Any way to automate meter reading?

JackSnap

Does anyone know of a way to automate, either gas or electricity readings,
i would like daily if possible,and to be able to get them onto my computer to do some analysis.
I have a pretty old meters, so i understand i cant interface to them directly, but is there any other kind of device that will emable me to do this, and how does it work,

electricity is more of a priority for me, but gas would be great to if one exists.

Many thanks
Jason

Plasticman

Depends if you want to monitor meter readings or electricity usage. If you have old meters then I can't think of any way to automate a reading.

If you want to moniror usage, then this may help:

http://www.ryness.co.uk/pdfs/owl.pdf

or there are probably similar devices that will give you usage per day figures. Have a google!

JackSnap

yes, i saw that usage monitor, looks good, but still wont solve my problem of logging it to a computer. i read the instructions and it doesnt look like there is any kind of interface.

cheers anyway

Plasticman

Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/overview.html

That is a US version, but it may be worth contacting them through the website and asking if they do a UK version.................

Plasticman

Here's one that's 'coming soon':

http://www.eco-eye.com/content/view/15/36/

owain.davies

This technology is available in smart meters, currently on trial with several of the big power companies (EDF Energy and E.On notably) with a view to being rolled out from next year. The government has mandated that all customers will get these, but the end date isn't set yet, but if you wait a couple of years, you should be getting all this for free!

Your only real alternatives are to pay a lot of money for some monitoring kit, or if you're a business, and have a high enough usage, you can go on half hourly metering.

JackSnap

cheers guys,

the eco-eye looks like the one im going to go for, even though it looks like i have to wait for the pc side until end of sept.
just got to watch i dont spend more money than im going to save. i get a bit geeky over these things and its easy to spend quite a lot. Pleased to see these devices just clip over a cable to detect the usage, it suprises me that method is accurate.

i gotta work out why my latest bill is £300 qtr, im not in all day, its getting crazy.!

mech_2

The eco-eye seems to use an optical sensor, which is interesting, but it's still designed for an electricity meter.

I want something for the gas meter. I built my own system, but it's bulky and prone to occasional false reads.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Smart meters are a bit of a ploy in my opinion. Because we import and export so much power these days it's all market price driven. That means it costs more to import power during certain times - say between 7am - 9am than it does between 5am - 7am. Here's the ploy. A traditional meter cannot say you used more power at a peak time so we'll charge you more, but a smart meter can.

And the evidence? PG&E over in California are ALREADY giving different tariffs depending on the time of day to their customers. Smart meters serve the industry, not the consumer, and you can bet your life we'll pay more for our electricity but people won't challenge it because it will be done under the banner of 'incentives' to use less rather than the stick if you use more. Plus the age-old 'save the environment, we're helping you all' argument.

Smart meter supporters have been warned!

Plasticman

CitySlicker wrote: »

PG&E over in California are ALREADY giving different tariffs depending on the time of day to their customers.

Nothing new about that though, we've have economy 7 etc for years???

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Plasticman wrote: »

Nothing new about that though, we've have economy 7 etc for years???

But we've never had hourly variations before, this is a dangerous slippery slope to go down. Remember E7 was introduced when storage heaters were popular and a way of helping those who couldn't have an alternative way of generating heat. Smart metering will be a way to penalise your usage further if it doesn't meet the supply curves the distributors would prefer.