or on. Likewise you specify how many days a week this occurs and also specify how many months this occurs in a year. For example this allows for heating and cooling over the seasons. You can also say if the device is powered or not - so for example see code output below: “LAN switch 3” is unused and registers no consumption. Each device can also be assigned to a category.

The idea is to have this produce a (very) rough daily estimate of your power consumption. In that, I mean, energy used per day. Energy being what you are billed for ie the cost of your consumption. To me visualizing instantaneous energy is not really of much interest and is something Vera cannot do very accurately, unless very high polling intervals are in place. However it seems that that most of the metering devices will measure KWh and that’s what you are charged for.
So I am imaging this code faking the house’s consumption for devices that are not metered. If you have a device that is actually measured - then this could override the fake value. The whole thing would give an estimate of energy used per day (KWh/day) . I’ve looked at the vampire devices but wasn’t interested in installing fifty of them.

I’m interested to know if dataMine is just doing instantaneous power measurements or does it integrate power over time to produce energy consumed per day? Likewise is it worth developing this energy consumption simulator any further?

Example of code output, that is calculated once per day - please note this is indicative and not necessarily an exact scenario. I don’t believe this is compatible with dataMine as (I believe) you are plotting instantaneous power, whereas I am calculating power used over 24 Hr period ie energy.
So interested in any comments.

A/C office - winter: 9800 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> A/C upstairs - winter: 6900 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Pool - winter: 4032 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Cooking: 2200 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Fridge: 1368 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> A/C office - stdby: 1200 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Electric heater: 1200 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> A/C upstairs - stdby: 1200 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> PC1: 1128 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> LCD TV: 708 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Kettle: 600 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Gas heater fan: 600 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> LAN switch 1: 528 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Lighting: 360 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> PVR: 312 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Alarm: 240 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Z-wave devices @ 1W per device: 240 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> AV RX: 222 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> NAS box: 216 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> PC2 monitor: 215 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> PC1 monitor: 215 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Sonos office: 189 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Modem: 168 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> VOIP phone: 144 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Vera 3: 144 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Intercoms/door bell: 144 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> PC2: 127 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Hair dryer: 100 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Washing machine: 100 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Limitless LED bridge: 96 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Clock radio 1: 72 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Electric tooth brush: 72 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Sonos connect: 48 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Electric blanket 1: 45 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Electric blanket 2: 45 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Microwave oven: 38.775 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> LAN switch 2: 36 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Clock radio 2: 24 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Bar fridge - summer: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Door entrance lights: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Vacuum cleaner: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> A/C upstairs - summer: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> A/C office - summer: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Sonos lounge: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Printer: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> LAN switch 3: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Pool - summer: 0 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Total Energy per day: 35076.775 W.hr.day <0x305b8680> Cost per day: $7.7168905 <0x305b8680>

12
I currently don't have a "Whole House" measuring device. In dataMine I can see a one only, circular dial, labelled Watts.
That's confusing - these two statements should be conflicting... The dial showing Watts should only show the "Whole House" device. If you don't have a device configured in the "Whole House" category, then I would have expected this dial to be 0.
I assume it's showing power consumed at the current instant?
Yes, it simply shows the state of the "Whole House" device. For some devices (eg NorthQ) I think this updates every 15 minutes, and for others, it might be every 6 seconds (or anything else!). It simply reflects the value of the device.
Assuming everything in the house was individually metered and from what I have read; I assume a pie chart pops up to the left of the dial based on the categories you have eg heating, lighting, etc?
Exactly. If you take a look in the manual there's an example. It's a donut chart which is effectively 2 pie charts one inside the other. The inner one shows the value of each device, and the outer shows the combined values in the category. I think it works quite well since the colours allow a quick look at what categories are consuming the power now, and you can also see what the actual device is.
Once again this would be an instantaneous reading - noting that depending on polling intervals, it could very easily miss a power consumption event - say like a fridge going on or off or a hot water kettle being used.
Correct - there's no such thing as "real time". So, you'll miss certain spikes etc, but with a reasonable sampling period, it does work very well. My system monitors maybe a dozen or more devices every 6 seconds. It's not perfect, and yes you do miss things, but it does work well, and it gives a good overview of where you're power is going now. I should also add the my "Whole House" monitor uses a device that looks at the pulse on the power meter, so it is measuring actual power being used, as seen by the meter (and hence is inline with what I'm being charged). This compares actually quite well with the individual appliance monitors that I have (eg on the cooker, washing machine, fridge, computers etc). I don't monitor lights, but Vera does provide a consumption for these based on their state and a user defined power value. Again, this works very well, and ties up very closely with the meter counter.
I'm interested to know if dataMine is just doing instantaneous power measurements or does it integrate power over time to produce energy consumed per day?
Currently, dataMine displays the instantaneous power measurements. For me, these are updated every 6 seconds, so this works out reasonably accurate. There are issues as different things are sampled at different times, but (I think) it does provide a really nice view of your current power consumption. Personally I think this is useful, however I also appreciate that integrating this over time is actually better for some purposes...

So, it’s been mentioned elsewhere, but I have been working on statistics. I actually wrote most of it a while ago, but due to working abroad quite a bit in the past few months, it’s not integrated into the public version yet. I also needed to resolve the database structure, since this will generate a bunch more files! This will produce statistics for each device/variable being logged - this will include min/max, delta (difference between min/max), hourly average… For power, it’s the hourly average that matters - this works out as KWh, and the data will be available for each hour/day/week/month.

Currently, this is as far as I’ve got. I will integrate this into the public version in the coming weeks - once I’ve got the issues out of the current version with the database update. It’s probably worth pointing out that the system retrospectively processes all data, so it will generate this for old data. This also means that if I change the calculations, it can be reprocessed…

Cost is another matter. I might look at this, but it’s a difficult issue as there are different charging schemes (day/night, or $x for first yyy units, then $z per unit, etc) and this makes it inaccurate (in my opinion). Therefore, I think sticking with consumption is best - you can properly compare this across different time periods etc.

I hope that provides an overview of what I do, what dataMine currently does, and what dataMine will hopefully do soon… As always, I’m always open to suggestions… I think once the statistics is working, people will have ideas and we can “easily” refine it if needed…

Cheers
Chris

13

Hi,
I am excited to see the management of electrical consumption. This is a big gap on the vera. There are well ergy plugin but it crashes the vera. Have you an idea of the date of implementation of this new feature?

14

I implemented this product: it’s fantastic.
As a next step energy metering would be still better as it helps in getting feedback from any improvements in the heating parameters of the house and efficiency of the heating equipment.
When can we expect it?
Regards.