Whole house Watt meter

strider3700 · 10-08-12, 11:32 PM

smart meters should read higher then the old meters for exactly the same usage. The old meters never overcame inertia on getting that disk spinning for short duration spikes when motors and the such start up. The new meters will record that. They are flat out more accurate.

I got my smart meter 10 months ago. My power usage is down 17.1% in the last 12 months from the previous year but my bill is only down 12%. Everyone got hit by increased fees and kwh costs at the same time that the meters came out and started screaming about them reading higher.

On my meter which should be identical to your's ecomodded (I'm in nanaimo we all get the same meters I believe) the flashing bars are in the left hand side under the 01 when the KWH used is displayed. I've never looked into how to read them to know what they mean though.

BC hydro is supposed to be getting the smart meters online "soon" I know one of the guys working in the GIS department working on the algorithms that figure out where to install the receiving component that will then send the data back to the servers. After that is in the data should be available online shortly after. My understanding is the data will only be sent a few times a day, probably 4. So you won't get anything near as cool as a real time monitor's info.

They are also supposed to be offering whole house monitors similar to this device in the near future. I asked and was told there will be a charge so no idea if it's better to buy one yourself or wait and get it from them.

Even though I currently read my meter manually daily I'm still seriously thinking about getting something to read the meter in real time. I don't want a standalone interface like the device you linked though. I want computer/internet tied similar to a TED. The only issue is my house has a sub panel that my computer room is powered from. TED may or may not work sending data that way. Their support said it depended on a lot of things but try and return the device if it didn't. The blueline device seems to have an addon to give me the same capability but I haven't dug through the website to figure out what is what and pricing.

<edit> I found the write up on amazon.com better then the web page for getting info. It looks promising although the windows only concerns me a bit. I'm assuming that's just for the setup/config of the wireless part. I'm also hoping the data can be dumped and isn't locked into their partner programs. $150 for both components is not bad pricing. more search to do though </edit>

10-08-12, 11:32 PM	#11
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	smart meters should read higher then the old meters for exactly the same usage. The old meters never overcame inertia on getting that disk spinning for short duration spikes when motors and the such start up. The new meters will record that. They are flat out more accurate. I got my smart meter 10 months ago. My power usage is down 17.1% in the last 12 months from the previous year but my bill is only down 12%. Everyone got hit by increased fees and kwh costs at the same time that the meters came out and started screaming about them reading higher. On my meter which should be identical to your's ecomodded (I'm in nanaimo we all get the same meters I believe) the flashing bars are in the left hand side under the 01 when the KWH used is displayed. I've never looked into how to read them to know what they mean though. BC hydro is supposed to be getting the smart meters online "soon" I know one of the guys working in the GIS department working on the algorithms that figure out where to install the receiving component that will then send the data back to the servers. After that is in the data should be available online shortly after. My understanding is the data will only be sent a few times a day, probably 4. So you won't get anything near as cool as a real time monitor's info. They are also supposed to be offering whole house monitors similar to this device in the near future. I asked and was told there will be a charge so no idea if it's better to buy one yourself or wait and get it from them. Even though I currently read my meter manually daily I'm still seriously thinking about getting something to read the meter in real time. I don't want a standalone interface like the device you linked though. I want computer/internet tied similar to a TED. The only issue is my house has a sub panel that my computer room is powered from. TED may or may not work sending data that way. Their support said it depended on a lot of things but try and return the device if it didn't. The blueline device seems to have an addon to give me the same capability but I haven't dug through the website to figure out what is what and pricing. <edit> I found the write up on amazon.com better then the web page for getting info. It looks promising although the windows only concerns me a bit. I'm assuming that's just for the setup/config of the wireless part. I'm also hoping the data can be dumped and isn't locked into their partner programs. $150 for both components is not bad pricing. more search to do though </edit> Last edited by strider3700; 10-08-12 at 11:44 PM.. Reason: found on amazon