Appliance level energy data capture

[Iain Woolley]

Hi all

What is the go-to equipment for capturing appliance-level energy consumption data? I've been assuming that there's some off-the-shelf kit such as a data logging hub and wireless monitoring plugs that enables the capture of voltage and current measurements at a reasonable (1Hz) rate. Ideally also with a wireless current clamp to capture whole-house energy consumption simultaneously from the meter. But my internet searching has not yet identified such a kit. Does it exist?

Many thanks, Iain

[Ahmed Sagarwala]

I've had to use a Kill-A-Watt meter in the past. It's doesn't integrate with anything else so I don't know of a all-in-one package for this sort of thing.
http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html

[Iain Woolley]

I guess I was looking for something like this, that either had data logger capability or wireless comms built in.

Any other suggestions?

[Jack Kelly]

You could also look at the Plugwise system.  Or the EDF EcoManager.  Or the Current Cost system.  Or the Open Energy Monitor system (does it have IAMs?  not sure?).  There are others, I think.

Or take a look at these dataset papers for a description of how they built their recording system (this list isn't exhaustive):

• REDD 
• Tracebase 
• iAWE 
• AMPds 
• my UK-DALE paper (we reverse engineered the Current Cost and EcoManager protocols and built our own base station using an Arduino).  
• There are quite a few other dataset papers around but I don't remember off-hand which papers describe the recording system (sorry, authors of those papers!)
  

One of these days we'll get round to starting a disaggregation wiki where we can store this sort of information :)

Good luck!

Thanks,

Jack

[Iain Woolley]

Thanks for the links Jack. Here's some info for the wiki:

REDD - Used hardware from Enmetric in the US (https://www.enmetric.com/platform#Hardware)

Tracebase - Used hardware from Plugwise in the Netherlands (https://www.plugwise.com/products/home-stretch-start)

iAWE - Used hardware from IBM in the US (http://www-07.ibm.com/in/research/documents/a30-ganu.pdf)

AMPds - Used hardware from DENT Instruments in the US (http://www.dentinstruments.com/power-meter)

Neither the Current Cost nor EcoManager systems enable easy access to logged data, so the Plugwise system seems to be worth investigating further. I had been looking at HomeMatic hardware from eQ-3 in Germany, but I suspect the polling rate is too low.

[Grant Fisher]

Iain,

We have deployed over 1000 eGauges for our (Pecan Street) disag collection. They log minute level data up to a year.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an email (gfi...@pecanstreet.org).

Thanks,

Grant

[Grant Fisher]

I will also add that there are methods we have used to collect 1 second data from the eGauges as well.

Thanks,

Grant

[Iain Woolley]

Thanks Grant, but the eGauge (https://www.egauge.net/products/EG3000/) is more of a permanent installation option than I'm looking for. For ease of installation I'm looking for a device I can sandwich between the wall socket and the appliance plug.

[Iain Woolley]

A quick update: I'm testing some HomeMatic kit from eQ3 (http://www.eq-3.de/) in Germany. They make a plug monitors (€50, http://www.eq-3.de/produkt-detail-aktoren/items/homematic-funk-schaltaktor-1-fach-zwischenstecker.317.html) and a gateway (€100, http://www.eq-3.de/produkt-detail-zentralen-und-gateways/items/homematic-zentrale-ccu-2.html) which has a web interface. I've been able to get voltage, current, phase and power readings from the plugs on a 5 second interval, and I'm just trying to understand how to get those readings from the gateway in CSV format. But it is all off-the-shelf kit, and it looks promising as a method for collecting energy data.

[Nigel Goddard]

Hi Iain, please let us know how you get on with getting data out of the gateway - I'd be interested to know if we can read data out with a Raspberry Pi.

[Iain Woolley]

So I believe I've got to a workable solution. I was hoping that I wouldn't need another bit of hardware, but unfortunately the gateway isn't quite flexible enough. So I've added a PC to the system in order to run CCU-Historian software (http://www.ccu-historian.de/), which connects to the gateway and logs the 5-second data to a SQL database. The PC can be a SBC such as a Raspberry Pi, or a NAS, or the Historian software can also run in a container, which means you could run it on the cloud and have it grab data so long as the gateway has internet connectivity.

I've run a couple of trials, capturing data from a fridge and washing machine, which I've attached to this post. I need to stress the system a bit more to find out where the limits are. At the moment I've just got 2 plug monitors, but I'd be keen to see if I can up the sampling rate to 1 second. I think the constrain-ing factor is the duty cycle of the wireless link, but I've no idea how close to the limit I am.

[Nigel Goddard]

Iain, where did you get the kit from - direct from eQ-3 in Germany?

[Nigel Goddard]

I just got this from eq-3:

1. How many sensors can a single CCU2 gateway (HM-Cen-O-TW-xx-2) support?

Answer: The CCU2 unit supports up to 400 channels (of radio-components). The number of components is pending to the number of the active channels of the component. For example the 10-channel  Display-Transmitter will stress the CCU2 unit fewer as a Thermostat-Valve with 6 channels, because the Thermostat-Valve will be work continuously; the Display-Transmitter work only after operation by the user.

2. If we want to have say 15 of the radio adapter plugs (HM-ES PMSw1-Pl-DN-R3), can the CCU support all of them reporting ever 5 seconds (so 3 per second)?

Answer: No. This will overload the CCU2 central.

3. If we add a LAN gateway (HM-LGW-O-TW-W-EU), does that increase the number of sensors / radi adapter plugs that can be supported in a dwelling?

Answer: No. The LAN gateway extended only the radio range of the CCU2 central.

[Jack Kelly (aka Daniel)]

Also, to add to our list of interesting hardware, I just stumbled across this very interesting (cheap, accurate and small) appliance power monitor, developed at the EE & CS department at University of Michigan: PowerBlade.

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[Iain Woolley]

I bought from eHomeDepot.de . Very good service, arrived quickly, and answered my email queries.

[Nigel Goddard]

For the life of me I cannot find any trace of "ehomedepot.de" in Google - can you provde a link or email address?  Also, do you have any idea how many appliances could be monitored simultaneously?  I can't get a straight answer out of eq-3.

[Iain Woolley]

Apologies: eHomePortal.de

Short answer is that I don't know how many appliances you can monitor simultaneously. My objective is 5 appliances per household, so I intend to get another 3 plugs and experiment further.