Smart electrical meters

[pelligrini]

Has anyone looked into reading their smart meter themselves?

[parnelli]

Nope, not using it here. There has been a movement toward this lately, with RF transmission of the information. The RF has driven the vocal citizenry crazy.

JR

My neighbor has been ALL over this for about a year now... completely freaked out over it, but then will sit in her car on the cell phone.... in the backyard on the cordless...

Not to mention I can pick up 9 wifi networks from my deck, or that the entire downtown where I live is covered by a free municipal wifi setup.

I'd suggest tinfoil if I didn't still have to live next door.

ps- don't have the info in front of me, but the thing transmits a few seconds an hour IIRC

[thrytis]

I've got a Brultech ECM-1240. It is a bit more than the basic ones and requires opening up your electrical panel to install (DYI if you don't mind taking the cover off your panel), but the advantage is that it'll track seven channels (one overall house power plus six separate circuits) and they'll give you documentation on how to interface with it if you don't want to use their software or one of the other 3rd party software available. You can also add more ECM1240s to increase the number of channels.

I don't want to run my computer all the time and didn't want to pay for their device which sent data to Google Power (now defunct), so i'm reading mine from a $20 wireless router running TomatoUSB firmware on it. I'm writing all of the software, and at this point i'm capturing the data in a comma delimited file and have a web page that shows recent usage (currently configured to do a 60 second interval):



Eventually i plan to put the data in a database and develop some longer term graphs and reports from it, as well as some alerting. Right now i have to import it into Excel to do this stuff.

There are other options available for tracking/graphing/etc if you don't want to write your own.

Mostly i use it to see if i left something on, but i also have the data now to track any savings when i make improvements around the house (new appliances, weatherproofing, etc).

[Dal300]

Navasota Power put smart meters in here about 3 years ago and the electrical costs dropped dramatically. Partially because of the 1/2¢ KwH they gave us and partially because there are no more unread/averaged mechanical meters.

Last year we installed smart meters at every RV space in our park. The idea is that long term residents got a break on monthly rent, (about $90 - $105 off) but they have to pay their own monthly electrical usage.
I would say that 85% of our renters made out on the deal since they used less than the $90 worth of electricity they had been charged for in the blanket rental. However, 15% have had a cow about how much they have to pay. We have one guy that has threatened to sue us from over charging him for electric. His bill runs easily $175 to $225 /month. He swears it can't be true, even though in the summer he keeps both roof A/C's going 24/7 and in the winter he uses electric space heaters to save propane.
I have even moved him to different spaces to see if it made a difference, which it didn't. I even put in a new meter head and it read the same as the old one.

I can monitor usage for each space via IR, wifi or Bluetooth just the same as our power company reads our main power meters.

The meter heads were about $19/each bought as recertified units from a company in Austin.

[jimmy0x52]

I have one of these but they don't charge and I have no access to the data apparently

[jackellis]

I have one of these but they don't charge and I have no access to the data apparently

If you're served by Austin Electric, you should be able to get the data. Those folks are one of the poster children for how utilities are installing smart meters in a beneficial way. I can;t tell you exactly who to talk to but I would call them and make a fuss.

[cwsmith]

I haven't seen these yet in NY, at either house. But, I suspect they will be coming, especially if the electric utility can eliminate a few jobs (the meter readers) and pass the cost of the new technology on to the customer.

With the old meters, I've had only two issues over the years with malfuntions... one not reading anything and the second just going berserk on us.

What I'd love to see however is a "smart" meter and data link right on the load panel, within a circuit breaker preferrable. That way you could not only take the data total off the load center (circuit breaker panel), but also off the individual circuits, so you knew exactly where any excess usage was coming from.

I do have a Kill-A Watt P3 plug-in which I got a couple of years ago when Lee-Valley had a introductory offer. It's a neat device and I've used it to compare a couple of old appliances against possible upgrades. This device does not unfortunately provide any actual data storage or transfer capability to say, a PC. As I said, a load panel device with a USB-like interface would be pretty slick.

I'm not exactly worried about "RF" exposure, but more and more I find RF pollution to be a problem, from a Ham Radio perspective. Most all of this kind of thing is not from devices designed to communicate as much as it is just poor electrical practices. Exception of course is BPL (Broadband over Power Lines), which is spectacularly noisey in most instances. Both here in the city and back in Painted Post, the amount of RF noise is abundant. You can hear faulty street lamps almost a 100 yards away, and in Painted Post area, motor control panel and other industrial electrics can be picked up almost a half-mile away.

