Measuring real time gas consumption

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  • bruce_miranda
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2014
    • 2307

    #76
    I have the OEM version built at home and that does monitoring and solar diversion. To get that accurate it needed a DC input to run the circuit and an AC input to sense the direction and voltage.

    Comment

    • HenGus
      Automated Home Legend
      • May 2014
      • 1001

      #77
      Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
      The power connection for the electricity monitor is REALLY important. It means the device can measure voltage and phase angle as well as current, so you see real power (kw and kwh) rather than apparent power (VA) like you get with most other power meters.
      Thanks Paul. Out of interest, I have just looked at my consumer box and PV solar wiring. Everything is packed so tightly that I doubt that I could get access to the live wire even if I wanted to. The meter is outside so a clamp adjacent to the meter might be possible but connecting to the snapper box might be an issue. NorthQ's set up looks to be a little less complicated as indeed does Loop. That said, I appreciate that the appliance monitoring with Smappee and NorthQ is in a different league.

      Comment

      • DBMandrake
        Automated Home Legend
        • Sep 2014
        • 2361

        #78
        A further piece of info to report on loop - today was the change over day for switching to Bulb, so naturally I went into the Tariff option in Loop to update the Supplier and Tariff.

        And discovered annoyingly but perhaps not surprisingly that changing tariff retroactively changes all past usage data to be calculated using the new tariff. In other worse, all my previous usage figures when displayed in pounds are now totally incorrect, as well as my budget information.

        That is quite annoying as I now can't do cost comparisons between my before and after usage - at least without manual calculations from kWh. While you would want to make changes retroactive in the case where an incorrect tariff had previously been chosen, if the tariff change is genuine there should be an option to "freeze" past usage data using the old tariff so that the £ values of historical data remain correct.

        Another probable issue is that I think Loop do automatically update tariff changes from the suppliers (eg if the costs of a given tariff like a variable rate changes over time) however I suspect that once again, historical data will be calculated based on the current variable rate, not based on a snapshot of what it was at the time of the data you're looking at.

        So watch out for this.

        I don't plan to be switching tariff frequently by any means but it certainly could have been handled better by loop than simply assuming the current tariff rate for all historical data, especially when you have switched provider!
        Last edited by DBMandrake; 26 January 2017, 01:32 PM.

        Comment

        • HenGus
          Automated Home Legend
          • May 2014
          • 1001

          #79
          @DBMandrake

          Spend 99p on an app called Meters.

          Comment

          • DBMandrake
            Automated Home Legend
            • Sep 2014
            • 2361

            #80
            Originally posted by HenGus View Post
            @DBMandrake

            Spend 99p on an app called Meters.
            Looks like work to me.

            Why enter manual readings all the time when I have loop counting for me...

            Comment

            • Bazinga
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Feb 2015
              • 22

              #81
              Another vote for Meters, it's a great little app that does one thing well. It is extra work however, as noted above.

              Comment

              • bruce_miranda
                Automated Home Legend
                • Jul 2014
                • 2307

                #82
                Is Meters an Apple only app? I can't seem to find it on the Play Store. Any link?

                Comment

                • HenGus
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • May 2014
                  • 1001

                  #83
                  Originally posted by bruce_miranda View Post
                  Is Meters an Apple only app? I can't seem to find it on the Play Store. Any link?
                  I think that it is just IOS.

                  Comment

                  • bruce_miranda
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • Jul 2014
                    • 2307

                    #84
                    So finally I moved my Photon breadboard from Study Table to Gas Meter to see if I could count the revolutions on my ft3 meter. It worked surprisingly well. After two day my gas meter reading was spot on including the Red digit. But I have a question. I have assumed 1 revolution to be 1ft3 and so 10 revolutions would turn the single red digit one digit forward. This seems to work fine. But why 10? 10 in my head is a metric multiplier rather than anormal imperial one. Does anyone know what it should be and what do the commercially available monitors assume.

                    Since I used the Photon, I am able to directly update Domoticz and Emoncms and don't need to use and Router interface. Planning to add a temp and humidity sensor to the Photon too, to meter those stats in the meter box where my water mains comes in too.

                    Can someone point me at any water meter DIY solutions. My water meter is on the footpath, so can 'look' there. What other options do I have besides adding my own pulsed output water meter at my water mains.

                    Comment

                    • dty
                      Automated Home Ninja
                      • Aug 2016
                      • 489

                      #85
                      You could add it at the rising main.

                      Comment

                      • bruce_miranda
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Jul 2014
                        • 2307

                        #86
                        Originally posted by dty View Post
                        You could add it at the rising main.
                        I could be it does mean adding my own meter or flow meter right? Or is there a sort of clip on sensor that can measure flow rate?

                        Comment

                        • DBMandrake
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Sep 2014
                          • 2361

                          #87
                          Originally posted by bruce_miranda View Post
                          So finally I moved my Photon breadboard from Study Table to Gas Meter to see if I could count the revolutions on my ft3 meter. It worked surprisingly well. After two day my gas meter reading was spot on including the Red digit. But I have a question. I have assumed 1 revolution to be 1ft3 and so 10 revolutions would turn the single red digit one digit forward. This seems to work fine. But why 10? 10 in my head is a metric multiplier rather than anormal imperial one. Does anyone know what it should be and what do the commercially available monitors assume.
                          My meter has two red digits and a rotating dial. The rotating dial is 1 cubic foot per revolution, the last red digit counts cubic feet and the second to last counts ten cubic feet. It sounds like your meter is missing the last red digit and only has the 10 cubic foot one but the rotating dial will still be 1 cubic foot.

                          Gas readings normally only ask for the white digits - the smallest white digit is 100 cubic feet, and I think this is standard among imperial meters.

                          When I set up loop on mine although there may have been another option, when I told it there was a rotating dial and it was an imperial meter it assumed it was 1 cubic foot per revolution.

                          As for metric vs imperial multiplier - just because cubic feet is imperial doesn't mean we don't still use base 10 numbering when we write a number using digits!

                          Comment

                          • DBMandrake
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Sep 2014
                            • 2361

                            #88
                            Originally posted by bruce_miranda View Post
                            I could be it does mean adding my own meter or flow meter right? Or is there a sort of clip on sensor that can measure flow rate?
                            Clip on meter to measure gas flow ? I'd be interested to know what principle of operation it might use... I don't think house gas meters would use diaphragm meters if there was an easy way to clip a sensor onto a gas pipe with nothing inside.

                            Comment

                            • dty
                              Automated Home Ninja
                              • Aug 2016
                              • 489

                              #89
                              Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                              Clip on meter to measure gas flow ? I'd be interested to know what principle of operation it might use... I don't think house gas meters would use diaphragm meters if there was an easy way to clip a sensor onto a gas pipe with nothing inside.
                              I think we were talking about water at that point. But I'm not sure that invalidates your point!

                              Comment

                              • DBMandrake
                                Automated Home Legend
                                • Sep 2014
                                • 2361

                                #90
                                Originally posted by dty View Post
                                I think we were talking about water at that point. But I'm not sure that invalidates your point!
                                Ah - didn't quite catch that. Although as you say I'd be interested to know the principle of operation of measuring water flow through a metal pipe with a clip on sensor as well...

                                Comment

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