I ordered a T.E.D.
 

Hey everyone,

I just ordered a TED - The Energy Detective.

It's a big step up from a Kill-a-Watt. Instead of monitoring a single outlet, the TED connects to the main power in to the house and tracks energy of both legs of the breaker box.

That information is sent by a phantom signal to a device that links to a computer router, to the computer, and displays all sorts of wonderful information in a web browser.

Can't wait for it to show up!

Home page

Very cool. I've looked at those before. Always shied away as I haven't had an exact need for one yet.

That's compatible with Google Power Meter, right? It looks like fun.

Google PowerMeter Overview

I believe there are different versions, most are compatible with google's powermeter. Also, your utility company has to be a participant in the program too I think.

The device IS compatible with Google Power Meter.
I read about Google's product a while back, and was discouraged to find out there there was a very limited number of utilities that worked with it.

After reading about the TED, I found out that there are TWO ways to connect to Google Power Meter. ONE is if you have a "smart meter" and are one one of those specific power utilities. The OTHER way is simply to have a TED (or a handful of other devices.)

A couple of reasons that I wanted a TED over just a Kill-a-watt, is that it can log all your data over time - creating nice little charts for you to learn from, AND the TED can track power of items that don't have a standard plug on them.

For example, I can plug a lamp cord into a Kill-a-watt, but I CAN'T plug-in my built-in ceiling light. At least in that case, I can count the bulbs, and I know how many watts those bulbs pull.

But how many watts does my well pump pull? I have no clue!
On an electric water heater, it lists the watts of the elements on the side, but who knows exactly how many hours a day it actually runs? Any you can't plug 240V into a Kill-a-Watt.

With the TED, I will be able to track big, hardwired devices over time to figure out my whole-house energy use, and how to reduce it.
By connecting it to Google Power Meter, I will be able to get all that info from anywhere on the internet.

I have even heard of people realizing they left something on at home by checking Power Meter when they get to work!

It just showed up in the mail!

Yea!
:D

Time to pester my wife by turing off the power to the whole house!

Can't wait to see your results.

Have been considering getting one for a while now.

I installed it.

Hooked everything up.
Got everything to show up in the software.
Updated Software.
Updated firmware.
Connected to Google PowerMeter.

Everything works great...... except that it doesn't display ANY data!

Hmmm. Not sure what's wrong. My eyes are going buggy from end-of-day strain.
Will have to figure it out later, maybe after contacting tech support. :rolleyes:

Ah ha! I figured it out.

There were references to not connecting the networking unit to a circuit with a computer or anything else that generates interference. After the third outlet I tried, it finally kicked on.

Interesting things I just found out in playing with the software for about 5 minutes.

1) We are using 760 watts right now. The TV is on. A few lights are on. The furnace and air conditioning are off. EV charging is using about 200 watts or so.

2) My refrigerator uses a third of that total.

3) Use of my microwave oven draws 1.6KW


Hmm. Since the UPS I have in the garage can do up to 2KW. A typical load of computer (laptop), TV, a couple of lights, and the fridge cycling on an off, should be no problem.

Using a vacuum cleaner or microwave oven wouldn't work so well.

I think if anyone was considering going off-grid, a TED would be great to have to show how much power they use and when.

I was gone all day, but while I wasn't at home, T.E.D. was faithfully tracking my household energy use.

To have most of a day's energy use makes it a whole lot more interesting.
Here are two graphs from the TED software. The one has notes I added.
(Click the bar to make the images full-size - they will be much easier to read.)

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...12836540190001

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...12836540230001

The first chart is what you see as a "live view". The line chart constantly advances, and any change in power is seen more-or-less real-time.
Energy seemed to peak when using the dishwasher, the microwave oven, and when the well water or graywater pumps were running. During the day, energy use was as low as 88 watts when the fridge was cycled off, and around 212 when it was cycled on.

I added in the yellow line to represent how much power I could get from my 48V UPS used as an inverter for a battery backup system. As you can see, it would supply enough power for everything but turning on the dishwasher.

The second chart is a cumulative energy use per hour. Since it is set to hourly, and measured in KWH, basically that's that average watts used that hour. Note that the chart maxes out at not much over a KWH.

It's pretty cool to have a visual record of energy use.
The Kill-a-Watt can't do that! :thumbup:

You mean average Kilowatts used that hour, right?

