[turk]

Has anyone used an energy monitor similar to the Black and Decker unit that will work on the Landis and Gyr smartmeter?

 

[SlimDiesel]

The B&D compatibility guide is here. You don't say which model of L+G but from the look of it, both the E130 or E330 'Focus' models with the dual ports in the triangular port are in the 'no' category.

 

[turk]

Don't know model #

It is a Focus model possibly an ALF . Two ports in triangle one appears to be plugged. Is there anything that will work with this?

 

[classicsat]

I would look into getting one which installs inside your circuit panel. It will have pickups which snap over the incoming main leads, and a cable which connects to a two pole breaker. You will need to have an Electrician install it though, or at least is strongly recommended you do.

 

[38racing]

found the ecoMeter P250 on the landis +gyr site but haven't found a price or seller yet?

http://www.landisgyr.com/na/en/pub/about/news.cfm?news_ID=4188

 

[classicsat]

Given that it communicates with the secure radio on the meter, it would most likely be your power company which would provide that.

It is Zigbee only though. I don't think that the Trilliant system on Hydro One meters is compatible though, at least directly. A device called a "SecureMesh MAP" may work as a gateway between the Trilliant "SecureMesh" and Zigbee. Again, that is something the power company would provide.

Hydro One does supply a daily online chart.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

I sent an email to HydroOne in December asking if they had any plans to offer an in home display like the ecoMeter. No response. Perhaps I may be able to elicit a response through the Ontario Energy Board or the Ontario Power Authority. Sure, one could install their own meter at the panel like The Energy Detective or Efergy products, but why? There is a perfectly good meter on the side of your home already that you are paying for! Technically you should ask HydroOne to shut off your power before installing your own equipment, since the current clamps get connected upstream of your main breaker. Otherwise this can be a dangerous activity.

My old house in a HydroOne urban area had the TOU portal, but my current home in a rural area does not. In fact, HydroOne has admitted that 150,000 rural customers' meters are beyond the reach of the communication network they chose to use, and they have no clue of how to rectify this.

Even if the portal was working for me, the data is only available next day at best, so it's like driving by looking in the rearview mirror. The in home display has more potential to allow customers to understand, shift, and simply shut stuff off to control their costs because they can see the results in real time, instead of scratching their head when they get a bill or look at the portal to try and figure out what happened.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

I resent my inquiry to HydroOne. If I don't get a reply by the end of the week, I'll go through the OEB.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

Dear Mr. ___,

Thank you for your email.

We apologize if you did not received a response to your initial correspondence.

Please note that at this time power cost monitors are not compatible with Hydro One's smart meters. However, we are working closely with a number of vendors to support the development of an In Home Display that will work with all of our meters. When this device is available it will be communicated to you via our website and/or mailed correspondence.

So they are working on something, but don't hold your breath.

 

[Blue Line HQ]

Landis+Gyr Meters - Blue Line PowerCost Monitor

Hello, unfortunately there are no digital pulses being emitted form the Landis+Gyr FOCUS or ALF meters for the Blue Line PowerCost Monitor and the Black and Decker Power Monitor to trigger off of. It is unfortunate that this meter was chosen for so many customers; however the other 2/3 meters being deployed do indeed output the required pulse – the Elster R2s and iCon Sensus. In addition customers with a CENTRON model or older disk style meters can use the “on the meter solution.
We continue to work towards full compatibility, but this requires discussions and work with the manufacturers, often to change how their product is designed and operates.

 

[rpr]

It would seem that the only method for these units would be something like a TED, that clamps on the lines in the electrical panel. I am in the same boat, and have not pulled the trigger yet on a TED (or similar) device yet, but I do plan to at some point.

 

[17671]

it should not matter who the meter is made by, but instead who makes the wireless mesh radio inside of it for these devices to work.

 

[classicsat]

If it is one which integrates with a Smart Meter's wireless system, it would, and as said, being it is a secure radio, likely needs to come from the company which owns the meter on your home.

Devices such as the Blue Line or B&D do not inteface with that, rather they monitor KWh pulses, or the physical spinning disc in older meters, neither which the Landis+Gyr Focus and a few other smart meters have.

 

[Jake]

Installed my Blueline PowerMeter today. Optical port was on the front face. Very easy install. I had to reset the display unit. Some garbage readings I suspect were showing incorrect readings.

Quebec seems to have lots of power capacity but last winter they set some records if I recall. They are also active in encouraging people to try to reduce their usage during peak hours.

But yeah they did mention the network monitoring. Plus I see the pamphlets talk about reading to show if you are feeding back into the grid. This might have been a forward-thinking on HQs part with solar power generation starting to become increasingly more significant.

Wow $75.

 

[17671]

i just googled what is the blueline power meter? i have that already, it was given to me FREE from my local Hydro. There is a program called PeakSaver, when you enroll in it, they give u the blue line meter and receiver, as well as a smart thermostat which connects to the thermostat via smart meter mesh network (not wifi)

 

[Jake]

Yeah a few of us here picked them up at The Source a few years back. They are nice to give whole house instantaneous readings. They were quite expensive at regular price.

Other than a display unit throwing up a low battery message after just a few weeks it has been great. It has already alerted me on a few occasions that something was running that should not have been (garage lights) and I have a good idea when my pump and HW tank are running which are 240V.

 

[Jake]

I may have to revise my earlier statement. The readings are not consistent. Once it was reading 88kWh! Not sure why yet but I will try re-aligning the sensor. I emailed Blue Line but so far no response. On their website they mention that the Landis & Gyr Focus models are not compatible but digging deeper they mention specific variants are compatible. I have the Focus AXR-SD.

http://www.bluelineinnovations.com/my-meter-match

Edit: When I have an update I will post the info in the Blue Line thread mentioned by 57.

 

[Jake]

I seemed to have missed this thread the first go around. Any update from the posters? I have a Focus AXR-SD and according to the literature it does have an active IR port. Or maybe the utility can choose to enable it or not. My PowerCost Monitor is registering readings but they are inconsistent and there seems to be a long delay in reporting to the display unit.

I may merge my post here shortly.

Edit: Moved my posts here.

 

[Jake]

I did not receive any response from Blue Line so I called yesterday. I explained the issue to the girl and she suggested I change the power factor from 7.2 to 1. I already knew this would not work since my consumption was too low. But I did it anyway to prove a point. It is obvious they are not tech folk operating the support lines. So no that did not work. My own calculations found that the kWh was low by a factor of 5 or so. So for fun you could put the power factor to 36. But as you can imagine the instantaneous readings would be useless and the average readings approximate.

So I am back to the beginning. I may try moving the optical head (but it already looks perfectly positioned) or I may try moving the sensor over the moving line on the outside meter. But I suspect the cyclical nature of the meter display will render garbage readings. Also, I am not sure if the moving line changes speed with power consumption or it is fixed.

My conclusion right now is the IR output on the Focus operates in a manner that the sensor head cannot interpret properly. Say the sudden jump to higher power causes it to output too many pulses. If you think about it it is going from 0.3kWh to 20kWh in some cases. That is 67X pulses. Not sure if the sensor auto-adjusts but for power-conservation (batteries) you think it would.

 

[Jake]

Finally got my email response from Blue Line. They said the meter does not work as it does not output a pulse. However my meter obviously does output a pulse. Either that or I am picking up alien IR pulses.