Whole House Energy Monitor

[BrotherBart]

I know the topic has been touched on over the years but I need your current experiences.

My Blueline Energy Monitor sending unit has gone South for the Winter. A good many years of service but with the pickup unit being outside on the meter that is what is the problem with it. Weather exposure. I need to know what folks are using and how good a job it is doing for you? Remembering that electricity scares the hell out of me and all I know about it is to not stick my finger in a light socket.

Thanks.

(BB - Who is sitting here feeling lost not having that thing showing me real time consumption after having the info available for so long.)

 

[Wisneaky]

I know the topic has been touched on over the years but I need your current experiences.

My Blueline Energy Monitor sending unit has gone South for the Winter. A good many years of service but with the pickup unit being outside on the meter that is what is the problem with it. Weather exposure. I need to know what folks are using and how good a job it is doing for you? Remembering that electricity scares the hell out of me and all I know about it is to not stick my finger in a light socket.

Thanks.

(BB - Who is sitting here feeling lost not having that thing showing me real time consumption after having the info available for so long.)

Are you looking for something different? Why not get the same unit of you like it? Question for you though, how do you install that outside unit on the meter?

 

[BrotherBart]

Need something with more features and that doesn't have the sending unit out on the meter. This is the third sending unit to crap out on me. A band holds it on the meter and it counts the times the black mark on the rotator comes around and calculates the KWH rate.

 

[Wisneaky]

Need something with more features and that doesn't have the sending unit out on the meter. This is the third sending unit to crap out on me. A band holds it on the meter and it counts the times the black mark on the rotator comes around and calculates the KWH rate.

I have a digital meter outside. I see they have ones that work with the digital meters, how do they attach and work?

 

[BrotherBart]

Look at the manual on their site. Something to do with a hole in the meter it looks through to pick up a signal if I remember right. Been years since I looked at the installation manual.

 

[Wisneaky]

Look at the manual on their site. Something to do with a hole in the meter it looks through to pick up a signal if I remember right. Been years since I looked at the installation manual.

Thanks. Glad you posted this. I didn't know that they made anything like this.

 

[velvetfoot]

I have an old version of The Energy Detective (1001, I believe). It works pretty well and provides a reading every couple of seconds or so. An issue can be the interference on the house wiring that the current transformer module communicates to the display. A plug in filter inline with the offending device or plugging in another outlet usually works, but it can still be a real pain.

At one time I looked to 'upgrade'. They do have analysis capabilities, but the wireless models all seemed to have slow update cycles. I didn't see any of them in person and operating I don't recall the other pluses and minuses now, but I made the decision to keep what I had. I'm almost hopeful this thread doesn't get me to start the whole process again.

This was a thread: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/monitoring-electricity-use.121772/

Plus, if you go solar, maybe you'll get the instrumentation thrown in the package.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah I headed right for TED. Then saw a ton of complaints that the new one isn't as good as the 5000 and that they have stopped doing any firmware upgrades and on and on and on. Kinda surprised me. I thought they were the Cadillac of energy monitors. That is when I decided to post this here.

Just going solar with maintaining the passive battery banks. Too damn many trees around this place and the house faces West, All the deal killers.

 

[velvetfoot]

There might still be some TED 1001's out there for cheap.

 

[velvetfoot]

Here you go:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ted+1001

 

[woodgeek]

After going through two of those blue-line units (the second only lasted 6 mos) AND having my utility tear them off a couple times, I switched to the efergy...along with lots of folks on the board here.

http://www.amazon.com/Efergy-E2-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B003XOZG0Y

its been humming along for 22 mos with no trouble. It stores the data and you can plug it into USB and make charts and stuff. I did that once.

you DO have to hook two little tranformers to the main feed in your breaker box. They are magnetic/ non-contact, so you don't have to make or break any electrical connections, cut any insulation, etc. But you do have to open your box, or find someone to do it for you. The transmitter does live outside the box, handy for changing the battery (not often).

Literally a couple weeks after installing the efergy, my util upgraded me to a smart meter, so I cn track my usage online with (lousy) 1 kWh and 1 hour resolution and 1 day lag. I use that for long term trends, and the efergy simply for real-time, and the occasional phantom chase.

 

[velvetfoot]

I did that once.