Does your dishwasher really use that much power? It must be electrically pre-heating the water and using lots of heat in the drying cycle as well.

I bet you're going to try to reduce that 89W fridge off, vacant house figure. Hmm, I wonder how much power my house uses while I'm away.

Yes, average KW used per hour.

I would like to get that "nobody at home" figure down a bit lower.
Things that come to mind right away that I know use energy include my aquariums (two of them, 40 gal, and 210 gal, both cold-water) my computer wireless router, and my wife's kitchen laptop computer.

Besides that, I am sure there are a few other phantom loads to track down.

Very cool Ben! I really want one now. :)

Would your recommend the 5000C to get the display unit, or do you find that using the computer software is much more useful?

I was just on the computer at the same time my wife flushed the toilet.

I quickly switched over to the TED software to see in real-time how much power the greywater pump used.

With the real-time chart, I could see both power and time. The pump pulls almost exactly 1000 watts, and runs for about 30 seconds!


I haven't really used the physical display unit that much yet. The MAIN feature of the TED system IS the computer software display. It tracks all the info, displays it, charts it, etc. etc.

The physical display is more similar to a thermostat for a furnace or a thermometer. It's something you would put somewhere and can just look at. It doesn't require booting up a computer, or taking up a lot of space.

At my house, I have a laptop that's always on, so taking a look at the TED isn't a big deal on the computer.

However, the physical display could go on your coffee table or in your kitchen - someplace it's easy to see and recognize how much power you are using. It's small an unobtrusive, but can be that constant reminder to turn the ights off.

Since the physical display is an optional item (basically $40), if you want to buy it or not depends on how you will use the TED. It will vary from household to household.

I think that at my place, I will work with the software a lot at first. Later on, I will just keep the physical display on the coffee table or kitchen counter as a constant reminder of energy usage.

I'd be tempted by the one that can log multiple channels.

It looks like it reads through an inductive ammeter: Additional 5000 series CT Set

Ben, did you need to cut any wires to do the installation? Is there room to add more channels?

Installation is fairly straight-forward, and no wire are cut.

The "readers" are clamp-on ammeter devices that look like a tiny pair of hand-cuffs. You simply clamp the two of them around the two main power leads into the house.

To power the transmitter, you need to tie in three wires, (one red, one black, and one white) to live power. You do that by connecting the red and the black into two different breakers - one to each leg of the power, and then the white into the common, neutral buss.

A note on the instructions say not to put said red and black wires into the same breakers as anything else is on, unless your local electrical code specifically allows it, etc. - Since I already happened to have a spare two-circuit, 30 amp breaker kicking around anyways, I just added that, and put the wires there.

The system does allow for adding another power reader/transmitter so that if you have a wind or PV system, you can track that energy seperately.

Interesting....

Today is overcast, but still bright. No need to use electric lights. And it's cool outside. No reason to run the furnace or air-conditioning.

Sounds like a good time to start switching off circuit breakers for find phantom loads.

Pretty much everything in the house was off, yet I was still using over 50 watts.

I unplugged 3 timers, used for a light and my aquariums.
With everything off in the house, it was very quiet. I could now hear a faint buzz from my furnace. So, I flipped off the furnace circuit-breaker, and my wattage dropped by 6!
Who knew a furnace has a phantom load of 6 watts?!

My dishwasher has a 1 watt phantom load.

My sump-pump circuit has a 2-watt phantom load. There is a power strip down there with a couple things plugged into it. I will have to crawl down there and see which it is.

One thing that I forgot about is the the smoke detectors in my house are HARDWIRED for electricity, with battery back-up!
That circuit (which also includes my wife's alarm clock) take 6 watts.

In the end, I was able to get my power down to 5 watts.
Of course, the TED receiver uses power. I plugged that into a Kill-a-watt, which read 2 watts. The receiver itself is marked as 1.5 watts, but the Kill-a-watt only does whole numbers.

That leaves 3 watts left over.
If the receiver uses 2 watts, I don't think it is a stretch for the transmitter to use 3.

Keep in mind that this is all done over a computer wireless network. My computer is a laptop, which can run on batteries. My wireless router and internet access can not. I ran a 100-foot extension cord to the detached garage, where I ran the those items off the 48V battery backup UPS I have there.

So, that's it. All energy use finally accounted for.

