Energy Management with Homeseer

Steve Q · #1 November 4th, 2009, 06:20 PM

For the past 2 years I have been using Homeseer to track the amount of propane I used to heat my house. Last season (2008) I was able to reduce my Propane usage by 15% (See thread: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...552#post865552).

This year I have expanded my Homeseer energy tracking and management system to include my total electricity usage. I have done this in concert with my power company (Midwest Energy) and I am now (Since mid August) participating in a new “Time of Use” billing program. The program offers electricity at a lower rate during non-peak hours and a higher rate during the peak hours of 3-7 PM. The peak rate ($0.16 /KWhr) is 4 times the non peak rate. The power company has installed “smart meters” which provide hourly power consumption data. They have also implemented an on-line website that provides monthly, daily and hourly power consumption data to its users. Below is a sample graph of my hourly power usage on 10/27. (The solar and wind data are hypothetical examples of alternative power sources)

[See attachment 1]

During the spring and summer I have added monitors to all my major appliances including my electric heat. The monitors are a combination of DS10A/ CR3110A wireless current sensors (post: http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=42), 1-wire DS2405/CR3110A current sensors (Michael McSharry design), and 1-wire DS2438/CR3110A Power Monitors (post: http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...1&postcount=20). Homeseer collects the ON/OFF data (time ON and time OFF) from each of the appliances and stores the data in file.

In addition to the individual appliance monitors I have also installed DS2438/CR3110A Power Monitors on my main Power feeds (Leg A and B) and on several individual household circuits. I was originally going to use the Kill-A-Watt and/or TED for this purpose but I elected to go with my own circuit design because I had already created the necessary scripts for data collection. As I began collecting data from the main feeds I quickly realized that household power usage is very dynamic and things like the cycling of the heater in the coffee pot, water heater, and electric clothes dryer caused a lot of short duration power usage peaks. Therefore I added xapmcsdatabase to collect data at 15 second intervals. Below is a graph created by Excel (using the data collected by xapmcsdatabase) which shows the dynamic nature of household power consumption.

[See attachment 2]

Nevertheless, I decided to see how well my appliance usage data would compare to my power company data. So about once a week, I consolidate and analyze the data using an automated Excel Spreadsheet I created. Below is the data for October 2009.

[See attachment 3]

Below is a graph comparing my data to the data from my power company. As shown the correlation between my data and the power company data is pretty good!

[See attachment 4]

Having validated my data collection and analysis, I am now using Homeseer to help me better manage my peak power usage between 3 and 7PM. I have set up Homeseer events to:

• Turn off appliances from 3 to 7 PM (Lights, Electric heat, AC, furnace fan, etc)
• Speak a reminder to delay power usage until after 7 PM whenever the main power monitor B exceeds 25
• Create daily power usage graphs and display them on my iTouch so I can see my power usage profile
• Continue to compare daily power usage data to the power company data

Using this approach, I hope to be able to cut my electric bill by about 10%.

If anyone has any additional ideas on how to use Homeseer to better manage power consumption (conserve energy) please post them here.

Steve Q

RAM · #2 November 4th, 2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Q

Using this approach, I hope to be able to cut my electric bill by about 10%.

If anyone has any additional ideas on how to use Homeseer to better manage power consumption (conserve energy) please post them here.

Steve Q

Looks like you need fewer/more energy efficient computers......

sdanks · #3 November 5th, 2009, 12:07 AM

Might be more expensive, but have you considered using some type of a rechargeable system that would go to battery during the 3pm - 7 pm time? some of your higher energy users might be able to charge when electricity is 1/4 the cost of the higher usage time.

My electric meter is one of those with the round glass around it, and then the whole thing is put into a rectangle box with a window in it. Looks like it hasnt been open for decades. Spider webs are around the inside glass area. I would like to monitor mine as well and was thinking of a optocoupler to pickup the dark area on the spinning wheel that comes around once each revolution. i think is it 1/100th of a kilowatt. Good graphs. Looks like you are on the right track. Let us know how it is going.

Steve Q · #4 November 5th, 2009, 12:23 AM

Dick, The computer category also includes all the background stuff associated with my home automation system. The X10 modules each use about 5 watts; I have about 30 of them. But a more energy efficient computer would certainly help! If I were starting all over, I would certainly go with a Hometroller.

Steve Q

Steve Q · #5 November 5th, 2009, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdanks

Might be more expensive, but have you considered using some type of a rechargeable system that would go to battery during the 3pm - 7 pm time? some of your higher energy users might be able to charge when electricity is 1/4 the cost of the higher usage time.

My electric meter is one of those with the round glass around it, and then the whole thing is put into a rectangle box with a window in it. Looks like it hasnt been open for decades. Spider webs are around the inside glass area. I would like to monitor mine as well and was thinking of a optocoupler to pickup the dark area on the spinning wheel that comes around once each revolution. i think is it 1/100th of a kilowatt. Good graphs. Looks like you are on the right track. Let us know how it is going.

