Measuring your electrical use

[SLOweather]

There's been some chat here about electrical costs, and running 24/7 computers. Since we are into PG&E's 3rd tier over baseline, at about $0.38/kilowatt-hour, I'm interested in cutting our electrical usage.

Last weekend I installed a Brultech ECM-1240 near our load center.





It uses current transformers mounted inside the breaker box to monitor up to 7 channels of power usage: Mains, maybe a sub panel, and 5 more auxiliary inputs. There's a serial output for connection to a computer. Brultech also has wireless and USB options.

Right now mine is measuring the main power coming in, the refrigerator, spa, entertainment center, and the furnace.

It's sensitive enough to show when the fridge door is opened and the light inside illuminates. I've already learned a lot. Our entertainment center uses about 90 watts with everything "off". That's mainly the satellite receivers, I think.

The 42" plasma TV draws 5-600 watts when it's on, and drops 100 watts from light to dark scenes.

And, I've shut off 2 24/7 computers that should lead to $40 or more in monthly savings.

Here's a graph of 5 hours this morning from some free third party software:



The blue spike is incoming power when we got up before dawn and turned on lights and such.

Black line is the home automation system running the spa for 15 minutes to chlorinate and filter the water.

Pink line is the fridge, small spikes are the door opening, big jumps are the compressor running.

Orange is the Entertainment Center, big jumps are the TV.

I have a bunch more current transformers (CT) on order so I can segment the loads better. Several can be paralleled on one input, so I can put CTs on the breakers for the fridge, dishwasher, microwave, stove, and garbage disposal on one "Kitchen" input.

[SlowModem]

There's been some chat here about electrical costs, and running 24/7 computers. Since we are into PG&E's 3rd tier over baseline, at about $0.38/kilowatt-hour, I'm interested in cutting our electrical usage.

OUCH!   

We pay 8 cents/kwh here in Tennessee.  I really feel for you!

[ncpilot]

Do you have an older plasma tv? Whether older or newer, that kind of power usage suggests you haven't changed it from the out of the box default settings, or "torch mode" as it's called. Typically a calibrated plasma should use a fair amount less power... this doesn't mean you need someone else to do it, just simple adjustments...

http://spyder.datacolor.com/energysavings.php
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10080969-1.html

BTW, what's the cost of that unit? I couldn't find anything on the web in a quick look...

[mackbig]

We pay
5.6 cents for first 600kWh (1000kWh during winter)
6.7 cents above that

However add the following
Delivery:    
  Monthly Fixed Charge   $13.23 per month
  Distribution Charge   $0.0131 per kWh
  Transmission: Network   $0.0049 per kWh
  Transmission: Connection   $0.0023 per kWh
Regulatory:    
  Standard Supply Service Charge   $0.25 per month
  Market Service   $0.0062 per kWh
Debt Retirement Charge:   $0.007 per kWh  

Plus a "loss factor of 1.0368

Works out to about C$0.11 per kWh

There is talk to us going to time of day metering in the next year or two.  That is one of those brilliant plans, with a several year break even payback, they have to buy and install millions of smart meters, then hope the usage pays them off.   Of course this is a utility that can charge you for debt retirement, and line loss.

Andrew

[ncpilot]

I couldn't get the Brultech site to load, but now it has, and I see the pricing...

[sam2004gp]

I keep a running spreadsheet on our usage.  We around the 10c to 11c kwh.

[mackbig]

Pricing $179-400+ depending on package
http://www.brultech.com/price2c.html

Looks like another cool toy...  honestly honey its to save money....  Have to settle with my kill-a-watt knock off, its great for everything but a/c, furnace fan, pool pump, wall oven, and dryer.

Andrew

[SLOweather]

I couldn't get the Brultech site to load, but now it has, and I see the pricing...

Our ECM-1240 with 2 200 amp CTS and 5 40 amp CTs was 200USD and about $15 postal shipping from Toronto. Monday I ordered 12 more 40A CTs for 20USD for 4.

I installed it myself. The mains CTs are split so I didn't have to pull the big cables loose. The little ones require shutting off the breaker and removing the wire to slip it through the CT.

[ncpilot]

Ha ha, my thought too, it seems like a cool gadget to measure electricity use, but how long would it take me to break even on it?

I looked into time of use rates, but I have such low overall usage each month, that I'd be hard pressed to save anything... sigh... (I worked up all kinds of spreadsheets/scenarios)

[SLOweather]

One of the interesting things is that our house etc. uses about 300 watts continuously, even in the middle if the night.

