Re: Household electrical current to Excel ???

[MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Declan:

The Cutler-Hammer Advanced Power System  (now Eaton) was designed from the
ground up to do exactly what you want and do so within UL and National
Electrical Code (NEC) constraints.

http://www.eatonelectrical.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=C-H/Common/AssetTemplateLink&c=Apubarticles&cid=983558184807&Sec=products

Browse to the pdf for the Power Manager which comes/came in cebus, RS-232
and X10 versions.

Also search this newsgroup for "Cutler-Hammer". There have been numerous
discussions of the Cutler-Hammmer system over the past 5-6 years.

At one time www.worthingtondist.com distributed these systems to individual
homeowners. They may still. The system os still in the manufacturer's
catalog  although Cutler-Hammer is now Eaton.

There are some schematics on my web site below to DIY  power monitoring.

HTH ... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org




On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 15:34:23 GMT, nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston) wrote
in message  <43142915.5575962@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>Declan,
>
>I've not seen any commercial solutions although there are a lot of
>electrical meters (especially in Europe) that have the capability of
>reporting usage either wirelessly or via RS-232. Some commercial building
>owners have installed their own meters so they can charge tenants for
power,
>water, etc. Have you checked with your electrical utility?
>
>There are several DIY solutions that tend to take one of two possible
>approaches. One approach monitors the meter using IR to count the
rotations
>of the disc. Another uses specialized chips with current and voltage
sensors
>to make direct measurements several thousand times per second. Reactive
>loads cause current and voltage to be out of phase so you need a way to
>measure the true power rather than the apparent power.
>
>"Declan McEvoy" <ngacs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>Hi All,
>>
>>I want to be able to monitor electrical usage in the home in real time
and
>>to be able to see the effects of for example turning off the TV or
turning
>>on the water heating in graphical or numeric form.
>>
>>I looking for opinions on the best way(s) and product(s) for doing this.
>>
>>Presumably one would simply measure the electrical current drawn from the
>>consumer board and send this reading to the PC using some kind of data
>>acquisition board and software?
>>
>>I'm really not all that familiar with the products that are out there for
>>doing this and would appreciate any help / opinions.
>>
>>I trolled Deja News and so apologise if it has been aired before!
>>
>>
>>Declan.
>>