Posts Tagged ‘Energy Monitors’
written by Sam / September 10th, 2009 / 4 Comments »
The target
First things first – I’m in Ireland. The UK/Irish power system of 220V meant I had to go for a compatible power monitor. So I was out of luck with all the energy monitors I’d been reading about for the USA (T.E.D. The Energy Detective, Cent-a-meter, Blueline etc). I settled on the CurrentCost in the end, because it had a great community of people developing software.
So I bought a CurrentCost off the manufacturer’s ebay store, along with a serial to USB data cable I’d use to grab the data.
Setting up the CurrentCost is remarkably simple. Just plug the device in, attach the sensor to your electricity supply and you are done. Couldn’t be easier!
(more…)
Tags: Current Cost, electricity use, Energy Monitors, home monitoring, linux, Net Metering, nslu-2, power use
Posted in Featured, Sam's Energy Use | 4 Comments »
written by Sam / July 28th, 2009 / No Comments »
Yesterday I had to go across the Irish sea to England, to sort out some details for my wedding. I was away from 7pm on Sunday to 9.30pm on Monday, which you can see from my energy graph:
You can see the baseline energy my house uses – from the fridge, house alarm, cooker timer, and (mainly) the laptop I’m currently using to upload my energy data to the web (working on a replacement!). This is a background use of around 100-130W.
Except for 2.02pm, where the energy spikes to 1.38kW. What on earth is that?!
Looking back there have been no similar spikes at all when I’ve been out or asleep.
I know what it looks like. It looks exactly like the kettle. Did someone let themselves into my house, and make themselves a cup of tea? And then leave?
Weird.
Tags: Energy Monitors
Posted in Sam's Energy Use | No Comments »