Now that I know where it's all going, I can start to take steps to see where else it might be possible to trim down a few more watts.
:)

...I noticed they mentioned power-factor (PF) once, but never mention anything more about it again. Do they say more in the manual?

...without that, all the data is NOT truly accurate...representative, yes, but not accurate. Without knowing the PF, it's like all the data is 'scaled' but you don't know whether it's scaled UP or scaled DOWN.

...typically the PF is always less than 1.0 (or 100%), but can vary quite a bit if you're a long ways away from the major down-converting transformer(s)...and, whether or not your power company has installed "phase-compensating" capacitors across their distribution lines.

That's the problem with a lot of the homebrew ones I've found on the Internet as well. Is there a way to make a clamp-on transformer-based meter reasonably accurate?

The only reference I have found to power factor is that you can display it in the live dashboard on the center "speedometer" gauge.

http://gallery.me.com/benhdvideoguy/...12837393410001

In the image, you can see the PF listed in the lower right corner.
I also have it showing kVA in the upper right.

kVA times PF = watts, right?
If I multiply the number in the upper right by the lower right, I get the number in the upper left.

I still don't quite get power factor. There was a nice little side bar on it in the latest HOME POWER, but I'm still not sure I get it.

PS: I also notice that the PF number changes depending on what electric devices are running in my house.

And which do I pay for on my electric bill? kVA-hours or watt-hours? :confused:

Yes it is a scaled measurement but it will always be scaled higher than the rated watts unless you have a capacitor in the circuit to cancel out the PF. If you add to many capacitors you will go past 1 (no lagging sine wave) and start going back to using more Amps, just with a leading sine wave. Only coils of wire generate PF issues (think transformers and motors). From some of my classes, a typical house's PF is .80 to .95. So for your use just ignore PF.

You are billed on Kwh or 1000 watts used over an hour. Watts have no time component to them so a 60 watt light bulb will draw 60 watts for how ever long it is on.

To pay for it:
multiply 60 (or the number of watts your device uses) by the number of hours on (say 10) = 600 watt hours
divide by 1000 = .6 Kwh.
multiply that by your $ per Kwh = cost

You're billed by the Wh, but you burden the grid by the VA. Commercial and industrial customers with bigger hookups pay by the VA.

My Power Factor is at 92% right now.

Also, it looks like the physical display unit does NOT get its data from my wireless router. I had my router and cable modem OFF and the display was still updating!

Looks like the TED receiver must have a wireless signal sender inside it to drive the display.

Good to know, because it means I can turn off my router (to save power when not used) and still get updated power data.

Is there any way to make your google powermeter chart public? If I got one (more like when :) ) I'd like to be able to do that.

That was one of the first things I was wondering too.

Google allows for sharing data, by punching in somebody else's e-mail. Nothing for a "public posting".

Power Meter is associated with your Google account. I suppose it would be possible to create a new dummy Google account, and make the username and password public, but there would be no way to keep other people from messing with the settings.

I wonder if it would be possible for somebody who really knows web programming to pull data from an account and then publically post THAT data?

Apparently, Google aggregates data from Google Power Meter in participating utilities, and makes THAT data public. That way you can see how much energy you use compared to the average in your neighborhood/city/state.

Someone has probably already showed how to do the work and has it some where.

Google's API's are cool like that.

I'm installing a TED 5000 this weekend. I didn't even know what one was 'till about a week ago.
I can't wait to see what I can learn from it.
Hypermiling the house? Yeah, I guess that is how you can put it.

I think you will be real happy with it.

The only thing to watch for is that you have to be a little careful which circuit you put the "receiving unit" on. It's REALLY sensitive to to other electrical items on the same circuit.

The manual says something like to not have it on the same circuit as electric motors or computers. That is nearly IMPOSSIBLE in my house! I had to have it running off an extension cord from the bathroom for a long time, as that was the only circuit anywhere near my network router that it would work on!

This weekend, I had borrowed network cabling tools from a friend, and made a long ethernet cable to go from the outlet right off the circuit breaker box back to my router.

If the TED is getting interference from anything else on the same circuit, it just plain doesn't work - but there really isn't anything to indicate that - It's the only thing I learned about the TED the "hard way", so I just wanted to warn others.

Thanks for the tips. I'll let you all know how my install goes. I think it will be worth the effort. Should be easier and quicker than it was building and installing my MPGuino.