How to monitor home power consumption???

M

Mad Machinist

[H]ard|Gawd
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I am a machinist ...so forgive me if this is a little basic...I need a way to monitor current draw off my home electrical service and store it in graph format....or some other easily readable output on one of the many computers I have running and folding here at home. I want to collect data for at least 6 months......

need the information for sizing a planned combined home solar, fuel cell, invertoer system.
Test system will just run my computers and such.

thanks in advance......

 
Hey MM, I guess you started out with the Kill-A-Watt? But no way to collect info.

I just bought one like a week ago and used it around the house... my portable vac is the most watt-consuming device (600+)

I fold @ work, let them take the $ hit. When I fold @ home, my watt usage goes 100+ per machine.

Give this gizmo a look... http://cableorganizer.com/electricity-power-meter/


The Watts up? PRO model includes a data logger (memory storage), a USB cable, and the ability to quickly download up to 1000 data points to a PC. The software includes a Data Table, Chart / Graph Analysis, and Payback Analysis - to calculate the time required for a new energy efficient appliance to pay for itself. The data can be exported to spreadsheet programs for further analysis.

The Watts up? PRO ES can hold over 13,000 records in memory. This enables sophisticated data collection projects to be accomplished with ease at a high level of resolution. The PRO ES model Data transfer speed is increased 4 times, to a baud rate of 34,800. Made in Colorado, USA. UL Listed Standard 3111-1.
 
Thanks for the suggestion........but what I'm really looking for I guess would be an amp meter of some kind that I could wire to the panel that would log total use throughout the day......trying to get a feel if two 5000 watt inverters would run my house to include AC refrigerator washer dryer and all the computers and such.......my power bill is between 2400 and 3400 kwh monthly, Total Electric home. Guess I may install a second panel and keep all the appliances on the grid......and run lights and computers and tv's and suck on the inverter system.

 
Is there anyway to determine it from your electric bill?

I have seen what you are looking for at where I work. We have a console that tells us the demand and other information of our 3,000 AMP panel. If there was something like that on the small home scale, it would be nice.
 
Mad Machinist said:
need the information for sizing a planned combined home solar, fuel cell, invertor system.
Click to expand...

You should ask this on a forum for alternate home energy systems - they'll be more knowledgeable.

You shouldn't be looking at just swapping out your power source - that will be expensive. You'll have to reduce the power consumption to get an affordable solar PV solution. Lights should go to fluorescent (compact or T8), TV and computer should be LCD (definitely not plasma), clothes washer a front loader etc. Forget about electric space and water heating - there's no way you can heat with solar PV in anything like a cost effective manner. You could use a solar water heating panel to cut water heating costs and use passive/active solar heating for the home, but the latter is not usually practical for a refit and is usually only practical for new design/construction.

If you want to measure the entire home's consumption on a continuous basis, you're going to need some kind of power monitor patched into the panel where your power comes into the house. This does that but does not seem to record or provide a feed to a computer for analysis.

Contact your electrical utility to see if they have some kind of "smart meter" that will provide a digital feed of info for you to analyze with your computer. That will allow you to compare peak vs average demand, time of peak(s), etc.
 
Thanks, that looks like a good place to start.......might be able to hack it to record the output...:D
Not really trying to replace the power in my home ...just mitigate power bills and be able to build my farm back......I can get a 5000 watt/10,000 watt peak for around $400.00.

Since power in this area is subject to frequent outtages......I'm not trying to initially run the entire house....mainly lights TV and computers as well as the refrigerator, and maybe a window unit in the bedroom during the summer if it goes out then....Middle Georgia can get damn hot during the summer....In the winter heat really isn't an issue, I haven't turned on the heat yet this year.......what litle cold weather we have had was easily covered by my fireplace.:D While I'd like to run the Computers 24/7 initially it will just be a back up system. I just like to have detailed information before i begin any project.......;)

 
My mom lives in the Dominican Republic and has a 4500 Watt inverter connected to 6 marine (or gel) batteries. Gives her power all day for when the grid goes out.. which is like almost everyday.
 
