[ale] Monitoring Total Household Electricity Consumption

Tue Feb 9 21:13:12 EST 2016

Thanks Dereck,

The 5000 looks good and pretty much exactly what I need. So did you ever
take the plunge to the ToD metering?

-Greg

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 9:02 PM, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:

> Greg,
>
> The TED5000 is a measuring device that you connect to your panels and
> measures your power consumption on each feed.  Depending on where you can
> install the CTs, you might need at least two (one per breaker panel).  The
> box is a linux device and measures your power in 1-second increments.  I
> have a cron job that I use to pull off the statistics of the per-second,
> per-minute, per-hour, and per-day calculations.
>
> You can also program the TED with your energy rate(s) and it will compute
> your monthly bill..  For me it's usually within a few dollars of my actual
> bill from GP.
>
> For a while I had a script that would insert the data into a mysql
> database and I had a RoR app to allow me to generate graphs and stuff.. I
> did this when I was contemplating converting from my current standard rate
> to a ToD metering and wanted to know if I would win or lose.   But the
> data quickly outgrew my mysql; so I've just been collecting the raw CSV
> data and figure one of these years I'll look it over again.
>
> Just my longer $0.02 (now that I'm actually at a keyboard).
>
> -derek
>
> On Tue, February 9, 2016 7:28 pm, Greg Clifton wrote:
> > Thanks for the responses, I'll take a look at those links after dinner.
> >
> > My understanding is that GP has converted every customer in the state to
> a
> > smart meter. Mine was upgraded some years ago.
> >
> > More data on my situation, I'm total electric with 200 amp service (main
> > breaker external to the house beside the meter box with 4 breakers tied
> > together with a bar through the toggles) and 2 circuit breaker panels,
> > supporting 3 heat pumps, Water Heater, Range and Dryer each on its own
> > 240v
> > circuit. I have programmable thermostats, but don't use the emergency
> heat
> > strips unless it's really an emergency (getting close tonight ;-). Since
> I
> > am not always home I cannot slip out and take a reading and "catch" the
> > peak. I'll need an automatic logger, first to see what my peak usage is
> > (since GP says they can't tell me) and to keep GP honest.
> >
> > As an aside, I am very impressed with how well the heat pumps function.
> > They are Goodman units and have been chugging along for a bit over 10
> > years
> > now with very few service calls. When external temps are above about 40
> > degrees F, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a gas
> > furnace and the heat pump by the temperature of the air at the registers.
> > Anything above that and the heat output is way more than adequate.
> > However,
> > below about 37 degrees outside and there isn't much heat to scavenge and
> > below 30 degrees, forget about it! So I set my thermostats to super heat
> > the house while warm out during the day and coast through the night.
> >
> > Jim, the rate is $6.53/kw for peak usage for a 30 minute period each
> > month.
> > The rate is fixed, but the usage can vary, supposedly to encourage you to
> > level your personal load on the grid.  Sort of a supplemental base rate
> in
> > addition to the $10 monthly base charge and associated junk fees/taxes.
> > The
> > rest of your bill for the month is at only 0.9754 cents/Kw off peak and
> > 9.6052 cents/Kw peak ( 2p-7p, June-Sept). So potentially, one COULD save
> > money on this rate plan, it would seem, but you are married to the rate
> > plan for 12 months once you say "I do..." So I figured I should try to
> > determine my peak usage before I commit.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:18 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> That s sounds like the minimum bill will be for 30 minutes at their peak
> >> rate no mater your usage.
> >> On Feb 9, 2016 4:23 PM, "Greg Clifton" <gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> GA Power has several rate plans available these days. The newest they
> >>> are
> >>> promoting is the so called "Smart Usage" rate plan. The off peak rates
> >>> are
> >>> even cheaper than the plug in electric vehicle plan, but the gotcha is
> >>> that
> >>> they charge $6.53/kWh for the peak 30 minutes of consumption  each
> >>> month,
> >>> both peak (June-Sept) and off peak.
> >>>
> >>> The GA Power web site allows me to monitor daily usage, but does not
> >>> provide the 30 minute granularity necessary to calculate if this rate
> >>> would
> >>> save or cost me $. Which prompted this email to see if anybody on the
> >>> list
> >>> has a suggestion of an affordable device or Rpi project that could log
> >>> my
> >>> power consumption on a minute by minute basis.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks in advance,
> >>> Greg Clifton
> >>>
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>
> --
>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>
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