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Forum Index : Electronics : Logging options

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GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127
Posted: 07:41am 13 Aug 2009
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Logging of data can be divided into a few categories. One may be to check performance and steer modifications in a way to make an improvement. This could be high speed logging. A second would be for long term monitoring of a system, say day/night changes in RE power production and house usage patterns.

I happened upon a commercial display unit called a CurrentCost meter. These are current clamp type sensors designed for non intrusive monitoring of household loads. These give instantanous power display and a fixed suite of recorded data. Luckily these units have a serial output port. There is software available, but this is not the best. I decided to see if the serial output could be used another way. Bingo! the output is a 1240 character string with a 9600 baud rate. I have decoded this and have access to 3 channels of power data. There is a heap of other historical data that may be used with suitable filters.

I have settled on just display, storage and graphing of this data with a program similar to a piclog. I intend to have a live measurement, display, and recording of the generated RE, the household consumption, and the OFF peak power. I approached my energy supplier and they were not interested in helping me with output from a smart meter. I will be able to record patterns of usage from the fridge, microwave, stove, and hot water, and compare this with the generated power from the solar.

So far, the base load consumption is around 90W and my solar RE supplies this load from about half an hour after sunrise. I estimate that the average export percentage is above 90% for most of the time the sun shines.

A few extra channels would be nice, but at the moment, all like power has to be lumped together.

The currentcost meter has made me look at other options, and the simple cheap current sensor clamp system gives more still. No mods to AC wiring needed.

Will post some graphs when I gather some data.

Gordon.
become more energy aware
 
GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127
Posted: 02:25pm 20 Aug 2009
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This is a plot of data I logged with a program I have written to decode the output from one of these CurrentCost meters. This shows SolarRE and house power and offpeak power and a net import/export and outside temperature.

There is a lot more that can be decoded. I have just shown real time power logging, but recording of kWhr etc is possible.

You can notice the effect of clouds on the solarRE, and the fridge and freezer operation, etc.

Gordon.
become more energy aware
 
Bolty

Regular Member

Joined: 03/04/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 81
Posted: 03:47pm 20 Aug 2009
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Hi Gordon! You have done a fantastic job in writing this
Visual Basic software. The software that is available on
the web from the manufacturer's site is very poor. Most
impressive with your software is that you are able to
display the data graphically from 3 separate clamp
sensors. The original software simply adds the 3 clamps
values into one recorded value.

I guess the next step will be to combine the data from
one of these CurrentCost meters with the data from your
Picaxe chip. This would then provide a very sophisticated
data collection tool at a very reasonable price. Allowing
an instantaneous correlation of wind speed, and power
generated, will then allow far better analysis of a wind
turbine's performance!!!

Great work Gordon!!!!!!!!


It must be pleasing to know that you have produced far
better software than that from an IBM software engineer.
 
GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127
Posted: 12:01am 21 Aug 2009
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Hi Bolty,

I made this logging program in response to a lack of response from the manufacturer of the smart meter used by ETSA in SA for import export measurement. I wanted to see how my RE efforts played a part in day to day power usage in my home.

The CurrentCost power meter has the CE and UL certificates, so connections in the meter box are not much problem with the clamp sensors. I have an older meterbox, so there is more space behind the fuses.

I can pretty much do any calculations now I have access to the raw data. I store the data as daily files at present. I am looking at making some more files for accumulated kWhr. As I make more observations, more options come to mind.

The Solar Schools program is apparently looking for a logging option, and this unit would go a long way towards providing this. The mixing of Export and import power readings at 10sec intervals with recording options is a powerful education tool. There would be possibility of collation of all this data in a combined database. The data format is presently in XML type format, or CSV. Web based monitoring becomes an available option, similar to what is done with weather data.

My unit is recording phase power on a commercial site presently. Up to 100kW or more per phase is possible.

Will keep trying more things as they become available.

Gordon.

become more energy aware
 
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