Mad Machinist said:
I'm not trying to initially run the entire house....mainly lights TV and computers as well as the refrigerator, and maybe a window unit in the bedroom during the summer if it goes out then
Click to expand...

If your refrigerator is not a recent model, it can draw a lot of power. Check into the Enerstar ratings (or whatever they're called) and the actual power draw of yours versus what the newest models can do. Refrigerators have improved considerably in the last couple of decades with significant improvements in the last decade.

Running a frig and a window A/C off batteries will seriously drain your batteries. That's exactly the kind of drain that off-grid power has trouble with economically. In new home design for off-grid, the house has to be designed to minimize its A/C requirements through very high insulation and other cooling techniques. A ground-source heat pump can be a lot more economical in power than a window A/C, but very expensive to install (requires boring into the ground for heat exchange - really suited to new construction or major upgrades).

If you're on a farm, consider adding a wind generator to the mix. In some areas, a combination of wind + solar PV is cheaper and more reliable than PV alone. Where I live, for example, there's lots of sun in the summer and lots of wind in the winter. I don't know anything about Georgia's wind environment. Talk to an alternative energy consultant or check for alt energy websites on wind - some provide wind statistics for various areas. There might be wind info for your region on a NOAA or other government website (Energy dept?).
 
Cobalt2112 said:
My mom lives in the Dominican Republic and has a 4500 Watt inverter connected to 6 marine (or gel) batteries. Gives her power all day for when the grid goes out.. which is like almost everyday.
Click to expand...

Does she charge with solar....or off the grid....

FrankD4 said:
You could use a power monitoring meter such as the ones shown here: http://electroindustries.com/products_page.html I am using the Nexus 1250 f to monitor 115VAC 400Hz power usage for a project at work.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link....if I can get things working here at the house.....looking at applying for a grant to produce a commercially viable system here in GA I think there would be a huge market. As I am a skilled Machinist My goal is to combine solar with fuel cell technology as I can fabricate most of the system. I'm just in the research stage, trying to educate my self about what would be the most efficient use of available technologyand the relationship between photovoltaic cells batteries required to produce a given ammount of power during a 24 hour period.
 
It's powered off the grid. Solar panels are economically unachiable and would get stolen the very same night they are installed (really.. maybe the 3rd day)

She has everything except the room air conditioners wired to the inverter. Alternative energy in DR is roof mounted solar water heaters and car gas->propane conversions. There is lots of sun there, however only the very rich and secure can obtain solar.

Mad Machinist said:
Does she charge with solar....or off the grid....


Thanks for the link....if I can get things working here at the house.....looking at applying for a grant to produce a commercially viable system here in GA I think there would be a huge market. As I am a skilled Machinist My goal is to combine solar with fuel cell technology as I can fabricate most of the system. I'm just in the research stage, trying to educate my self about what would be the most efficient use of available technologyand the relationship between photovoltaic cells batteries required to produce a given ammount of power during a 24 hour period.
Click to expand...
 
Why don't you just go read the meter that's on the back of your house every day? You're basically asking for the same data the power company uses to bill you, and that's how they do it.
 
In order to do this, you'll need a logging device. I'm thinking the cheapest way to do this would be with a logging multimeter, but even these go for several hundred dollars. The price only goes up from there. If I were in your shoes, that's where I would start out.
 
Georgia is in the lowest bracket for wind speed in the nation. I live in middle Georgia too, wind could be used a lot, but there are very still periods as well.

Check with your local power company, I know our local EMC has this kind of logging technology. You may be able to get them to survey your house for a month.
 
the killawatt keeps a running total, i think that's your best bet if you're looking for something cost effective.

my APC UPS tells the current watts, volts, amp draw, etc... someone might have written software to poll it and log the data. or APC might even have software to do it... i know I can read the current volt/amp/watt from the software that came with it. just dont think it logs it.
 
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