And, being in the 38 cent tier right now, any savings come right off of that, until I shave an average of about 5 kilowatt hours a day. We've been averaging a little under 24 kwh every day, so that shouldn't be too hard to do.

I anticipate payback within 4 months or so.

The data also feeds into our HomeSeer home automation program. The plugin has the ability to calculate running electrical costs, including tiers, so we can watch our bill accumulate in real time.

[mackbig]

Did not even notice they were Canadian.  Saves me potential UPS extortion... of course they sell in U$, and I bet shipping from Toronto to Toronto would probably be $15.

The more I research the more this looks like a weather station decision.   Wireless, or wired, usb/serial... datalogger, software.... extra sensors/connectors.  The $179 becomes $300+ very quick.  

I wonder what the wireless would be like, basement sitting beside 100 amp service with 30 breakers, and tons of wiring... what are the chances of that signal making it to my router on 2nd floor?

Andrew

I couldn't get the Brultech site to load, but now it has, and I see the pricing...

Our ECM-1240 with 2 200 amp CTS and 5 40 amp CTs was 200USD and about $15 postal shipping from Toronto. Monday I ordered 12 more 40A CTs for 20USD for 4.

I installed it myself. The mains CTs are split so I didn't have to pull the big cables loose. The little ones require shutting off the breaker and removing the wire to slip it through the CT.

[mackbig]

24 per day? I look like like I am running a grow op next to your usage.  My low months (spring/fall) are in the mid 40's, winter low 50's and peak a/c 2 month period last summer was 91kWh.

Andrew

We've been averaging a little under 24 kwh every day, so that shouldn't be too hard to do.

[SLOweather]

Ask 'em, or research Zigbee range. Do you have Ethernet between the floors? You can use a serial over Ethernet adapter.



I ran about 60' of Cat5 from the panel to the computer and made a serial cable out of it.

[SLOweather]

24 per day? I look like like I am running a grow op next to your usage.  My low months (spring/fall) are in the mid 40's, winter low 50's and peak a/c 2 month period last summer was 91kWh.

Andrew

Ah, we don't have A/C, and the furnace only runs an hour or 2 a day in what passes for winter around here. It's a rare day indeed that doesn't break 50F, or breaks 90F.

Central California coast...

[mackbig]

I have a switch on the other side of the basement that runs up a channel that I fished during a reno to the bedroom/office upstairs where the router is.  So I probably would not even attempt wireless, but would need the ethernet adaptor.  I have everything wired, even it is does wireless aside from the Wii, one of my ip cameras, and the blackberry's... 50-60 feet of cat5 would do the trick for me.

I already saved a couple of grand on electrical this year.  Our main breaker kept popping if the a/c and oven were on with the rest of the normal stuff.  My wife said we need a 200 amp service... "my parents have 200 amps"... I said it was a bad main breaker, there was no way we were using a 100amps at once.  Anyway a friend electrician came over with his clamp meter, 2 minutes of testing and it would blow at about 55-60 amps... so $55 for a new breaker at the depot and some bartering for install, and its been fine ever since.

Andrew

Ask 'em, or research Zigbee range. Do you have Ethernet between the floors? You can use a serial over Ethernet adapter.

I ran about 60' of Cat5 from the panel to the computer and made a serial cable out of it.

[Sigdigit]

This device looks pretty cool.  At 200-300 dollars per month in the summer, I'd sure like to see where our electricity is going, especially since it's just me and the old lady!  Don't they make some kind of ethernet bridge to be able to make this a WiFi device?

[port1]

I have a switch on the other side of the basement that runs up a channel that I fished during a reno to the bedroom/office upstairs where the router is.  So I probably would not even attempt wireless, but would need the ethernet adaptor.  I have everything wired, even it is does wireless aside from the Wii, one of my ip cameras, and the blackberry's... 50-60 feet of cat5 would do the trick for me.

I already saved a couple of grand on electrical this year.  Our main breaker kept popping if the a/c and oven were on with the rest of the normal stuff.  My wife said we need a 200 amp service... "my parents have 200 amps"... I said it was a bad main breaker, there was no way we were using a 100amps at once.  Anyway a friend electrician came over with his clamp meter, 2 minutes of testing and it would blow at about 55-60 amps... so $55 for a new breaker at the depot and some bartering for install, and its been fine ever since.

Andrew

Ask 'em, or research Zigbee range. Do you have Ethernet between the floors? You can use a serial over Ethernet adapter.

I ran about 60' of Cat5 from the panel to the computer and made a serial cable out of it.