Biggest problem (IMHO) with anything these days is simply the distrust that many people have in things like this. Sometimes it's founded, but sometimes it's just silly, especially considering that a person has their head plugged into their cell phone for a majority of hours each and every day. I think "the jury" is still out on that. I know myself, I won't use an HT (hand-held radio) unless absolutely necessary on either the 2-meter or 1.2 cm bands... at anything other than minimum power, they give me an almost instant headache... might just be my brain, but I think the danger is there. Cell phones are at much higher frequencies, but they may well be more penetrating. In anycase, I prefer to keep the RF radiation outside of the house or car and not within a inch or so of my body.

CWS

[Mildoc]

Installed here last year. Get a weekly usage report from TXU. Realized that we used a LOT in "vampire electronics," things that are "on" drawing power when not in use (TV, etc). Installed several "smart" power strips, especially on the computer and peripherals, home entertainment system, and showed a drop in overall usage. So that helped some.

TXU also offers a service where they can control your HVAC system during peak usage, shutting it off (AC) for brief periods. Neighbor has this and says it saved money with little effect on his overall comfort. If this summer is as HOT as I expect it will be - sign me up!

[LCHIEN]

Has anyone looked into reading their smart meter themselves?

There wouldn't be much point to that... the meters have RF transmitters and they send the data to local area terminals which collect it and send it to the central office where you can read it on a web server. You could read and confirm the numbers they get... but it should be reliable and mistake free.

[LCHIEN]

I have one of these but they don't charge and I have no access to the data apparently

Jimmy,
Look on your Provider's Bill. SOmewhere near the account number, if you have a smart meter, there will be a ESI number and a Meter number.
The ESI number has lots of digits so cut and paste is your friend if you can.

THen go to a web site called www.smartmetertexas.com

from there you can follow the links to monitor your own home...you'll need the two numbers i mentioned to set up an account and then have at it.

My power provider didn't tell me anything about how to get the data. I knew Centerpoint is the distribution company so I went to their website... THey hadn't publicized anything to me either. At their website I saw the links to Smartmeter texas.

[jackellis]

If any of you in Texas are at all inclined to complain about the fact that your provider hasn't explained how to get at your meter data, send a note to Donna Nelson, Chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, or to go this page.

The Smartmeter Texas folks are very proud of what they've done, but its pretty useless unless customers know how to use it.

[pelligrini]

There wouldn't be much point to that... the meters have RF transmitters and they send the data to local area terminals which collect it and send it to the central office where you can read it on a web server. You could read and confirm the numbers they get... but it should be reliable and mistake free.

I was thinking more of collecting the data from it, rather than verifying the readings. One of those stand alone devices with multiple sensors might be better anyways.

[LCHIEN]

I was thinking more of collecting the data from it, rather than verifying the readings. One of those stand alone devices with multiple sensors might be better anyways.

from the WWW.SMARTMETERTEXAS.COM web page, I think I can get
a CSV file with a specific selected day's readings at 15 minute intervals
a CSV file for a selected month with daily usage data
a CSV file for a selected time interval (in months) with monthly usage data

[jimmy0x52]

Just spoke with Austin Energy. While I have a Smart Meter they do not provide the ESI numbers to their customers as they do not "participate in that service"

I sent a complaint to the Texas Utility Commission. Austin Energy is the worst service. Not only do they not give freedom of choice on energy source (like almost every other texas company) but they also do things like forcing you to rent their garbage cans instead of buying an identical one somewhere else yourself for the equivalent of 2.5x the monthly rental price. And there is no alternative. If you're in Austin, you have to use them for services.

[kevinsa]

What I'd love to see however is a "smart" meter and data link right on the load panel, within a circuit breaker preferrable. That way you could not only take the data total off the load center (circuit breaker panel), but also off the individual circuits, so you knew exactly where any excess usage was coming from.

I do have a Kill-A Watt P3 plug-in which I got a couple of years ago when Lee-Valley had a introductory offer. It's a neat device and I've used it to compare a couple of old appliances against possible upgrades. This device does not unfortunately provide any actual data storage or transfer capability to say, a PC. As I said, a load panel device with a USB-like interface would be pretty slick.

That device exists. It's called a TED, or The Energy Detective. Not the cheapest things but many people that have solar panels install them so they can tract the energy they use and the energy they generate.