Hi Folks,

This is pretty much targeted at UK people or anyone who has bought a
Wattson Energy monitor. (http://www.diykyoto.com/)

While the kit is a lovely thing, the software that came with it is
rubbish. I've taken it upon myself to write my own software. So far, I
have a pretty good version working. It totally replaces the Holmes
software.

I am kind of stuck though on getting at the data in the Holmes
database. Has anyone done anything with it? Anyone else written their
own software?

This might not be the best group but.....

Cheers,
Crispin
p.s.
If anyone wants the software, feel free to give me a shout.

On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 05:44:38 -0700 (PDT), Crispin wrote:

Hi Folks,

This is pretty much targeted at UK people or anyone who has bought a
Wattson Energy monitor. (http://www.diykyoto.com/)

Would you care to give an opinion on the wattson, I've been looking around
at the different devices, but seldom see anything about the wattson, I
guess due to the cost of it.

As far as I can see from reviews the efergy and owl are similar, the eco
eye could be interesting, but there seems to be no sight of the planned pc
link, which leaves me with my so far favourite of the "current cost"
device, which also claims to have a greater accuracy then the "first
generation" devices.

Steve

I am very happy with it...
It is by far more expensive than the others but as you said, the
other's do not have pc connection. That was my selling point.
I ended up getting it for £95 from nigel's eco store (No
affiliation

I have not compared what it says to the real value. My tong tester is
currently broken.

Two silly things are placement of the usb connector - you cannot stand
it upright when you have the usb connected. Petty but they sould have
thought about that.
Another is the internal battery could have been better. It runs out
rather quickly. This is not the end of the world as it normally sits
on the desk connected to USB. Which brigns me to the third point - it
will power itself off usb power but usb will not charge the internal
battery. Again, a silly limitation. My battery lasts about 3 hours
with everything on.

Silly and minor things but....

Overall, I am very happy.

Cheers,
Crispin

In article ,
Crispin writes:
I am very happy with it...
It is by far more expensive than the others but as you said, the
other's do not have pc connection. That was my selling point.
I ended up getting it for £95 from nigel's eco store (No
affiliation
I have not compared what it says to the real value. My tong tester is
currently broken.
Two silly things are placement of the usb connector - you cannot stand
it upright when you have the usb connected. Petty but they sould have
thought about that.
Another is the internal battery could have been better. It runs out
rather quickly. This is not the end of the world as it normally sits
on the desk connected to USB. Which brigns me to the third point - it
will power itself off usb power but usb will not charge the internal
battery. Again, a silly limitation. My battery lasts about 3 hours
with everything on.
Silly and minor things but....
Overall, I am very happy.

All these devices have the same limitation - they only measure
the current draw. In order to estimate the power consumption
(which is what you're interested in), they have to guess the
mains voltage and the power factor.

That's a significant difference from the power meters built in
to 13A plug/socket cases. These can measure the instantaeous
voltage and current, and accurately calculate power (and power
factor).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Crispin wrote:

I am very happy with it...

How flexible is the ability to enter energy cost? Can it cope
with E7?

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

On 9 Oct, 17:22, Chris J Dixon wrote:
Crispin wrote:
I am very happy with it...

How flexible is the ability to enter energy cost? Can it cope
with E7?

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon *Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

It will in the next week or so. On my list of things to do.

"Steve" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 05:44:38 -0700 (PDT), Crispin wrote:

Hi Folks,

This is pretty much targeted at UK people or anyone who has bought a
Wattson Energy monitor. (http://www.diykyoto.com/)

Would you care to give an opinion on the wattson, I've been looking around
at the different devices, but seldom see anything about the wattson, I
guess due to the cost of it.

As far as I can see from reviews the efergy and owl are similar, the eco
eye could be interesting, but there seems to be no sight of the planned pc
link, which leaves me with my so far favourite of the "current cost"
device, which also claims to have a greater accuracy then the "first
generation" devices.

Steve

The CurrentCost is great. You can buy a cable to connect it to a PC,
CurrentCost haven't released the software yet, but various hobbyists have
written and released software. The interface is simple, so the DIY route is
quite feasible, eg.
http://www.sgurr.co.uk/lundycam/ener...interface.html

In message , Andrew Gabriel
wrote

All these devices have the same limitation - they only measure
the current draw. In order to estimate the power consumption
(which is what you're interested in), they have to guess the
mains voltage and the power factor.

I have an OWL unit (around £40) and I bet my usage of it is fairly
typical.

Buy the device and spend 10 minutes reading the instructions and
installing it.

Spend another 10 minutes switching appliances on and off to see how the
readings change.

Spend the next 24hours thinking 'what the hell is using 15p of
electricity per hour' and ' I didn't realise that the tumble dryer was
as much as 50p hour' etc.

Spend another few hours installing more low energy light bulbs,
unplugging everything that doesn't need to be plugged in and installing
remote controlled mains switches to turn off the stack of audio/tv
equipment when not in use. Question why the battery charger for your
cordless drill runs so hot after the batteries have charged.

A few hours later the 'normal' consumption has dropped by 15/25%. (and
a month later the consumption is still at the same lower level)

Not once did I question the accuracy of the power measurement as I was
comparing the ratios between high and lower usage. It doesn't really
matter if the 10p per hour was actually 12p per hour. What matters is
reducing the consumption to 5/6p per hour.

After a week the novelty of the new toy wears off but I have installed
the readout were it can be easily seen and glance at it for perhaps 15
seconds each day to check that nothing is amiss.

These devices probably do more to educate the user about electricity
consumption in the first few days of ownership rather than on a long
term basis.

--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com