Andrew:
You should upgrade to 200 amp service.  Your wife is correct.
That main breaker was strained, and that's why it failed.  It was overworked.  Main breakers just don't "go bad", regardless of what an electrician told you. 
Upgrade your service, man.  Based on the amount of "stuff" you have there, including that pool stuff, you need 200 amps.
That's not a luxury.
You will safeguard your dwelling doing so.
Just my humble opinion, sir.
 

Henry

[mackbig]

Probably correct about needing a new panel.  But more cause its older and crappy make (Federal Pioneer).  But if it lasted 25 years with one main breaker, it can last a few more with the new one I got.  The pool does not draw much really, I think a/c which is the same era as teh panel, is probably churning a lot more than it should, and new more efficient one would be less taxing.  I will upgrade to a 200 amp Siemens loadcentre when I finish the basement.  But with no heat this summer, the money tree is not growing as fast as usual....   

Andrew

Andrew:
You should upgrade to 200 amp service.  Your wife is correct.
That main breaker was strained, and that's why it failed.  It was overworked.  Main breakers just don't "go bad", regardless of what an electrician told you. 
Upgrade your service, man.  Based on the amount of "stuff" you have there, including that pool stuff, you need 200 amps.
That's not a luxury.
You will safeguard your dwelling doing so.
Just my humble opinion, sir.
 

Henry

[SLOweather]

Get the serial over ethernet interface, and plug it into something like a Linksys WET54G.

This device looks pretty cool.  At 200-300 dollars per month in the summer, I'd sure like to see where our electricity is going, especially since it's just me and the old lady!  Don't they make some kind of ethernet bridge to be able to make this a WiFi device?

[Cienega32]

Now that is a cool tool!

I use TED which is a whole house monitoring device that clamps on to the panel feeders and reports the overall real-time consumption. The sending unit xmits on a separate breaker and the receiver/display gets plugged in anywhere on that leg. USB allows the software to display real-time and logged history. It's... OK but this Brultech being able to report on any and multiple branch circuits is great! That's something I would want.

My TED pointed me to problems with my swamp cooler and pool pump but only after looking for them in the whole house display changes. This Brultech would make it obvious with its individual branch reporting. Too much math using TED!  

I run a spreadsheet here as well. On my cost per kWh I include the tax. I just weigh the consumption against the whole bill and it comes out to anywhere between 11 & 16 cents but usually around 13.

The thing I like is taking the monthly average daily consumption and making the yearly graph with each year a different color inside each month. I like the way that Brultech software displays everything.

That is definitely an intriguing package! I like that - thanks for posting the info.

[mackbig]

If this $200 device showed (confirmed my suspicions) me I am throwing away kWh's with my ancient a/c, it would pay itself off pretty quick. Would have to wait for next season to realize, but still.   Another item for the stimulating home rennovation tax credit...

Andrew

[LarsWX]

Here is what I use to find out just what things are using, even figures out the cost per day, week month, year for you.

http://www.p3international.com/products/p4460.html

[tomcj2]

$0.38/kilowatt-hour

WOW!    I just worked out our cost to be $0.053 /khr  ( all extras included).  I knew that we had inexpensive power, but I never realized how good we have it here.

[Cienega32]

Here is what I use to find out just what things are using, even figures out the cost per day, week month, year for you.

http://www.p3international.com/products/p4460.html

Isn't that limited to things that you plug in? It won't help with the big ticket items like chilled air, swamp coolers, pool pumps, etc. I use a WATTS Up Pro the same way as the KillAWatt device and it's very cool to determine what a plug-in item or a power strip uses.

The TED device I mentioned has the same functions as well as entering a meter read date that projects your bill as far as what you've used and what it expects will be used but it monitors "whole house" which is good to confirm the meter read, IMHO. They don't help if you need to know about a specific hard-wired load or sub-panel.

Don't mind me - I think I'm sub-consciously(?) trying to talk myself into buying one of those Brultech devices...

[W Thomas]

This sounds like a worthwhile investment for me as well! Our electricity bill was around $50-90.00/month before the switchover to the new GE digital RF read meters and now it runs never less than $120.00/month !  I can't believe those old meters were that inaccurate as far as reading was concerned!!  If so they would have been replaced long before they were!  The power company has sent a meter tech to look at  it after 3 months of complaints. He had it in and out of the socket about 30 times but there was no difference in the amount of the bill and he wouldn't divulge what he had found if anything.

The newer series of meters evidently have a different way of looking at usage..maybe the load being more resistive  than reactive means a higher calculation.. Don't know for sure but I do wish it would ease up a bit! Our house is a small single story home heating mainly with wood in the winter and  central air use is a minimum in summer.. for the bill you'd think I have a commercial broadcast station hidden somewhere!