Current Cost EnviR - electricity consumption monitoring

How much electricity does a TV consume, what consumes more electricity - a washing machine or a refrigerator, how efficiently is electricity used in an apartment? All these questions could previously be answered by the now closed Google PowerMeter service. However, geeks and home economists do not despair, because despite the collapse of the service from Google, the matter of monitoring electricity consumption continues to live. In this review, we propose to examine the Current Cost EnviR device , which allows not only to observe how kilowatts of electricity “flow away” on the device display, but also in conjunction with Current Cost NetSmart (formerly Current Cost Bridge), to track the power consumption online at my.currentcost .com .




')

So, what can this device

1. The current consumption of electricity in your house / apartment (updated every 6 seconds on the display)
2. Contactless method of measuring power consumption. More precisely, AC, and the voltage is set in the settings from 200V to 260V. Power is calculated in the device by their product.
3. Wireless transmission of data from the terminal sensor to the display receiver over the radio channel at a frequency of 433 MHz.
4. Estimated cost of electricity consumed per day / month (set tariff for 1 kW / h)
5. Dynamics of electricity consumption, i.e. the device displays a jump in kW when connecting / disconnecting energy consumers in the house / apartment.
6. Monitor the current room temperature at the location of the display receiver.
7. The graph of energy consumption and the current indoor temperature on my.currentcost.com . Updated every 5 minutes. Requires the Current Cost NetSmart add-on module. The graph also displays the line of minimum energy consumption (+ leaks if they exist), when all devices in the house are in standby mode.
8. Transmit information about the consumption of electricity to the Google PowerMeter service every 10 minutes. Requires the Current Cost NetSmart add-on module .
9. The ability to connect to a PC via a special USB cable with the possibility of further processing on the PC incoming data from the device in XML format. A list of available software is available here . You can also write a parser for this data yourself.

Order of connection and use

1. Connect and configure the display receiver. Set the date / time, voltage, tariff.
2. Turn on the radio transmitter and synchronize with the receiver.
3. Clamp the terminal to the phase wire immediately after the meter and connect it to the transmitter. The current power consumption should immediately appear on the receiver.
4. In the case of web monitoring, connect Current Cost NetSmart through a special cord to the display receiver and to your home router / switch on eth. DHCP must be configured and active on your local network because NetSmart receives the IP and gateway settings from it.
5. In the case of monitoring on a PC, connect a special USB cable display receiver to a PC. Attention! Simultaneous connection to eth and PC is impossible!

Further only for those interested: where to order and how to deliver

As I wrote earlier in Q & A , these devices for home use in Russia are almost impossible to buy. Therefore, I found the product closest in parameters to the Russian power grids and with relatively tolerable cost in the British Amazon (this device was not found in the USA). I purchased the Current Cost EnviR Black - The Smart-R Monitor for £ 48.60 and the Current Cost “Bridge” Device for £ 29.95 for online monitoring.

The next problem is delivery. The fact is that Amazon does not deliver this type of product to Russia and had to use the services of intermediaries to deliver goods from the UK. After reading the reviews and disappointed with a poor choice, I used the services of EbayToday , which bought a product for me for a small commission (£ 8.55) and delivered to Russia for £ 15.95 (+ £ 6.95 took Amazon + insurance at will £ 2.50). Total costs amounted to £ 112.5. The transfer of funds was easier and quicker from the balance of the mobile phone, which in turn was replenished from the bank card. The commission for the transfer from me did not take. Delivery to my city was 18 days, of which 9 days from the UK to Moscow and 9 days in Moscow at customs, sorting and to my city by Russian Post (~ 600 km). Additional payments upon receipt was not required. As a result, I received approximately such a box (I apologize for the image quality, but at that time nothing was left except the cellular one):


And the final problem was in the selection of a Euro-adapter for connecting two power supply units on 3.3v and 5v for the display and NetSmart, respectively (the radio transmitter operates on two D-type batteries on 1.5v). The fact is that most Euro-Adapters on sale are not suitable. I purchased an adapter EURO-2 for 30p apiece at a local radio store.

PS Of course, one cannot call this device quite cheap, but it quite clearly demonstrates the possibilities of monitoring energy consumption and having studied the principle of its operation, it is quite possible to develop one’s own analogue, thanks to current transformer terminals on the same Amazon in large quantities and in different versions. Interested in the development of analogue - welcome to Q & A and personal mail.

PPS If you need more photos, technical data, etc. - write, add to the review.

UPD 2013: Developed a domestic counterpart for monitoring electricity consumption: WebMeteoBox .

UPD 2015: Due to frequent problems (http 503) on Current Cost and Pachube servers, owners of Current Cost EnviR devices can use the domestic service narodmon.ru . On matters of transition, write in a personal (share experience) or admins of this service.