Exactly.

efergy simply for real-time

Real time is not as real as the old TED. What is the sampling rate-once a minute?

 

[velvetfoot]

There are also some models that use actual voltage in their calculations. The referenced effergy model does not. The old TED will give you audible warnings on consumption as well as voltage.

 

[velvetfoot]

Okay, I just read a review on that link that says the sample rate is 10 seconds. That's not too bad.

I went a little crazy a while ago on the line voltage bugaboos of the TED. Have it working okay now. The wireless feature is what makes something like the effergy attractive to me.

 

[velvetfoot]

What's nice about any of these is that you could set one up for your generator. But do you really NEED to, lol.

 

[woodgeek]

RE VF questions....mine updates every 20 seconds or so. Compared against my smart meter, it comes within 1% on kWh/day across usage levels. So I don't worry about the voltage.

 

[Wisneaky]

After going through two of those blue-line units (the second only lasted 6 mos) AND having my utility tear them off a couple times, I switched to the efergy...along with lots of folks on the board here.

http://www.amazon.com/Efergy-E2-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B003XOZG0Y

its been humming along for 22 mos with no trouble. It stores the data and you can plug it into USB and make charts and stuff. I did that once.

you DO have to hook two little tranformers to the main feed in your breaker box. They are magnetic/ non-contact, so you don't have to make or break any electrical connections, cut any insulation, etc. But you do have to open your box, or find someone to do it for you. The transmitter does live outside the box, handy for changing the battery (not often).

Literally a couple weeks after installing the efergy, my util upgraded me to a smart meter, so I cn track my usage online with (lousy) 1 kWh and 1 hour resolution and 1 day lag. I use that for long term trends, and the efergy simply for real-time, and the occasional phantom chase.

I'm going to have to buy one of these now.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah looking at this and around I just ordered the Efergy Classic. Looks like the only thing with the E2 is the download thing and that doesn't interest me unless it could be a real time feed to a PC.

I took the front off of my 200 amp panel and there is plenty of free space on the down legs into the main breaker so I shouldn't get Southern fried installing the pickups.

 

[BrotherBart]

My UPS units display the voltage coming into them so I am guessing that would be a good number to use with the units.

 

[Wisneaky]

Yeah looking at this and around I just ordered the Efergy Classic. Looks like the only thing with the E2 is the download thing and that doesn't interest me unless it could be a real time feed to a PC.

I took the front off of my 200 amp panel and there is plenty of free space on the down legs into the main breaker so I shouldn't get Southern fried installing the pickups.

I have an outside disconnect so installing one in mine should be safe. Messing with electricity is not something I like to do.

 

[BrotherBart]

What either amazes, or depresses, me is that I have gotten so used to having that stupid thing around. And can't wait to get one working again. Part of that is that the Blueline several years ago alerted me to the fact that the check valve on my submersed well pump had crapped out. Pressure tank would fill up, valve let it leak back down into the well and then start the whole thing over again. Electric usage was going through the roof but because of the Blueline I knew it within hours and ran down the cause. Not a month later when the bill arrived. The thing paid itself many times over that one day.

 

[begreen]

After adding more solar I added a logging system. This is an eGauge system that the electrician said has been the most reliable for them. I'm only using a small part of its 12 circuit capacity for mains and multiple circuit monitoring.
https://www.egauge.net/
Here is the past few days monitoring. Yesterday was cloudy and the heat pump was doing its thing. Solar is starting to show shading issues that we get from our north side of the hill location.

 

[velvetfoot]

My UPS units display the voltage coming into them so I am guessing that would be a good number to use with the units.

The voltage varies. I had been getting some low voltage alarms during summers past when the voltage sagged. I think they did something since then-split the circuit, capacitors, etc.

 

[BrotherBart]

I just need to know the voltage to calibrate the Efergy when it gets here Monday, thank you Amazon Prime. From what I understand from the instruction manual tt defaults to 120 and from the UPS displays it appears that normal voltage coming into this place is 123-126. The transformer is in my front yard. Got my own personal transformer due to the fact they never built a planned road where half of my driveway is. 30 years ago. The line crews laugh when they see it serving one house.

 

[maverick06]

i have a TED 5000, really like it. After about 5 years one part of it dies, looking to find it on ebay since I don't want to buy the whole system again. Good unit though.