Ways to use my lecky monitor

simonineaston

Hi folks, I have a Current Cost Classic, which I got off of SWEB I think. It's great and has been a really useful way to find out how much it costs to run stuff. But of course it only shows me my consumption real-time. I'd like to try using it with a computer as there is a tempting ethernet port in the back - can anyone tell me how to do this?

MeterMan

get an ethernet cable and plug it in.

Most computers only have one ethernet port, and most routers these days, if wired, use this port.

matelodave

THe connector on the CC monitor is for a serial interface and you need a special active serial/usb cable - you can get one from Current Cost (the special cable doesn't work with Windows 8 either as there are no drivers for it.)
You'll also need some software - I tried some but it's a PIA as you've either got to keep the computer on all the time or you have to connect it to the computer to download it.

Alternatively and for about the same cost you could get an EnergyHive bridge unit (don't bother with the CC bridge, it's rubbish).

The EnergyHive bridge plugs into your router and collects the data wirelessly from the Current Cost clamp unit (once every six seconds) and sends it to the EH server.

There is no physical connection to the CC unit, you can still see what's happening on the CC monitor and so far my EH bridge has been 100% reliable since I got it in August.

You can view your energy consumption in almost real time (six second delay), see hourly & daily graphs of your usage and if you ask them nicely they'll put a tab on the dashboard so you can download the data direct to Excel (I minute, hourly or daily intervals) - I download a file once a month which gives me my daily usage.

Have a look at my dashboard http://www.energyhive.com/dashboard/dave to see what it looks like.

I've also got a CC bridge which has to be connected to the CC monitor unit and it's unreliable, needing to be rebooted 3-4 times a week so nowhere near as good as the EH unit

leeruddecology

Really interesting to see your dashboard. Thanks for sharing it makes me want one!

It says you could save 140£ approx a year as it suggests you have things on standby? Do you think freezers and fridges are including within your baseline results?

Above aside I would be careful about keeping that in your post long term as if you got some dodgy people on here you could see when your on holiday or away from the property?

I do however think its a cool device.

matelodave

I agree I could possibly save £140 a year but it's accounted for by the fridge, freezer, sky-box, broadband router and a couple of other things that are on all the time.
We are also running a dehumidifier at the moment because the all electric heating system has a fault and is not running (hopefully it will be fixed later today and you'll see a big jump in our consumption when it comes back on).

I'm not too worried about someone being able to discover when we are not in by analysing my power consumption and then trying to marry it up with my name, e-mail address, location etc.
The average bloke walking down the street can guess if we are around by the presence or absence of our car or caravan or whether the curtains/lights are being used.

simonineaston

Very cool - that's even better than I imagined! :T
Thanks, Dave!

PowerCut_2

The CC monitor uses a modified USB cable with a Prolific chipset, to get the data from the monitor to PC based software. MAC software is currently non-existent. Note the Silicon Lab chipset CP2102 also works well with the ENVIR. Find a copy of the CC Homesmart or the Energeniaal software. Both of these applications run on Win 7 & 8 [Tested 7 32/64 8.1 64 bit]. Use the C2 Terminal program from CC to test the virtual port connection first, before running any application. There is no live data with HomeSmart only historical data.

Matelodave is quite correct with the findings of Energyhive. A great box that supports up to five transmitters [clamp or plugin]. And not just CC hardware!

matelodave

PowerCut wrote: »

There is no live data with HomeSmart only historical data.

QUOTE]


Just to clarify - as the EnergyHive bridge gets information direct from the clamp transmitter then this is not a constraint.


It is if you just want to download stuff directly from your Current Cost display unit.

simonineaston

Thanks Powercut - far too technical for me, I want a simple end-user solution like EnergyHive offers. :-)
I am that 'simple end-user'!
The box has been ordered.

matelodave

The heating is now fixed and my consumption has rocketed as expected.

PowerCut_2

The Energyhive box also supports Efergy hardware. The Efergy HUB is based on the EH box. Note you can only use one or the other hardware platforms, not both. When setting up the Energyhive box, recommended is you select all of the transmitters [max 5] in one go and speedily [there is a bug where you cannot go back to that page]. Of course the bug may have been fixed by now