Blue Line Power Cost Monitor (Same as B&D)

[wprager]

Just got a pamphlet from Hydro Ottawa thanking me for participating int he Peak Saver program, and offering me a free "Energy Display". This looks the same as the unit as was presented here back in 2009:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/2009/10/po...e-electricity/

Should I go for it? Or will it make me cry looking at it?

[KenN]

If it were offered to me I'd grab it without a second thought. Although there are some limitations to the Blueline, it will still let you know where your big power draws are and with that you can make some decisions on how to change usage patterns.

[57]

wprager I've moved your post to this existing thread. Check out the earlier posts/comments. Both Jake and I have found it useful within its limitations.

[tseto]

Just pick up a Black &Decker power monitor from Canadian Tires Vancouver Kingsway &Nanaimo store's closing sale. Originally prices at $99.00, reduced to $49.95. and again to $24.95. At such a price, what the heck, so I pick one up. There was a half dozzen or so left, I though most people who goes there don't know what the heck it is. My hydro smart meter is an open way issue and had the optical port on top of the meter. Aligned the sensor's pick up unit with the optical port and the activity led begins to blink regularly. synchronized the meter sensor and the digital display unit and went in the house 60 feet away to program the time, date, and tier 1 and tier 2 tiered rate and the unit tells me what it cost me per hour every time I turn on an appliance. my billing cycle starts on the 16th of every two month, I will have to clear the accumulated cost on the 16th to see how close it matches my hydro bill.

[tseto]

Kingsway store is closing and only open Saturday from 9:30 to 4:00
to clear out products. I drove by the store every day to pick up my daughter, the open Saturday 9:30 to 4:00 is still on the Window. As of Last Saturday there were at least 6 or 7 of the B&K still on the table, should still some left on Saturday the 25th. Good luck!

[KenN]

Okay, I got it. For anyone interested, there are still a couple left so if the store is open next Saturday go for it.

[tseto]

As of Thursday the open Saturday 9 to 4 sign is still on Canadian Tire's front window. Like Ken said , there are still a few of the power monitors on the table. My eyes are on the cell phone hands free units but is still too high for a clearance price. maybe tomorrow it will be at an acceptable price.

[wprager]

Yesterday evening (just after supper) I noticed that the monitor was showing consumption of $0.94/hour. The only things on were some lights, the TV (LED), the PVR plus small standby appliances (couple of laptops, clock radios, cordless phones). The fridge was silent, the washer/dryer were not on, and neither was the dish washer. Our heating and hot water are gas-powered. Typical consumption during these quiet times is between 1-3 cents/hr.

I walked around the house turning off some of the standby devices (unplugged the laptops, powered down the desktop PC, unplugged the upstairs TV/STB). Nothing changed.

This morning, it's still at $0.94. I tried pulling the batteries out of the unit to reset it -- same thing. Can this device be malfunctioning or does this mean I have a huge short somewhere? Surely the circuit breaker would have tripped if I did? Short of going in the basement and flipping the circuit breakers one by one to see if any result in a drop of consumption, is there anything else I can do? I'm afraid if I call Ottawa Hydro I'll get the standard "call us M-F 9-5" message.

[Jake]

Look at your meter and take a manual reading over a minute or two. Then calc the kwh.

Switch your meter to display kw in case your ToD rates are messed up.

[57]

I tried pulling the batteries out of the unit to reset it

I don't believe taking the batteries out for a short time resets anything, however, it does forget the time which needs to be reprogrammed. As mentioned by Jake, press the $/kW button to switch to kW - it should then read around 0.2-1.0 kW when most items are off. Also make sure you haven't pressed the APPL button to monitor an appliance. If it's still displaying weirdly, press the prog/sync button on top of the unit to sync and check the programming of the unit to ensure you have the correct TOU rates, etc.

If you press the clear button, this will reset the totals for the month.

[wprager]

The numbers are all correct. The KW/hr is 14.5 with two TVs (LCD and LED), PVR, Wii, a few lights (family room, master bedroom, staircase) and assorted standby devices. Very strange. What the hell will it be when Monday 7AM hits (peak time).

If I had a short somewhere, though, surely that would trip a breaker, no? I think tonight before bed I'm going to try slipping some breakers to try and identify if there is a particular one.

[57]

The KW/hr is 14.5

That is a huge load. The only time I get numbers like that is when I have my washer, dryer and (electric) hot water heater all on at the same time. BTW, it's kWh/h or kW, not kW/hr. There's either something wrong with the reading/monitor, or you've got something in your home sucking a lot of electricity.

That amount of draw would cost over $1000/month in Ontario. 14.5 kW x 24 hr/day x 30 days x ~$0.14-0.15/kWh (all in pricing) = ~$1500

PS. you have your meter set to $0.065/kWh based on $0.94 and 14.5 kW. This seems to be about half of the all-in cost in Ontario for electricity. It may vary some for certain areas, however, if you look at your last bill and divide the $amount by the kWh, you'll probably see a number that's about twice that (all in). In order to programme TOU into the monitor, you need to do a rough estimate of the all-in cost for the on/mid/off peak times.

There's a list of all the other charges that go into the all-in bill in the following older post - the numbers may have changed slightly and may be different for your location, but you get the drift:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...04#post1251104

[Jake]

Did you take a manual reading? That would be faster and easier than testing all the breakers. I can pull 20kw but only with my electric furnace. That much power generates a LOT of heat. I suspect the unit is faulty. A short would trip the breaker.

[wprager]

I got the unit delivered and installed by Ottawa Hydro -- free for being in the PeakSaver program. So the settings for TOU were done for me.

I tried all the circuit breakers except for the three labeled "1st floor" -- there were separate ones for the kitchen plugs, range, dryer, so what was left of "1st floor" was not much. I was going to try the remaining ones before heading off to bed, but then noticed the monitor was showing $0.03. Right now it's at $0.02. Weird.

[57]

So the settings for TOU were done for me.

You may wish to go through the settings to see if appropriate numbers were put into the various tiers. If they put in $0.065 for off-peak, that covers roughly half your all-in cost. Also, you'll have to change these numbers come May and November when the prices change. The $0.02-$0.03 makes more sense since that would equate to about 0.3-0.4 kW (3-400 Watts) which is what I said in post 55.

Until you have the correct costs in the tiers, you'd probably be better off leaving it in the kW option - at least that would show you the correct number of Watts. What is the monitor showing for the estimated monthly cost? What was the monthly amount of your last few bills (which are usually for 2 months)? What is the monitor showing for estimated monthly kWh use - how does that compare to your monthly use in last few bills (usually for 2 months)?

Just as an FYI, I'm using roughly $0.12, $0.16 & $0.18 for off/mid/on peak rates. These are not exact, but they do give me a "close enough" number for my monthly use. I almost never look at the $, always preferring kW (instantaneous) or kWh (monthly estimate)