Energy Monitor

[dave w]

O-o-o-h,  A way cool "green" tool (or budget tool). Too bad it is self contained with no way the power usage information could be coupled to AHP, Homeseer, etc.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/Energy/products.aspx

[HA Dave]

http://www.blackanddecker.com/Energy/products.aspx

Am I missing something here? Or... do you work for the X10 Web Master? The thread name is "GE Energy Monitor" ... yet the post is about Black and Decker. But ether way.... we need a thread about energy saving!

[HA Dave]

Last year I started a project to reduce my outside lighting costs. I use several motion sensor floodlights... which use very little energy because they are rarely on. The ones that turn on most often use CFL's.. or one... a LED flood (10 watt). I replaced my lamp post light with a solar lamp. It does pretty good... and I figured a two year pay back.

I replaced the tarnished lamp fixtures on ether side of my door as well. And use X10 to turn on/off the lights that now use (two each 3.5 watt) LED bulbs.

This spring I replaced the old halogen lawn lights with new hardwired LED ones. They claim to be 20 times brighter than solar.. they are at least as bright as the (10W) halogens they replaced (with 0.34W LED bulbs).

With the bulb and fixture changes as well as some edits in my lighting scheme... I've gone from about 150 watts of accent/security lighting to now less than 20 watts. And fixed the part that really bothered me the most. Which was that I WAS using more electric to light the outside than I did to light the inside. But to be honest... I don't use a LOT more for the inside ether.

[dave w]

Am I missing something here? Or... do you work for the X10 Web Master? The thread name is "GE Energy Monitor" ... yet the post is about Black and Decker. But ether way.... we need a thread about energy saving!

How many times do I have to tell you, I'm an old geezer...cut me some slack!!

Yeah, when I put in the Subject, I guess I was thinking GE, because I have a small GE Energy monitor similar to a Kill-A-Watt.

[HA Dave]

I have a small GE Energy monitor similar to a Kill-A-Watt.

I've been thinking of getting a Kill-A-Watt myself. The longer I am at this energy reduction.... the harder it gets to make any difference at all.

[Brian H]

I found the users manual for the monitor on the link you provided.
In a strange twist of fate. The sensor send data back on 433.92 MHz. Yes the X10 European RF frequency.
Not that the data it is sending would mean anything to an X10 receiver.

Wounder if the Tweet-A-Watt could be modified to get data into an automation setup.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt/

[dave w]

I've been thinking of getting a  Kill-A-Watt  myself. The longer I am at this energy reduction.... the harder it gets to make any difference at all.

Did you see the "Tare" function on the B&D Energy Monitor? It basically is a Kill-A-Watt function. For short intervals it can tell you how much power an appliance uses (must be >100W to register). I'm tempted to get one, although I doubt it will end up saving energy cost. We are fairly energy conscience.

In fact I have started to unplug the refrigerator at night so that darn light won't be wasting energy. The Beyer's Coffee ice cream gets a little soft but otherwise everything seems OK...I can't wait to see how much the electric bill goes down.   

[Boiler]

In fact I have started to unplug the refrigerator at night so that darn light won't be wasting energy. The Beyer's Coffee ice cream gets a little soft but otherwise everything seems OK...I can't wait to see how much the electric bill goes down.   

Uh Oh,

I feel another Red Green thread coming on...

[Brandt]

I found the users manual for the monitor on the link you provided.
In a strange twist of fate. The sensor send data back on 433.92 MHz. Yes the X10 European RF frequency.
Not that the data it is sending would mean anything to an X10 receiver.

Wounder if the Tweet-A-Watt could be modified to get data into an automation setup.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt/

I'm pretty familiar with the Xbee's used in the tweet-a-watt hack. I used them to re-program a robot wirelessly. I'm sure that it could meet your needs for monitoring usage with HA software:

http://pomprocker.blogspot.com/2009/02/robot-firmware-over-air.html


In fact, i'll probably take the lead on this and try it....of course I'm more interested in a household X10 utility (water, electricity, gas) sensor if there is such a thing...