Wireless energy monitor and computer

ronald208

I have a Wireless energy monitor from Eon and notice that it has a RJ45 socket on the base so is it possible to connect it to a computer and save the output into a spreadsheet so that I can have a graph of my electricity usage?
Ron

espresso

ronald208 wrote: »

I have a Wireless energy monitor from Eon and notice that it has a RJ45 socket on the base so is it possible to connect it to a computer and save the output into a spreadsheet so that I can have a graph of my electricity usage?
Ron

Time to test the knowledge of the many eon reps that have suddenly appeared on the forum!

:rolleyes:

filmnoir

http://www.currentcost.com/

Thats the one EON is providing by the look of it according to EON's website. They have a range of data cables for sale and the drvers and links to software. Its an RJ45 to USB with correct drivers so you could pick a cable up from any good high street store like MAPLIN. Most of the GUI software seems to save it in XML which can be pretty versatile for manipulation into other aplications.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi

E.ON have sent out a few different types of Energy Monitor recently, all slightly different.

Can you tell me the make and model?

I should then be able to tell you if it can transfer data straight onto a spreadsheet.

dave461_2

Current cost sell the cables on ebay for £9 posted, not tried one but looked into it a few months back.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Current-Cost-data-cable-USB_W0QQitemZ180293233916QQcmdZ

ronald208

Hi Brian @Eon there is no information on the meter but on the back of the booklet it says Current Cost Hardware version 1.7 Software version 34.07
Ron

Garz

Any place that sells leads other than ebay option?

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi ronald208,

I know you can transfer data straight on to your computer using the cables suggested by other posters and put it all on graphs and charts. The data it downloads is both historical and ongoing.

The data is automatically downloaded in as XML string, this is an unfriendly data format that requires certain applications to make it usable.

You can use an internet search engine and find lots of advice on what you need and how to use it, however I am unable to advise you as I have never used this myself.

The company that manufactures this monitor make the data cables but don’t provide the software. There are lots of websites out there that offer suggestions for software to use but I can’t verify the security of these.

In the future all of this data will be available to people with Smart Meters, but this is currently first generation technology and has not been fully developed yet.

Hope your successful, and let me know how you get on.

ronald208

Hi Brian

well I bought a cable and downloaded some software and there is a month of data stored in the monitor. The only problem is that the data is in 2 hour segments so it cannot tell me what time the fridge came on and for how long during the night for instance.

When the program is set up to record live data on the computer after about 4 minutes the program freezes and I no longer get live data. Also the program is prone to crashing and the only way to fix that is to reboot the computer.

I read the data from the monitor using a dos program and the same thing happens, after 4 minutes the data stops being sent so it is probably something to do with the monitor, at least then the computer does not crash.

There is a lot more work needed on this.
Ron

Garz

This technology is in its infancy, especially for domestic where nobody wants to or can afford to install such devices. It is however the way forward and perhaps some of these large energy providers can attract customers if they offer a decent monitor which you can track better when hooked up to a computer.. /hint (eon, bgas, npower etc)