Branch Circuit Power Metering
Over the weekend I was busy replacing my 2 INO6200 meters with 2 DENT PowerScout 18 branch circuit power meters (BCPM). Instead on only monitoring 2 circuits (the main house and the heat pump), I can now monitor 24 different circuits!
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- PS18 Install – Open Panels
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- PS18 Install – Power Junction Box
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- PS18 Install – Finished Install
I will post a link to a real-time consumption report soon. I am having issue with my ModbusTCP server and a lack of time to program the report.
Related articles
- Energy and Water Meters Installed (gcgreen.wordpress.com)
- Why a Smart Meter Can be a Smart Investment (txu.com)
Like this:
Security system working with mControl via NPort
So yesterday and today I spent time installing the NPort 5250A Serial to IP Server and hooking it up to my DSC security system. After the hardware was setup, I enabled the “DSC PS” driver in mControl Service Manager and configured it with the right IP address and port. Then I added a new device in mControl Editor. Once done, I was able to arm/disarm the security system without issue. What I like about mControl is that once the hard work of installing the hardware is done, there is no struggle on the automation software side; only add or change some settings/configurations and it just works! Next task is to get the NPort to talk RS485 to my ION6200 power meters and write the corresponding mControl driver.
In the next couple of weeks I will be posting more information on:
- how to create a meter enclosure for your smart/revenue meter;
- how to start writing mControl drivers;
- a project page on how to create you own Arduino power meter reader (the APMR project), that uses a real-time clock (RTC) and RS485/MODBUS.
One thing to note is that I am trying to get the “DSC PS” driver in mControl modified. My security system has 4 partitions and the driver, in its current form, only support 2.
Related articles
- Installing mControl v3 (eco-sustain.org)
- mControl Device Drivers (eco-sustain.org)
Installing electricity, water and gas meters
So here is a summary of the meters I have installed at my house.
Around the middle of 2009 I had 2 electrical meters installed at my home. Both where PowerLogic ION6200 meters. These meters are class 0.5 revenue meters so that means they are not cheap. One meter measures consumption of the main buswork coming into the house at 200A. The second meter measured consumption from the heat pump (40A). These meters communicate using the MODBUS protocol using a RS485 serial connection.
At the beginning of this year I installed 2 water meters and 2 natural gas meters. The meter installed on the water main coming into the house is a DLJ Contact Head meter from watermeters.com. I installed a second meter to measure hot water consumption, an Elster S130. One thing to note, both meters measure in US gallons consumed. This is too large of a measurement for my house (~2400 sq ft). I should have bought meters that measure in letres (1 US gallon = 3.785 litres).
For natural gas I have one meter measuring the main gas line coming into the house (Elster AC-250, measured in cubic-decimeters). I have the other meter measuring gas consumed by the forced air furnace (Elster BK-G4, measured in cubic-feet). Having these 2 meters measure in different units presents QA (quality assurance) challenge. I have to convert the units of measure from one of the meters so that both meters have the same units and the conversion function has to be correct, too.
The water and natural gas meters are pulse meters, meaning that an electronic pulse is send down a wire for every gallon that is consumed. This meant that I need to buy a data logger that can count and measure consumption rates. After much searching I decided to go with the Obvius AcquiLite to do this. I also use the AcquiLite to convert the units of measure from imperial to metric. Stay tuned, I will post more details (and pictures) on how I am collecting data from these meters…
I have created page that graphs out this consumption data on my research website called My Smart Home: Consumption Report. Check it out.
