I am looking into the possibility of making a device that connects to powermeters to report power consumption. It is quite commont to have a S0 interface on newer meters. I was wondering how many on the forum has such a power meter (could also be gas and water meters)?
The S0 interface is really only an open collector switch that switches a number of times pr kwh (mine is 1000 times pr kwh). This will enable both logging of overall use and instantanious power usage (by measuring the time between pulses).
I am unsure of how to connect it to Vera. It could either be a z-wave device or an ip device (maybe PoE)
Shadock, what counties will that work in? It’s very high on our priority list to get a way to read the total consumption from the meter. But it’s easier said than done, and I can’t find a Z-Wave device to do this in the US.
I don’t know if this is helpful but… The Province of Ontario in Canada is switching every single home and business to “Smart Meters”. It starts in April 2009 and should be complete by sometime in 2010. For reference, the population of Ontario is over 11 Million people.
It would be cool if VERA was able to connect to these meters. I highly doubt they would be Z-Wave compliant so you’d need to invent some kind of z-wave interface. ??? I wish I new the model of what was being installed by I don’t. At least not yet.
What are the chances that you folks could work with the folks at Energy, Inc. to read information from their product T.E.D. ?
I purchased one along with the footprints software to monitor whole house power consumption as there was not a product that was zWave compatible that did. I have used TED now for about 2 weeks and besides a very tacky looking interface on the PC (I am NOT a fan of brown… or green for that matter)… like it very much.
I can tell you working with the metering companies that the plan is for the entire country to have Zigbee based meters. It is going as far as the appliance manufacturers have announce smart energy initiatives.
Whirlpool last week made a first-of-its-kind commitment while at EE Global Forum & Exhibition in Paris. Bracken Darrell, president of Whirlpool Europe, and executive vice president of Whirlpool Corporation, said that by 2015, they will make all the electronically controlled appliances it produces – everywhere in the world – capable of receiving and responding to signals from smart grids. The company also noted that this commitment is dependent on two important public-private partnerships: 1. The development by the end of 2010 of an open, global standard for transmitting signals to and receiving signals from a home appliance; and 2. Appropriate policies that reward consumers, manufacturers and utilities for using and adding these new peak demand reduction capabilities.
Can’t say as though I am thrilled with that. Another way for Big Brother to control a part of my life.
I like the idea of being in control of what I spend money on, and the part about rewards is a nice thought… but call me a pessimist, or a realist. Any way of taking money out of Big Brothers Pocket won’t go over well. Prepare for a rate hike.
At least they are trying to get together to agree on something… but agreeing to be a Lemming means certain death. LoL!
Would it be illogical to presume one day Vera might “speak Zigbee” in order to interoperate with the proposed Smart Meters here in the U.S.?
I’ve run across at least one “triple radio” (802.11, Z-Wave & Zigbee) controller on the Web, and hate to see Vera be outdone in any way.
Pacific Gas and Electric in California is rolling out smart meters that appear to be Zigbee based. They say “by the end of 2011, PG&E will have installed 9.8 million SmartMeter™ meters for all customers, including 5.3 million electric and 4.5 million gas meters.”
They are working on aggregating power data from multiple utilities and providing APIs to use the data. They are looking for more utility partners, but also for makers of devices like the Vera.
curtisg, I think the problem you’re going to run into with that Model is that the PG&E SmartMeters [currently] only upload once per day. They collect data at more granular levels, but it’s only available daily.
Not sure what the constraint is there.
I have PGE SmartMeters attached to the Electricity and Gas lines (Bay Area). The data is great to look at offline, but what I’d prefer is “real-time”. Otherwise the effect is “what did that?” when you see the graphs, and the lumpy spike from something.
For the moment, for real-time, I suspect I’ll need a TED 5000 or equivalent.
I hope PGE opens themselves up for “other” consumers, either direct to customer or indirectly via Google’s service, and works on more frequent/granular updates of what they collect.
Instant feedback will be key to changing people’s usage habits.
Utilities are already getting good results by giving people very coarse-grained information and including an element of competition:
In the book “Nudge” the authors note that giving people more energy usage information can actually work against the goal of conservation – if people reduce their usage, they feel like they have “headroom” to use extra energy somewhere else.
However, I agree with you that realtime feedback would be really helpful at figuring out what is the real energy hog in the house.
Here are some interesting thoughts about home automation and energy conservation:
if people reduce their usage, they feel like they have "headroom" to use extra energy somewhere else
More likely that the power company will work out how to charge more for the service, so they can maintain profitability The recent round of PGE SmartMeter rollout news articles go as far as discussing the “variable rate/pricing structures” that are opt-in at the moment, but will likely become defacto eventually…
I think the “side-effect” benefits of this type of measurement can be really interesting, if the data is real-time.
Today we have Alarm systems that sense windows, doors and motion. Now imagine replacing, or augmenting, that Alarm system with something that monitors power usage “deviation” (someone turns on lights, or a device is faulty). Probably not how people planned for us to use the data, but interesting options none-the-less.
btw, I like the “orb” idea they reference in the article. That’s an interesting way to visualize current costs, or daily usage.
It’s our understanding that most of the utilities are encrypting the data from the meters and want to keep it to themselves, and Google is waging a legal battle to argue that the homeowner has a right to the data from his power meter. AFAIK, Google Meter (which we’re actively following) is based on the assumption Google will prevail and be able to get at the data. But, AFAIK, Google Meter isn’t live yet anywhere.
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!
The recent round of PGE SmartMeter rollout news articles go as far as discussing the “variable rate/pricing structures” that are opt-in at the moment, but will likely become defacto eventually…