A solar panel is on my wish list. I plan to run all my 12V stuff from the panel. I wonder how long my computer would run from the UPS? Good Idea; Thanks

I think there is a post on cocoontech.com that gives a complete guide how to build a pulse counter that you can connect to your electric meter.

Steve Q

sdanks · #6 November 5th, 2009, 01:08 AM

what if you used a deep cycle marine boat battery and an inverter, and then charge it back up the other 20 hours of the day?, or maybe use the 12v battery and power the computer from that? maybe it could charge all day, and then work for 4 hours by spinning down unused hard drives and monitors and slowing fans and hum...sounds like an interesting project. I mean, the power supplies really just produce 12v and 5 v (an maybe neg 12v). I wonder?. . .

You have intrigued me. I just found out I use an average of 1558 kwh per month at about 0.0652 per kwh plus all the franchise fees, city taxes, and county taxes, minus some credit per kwh used right now. Hard to figure. Turns out to be about $90 a month with the little we used for A/C during this last month.

HiTech · #7 November 5th, 2009, 03:42 AM

I just switched to an ATOM based HP Netbook about a month ago. I love it!

Using my Kill-A-Watt, I compared power usage on the Netbook to the old PC. The old HomeSeer PC and 1 monitor running 24/7 cost $149.00/year, the Netbook only $12.01/year. That is an $11.00/month savings and I was actually using two CRT monitors with HomeSeer before. Granted the monitors were sleeping or off most of the time before, but I'm looking forward to some great savings in that area.

Compare the cost of the Netbook ($300); it will pay for itself in just over 2 years. I believe I had about $700 in the old PC.

The Netbook is running HomeSeer, WeatherLink and WinAmp without a problem. It does everything the HS PC was doing and a little more. With the clean build I did this time, it has been doing a great job so far.

In these bad economic times... every $ counts.

Oh, and the battery in the Netbook may get you through the 4 hour peak time too.

Rick

Steve Q · #8 November 5th, 2009, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdanks

what if you used a deep cycle marine boat battery and an inverter, and then charge it back up the other 20 hours of the day?, or maybe use the 12v battery and power the computer from that? maybe it could charge all day, and then work for 4 hours by spinning down unused hard drives and monitors and slowing fans and hum...sounds like an interesting project. I mean, the power supplies really just produce 12v and 5 v (an maybe neg 12v). I wonder?. . .

You have intrigued me. I just found out I use an average of 1558 kwh per month at about 0.0652 per kwh plus all the franchise fees, city taxes, and county taxes, minus some credit per kwh used right now. Hard to figure. Turns out to be about $90 a month with the little we used for A/C during this last month.

I have thought about this approach; I already have the deep cycle marine battery. But I think I will wait until I get the solar panel. That way the solar panel can charge the battery and I can run the computer from the inverter for 4 hours ...... excellent suggestion!

Steve Q

Steve Q · #9 November 5th, 2009, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiTech

I just switched to an ATOM based HP Netbook about a month ago. I love it!

Using my Kill-A-Watt, I compared power usage on the Netbook to the old PC. The old HomeSeer PC and 1 monitor running 24/7 cost $149.00/year, the Netbook only $12.01/year. That is an $11.00/month savings and I was actually using two CRT monitors with HomeSeer before. Granted the monitors were sleeping or off most of the time before, but I'm looking forward to some great savings in that area.

Compare the cost of the Netbook ($300); it will pay for itself in just over 2 years. I believe I had about $700 in the old PC.

The Netbook is running HomeSeer, WeatherLink and WinAmp without a problem. It does everything the HS PC was doing and a little more. With the clean build I did this time, it has been doing a great job so far.

In these bad economic times... every $ counts.

Oh, and the battery in the Netbook may get you through the 4 hour peak time too.

Rick

Rick,

I actually have a netbook on order! Acer Aspire 1... I cashed in some frequent flyer miles to get it! I planned to use it as an additional Homeseer interface/controller, but your suggestion is excellent and clearly I will have to give more thought to how I could use it during peak power times. I wonder if it would make sense to have 2 computers running Homeseer; a primary computer for the majority of the day and a secondary netbook to run the house during peak power cost times and wake up the primary computer when necessary?? This is an interesting approach! Is anyone shutting down Homeseer (or putting the computer to sleep) during part of the day in order to conserve energy?

Steve Q

sdanks · #10 November 5th, 2009, 01:47 PM

Thinking more along the lines of using a 12 volt battery, I found this power supply to run one of the VIA style computers. It is made for a car and has jumpers to automatically shut down the computer if the ignition is turned off after a predetermined time. That might be something you could use to trugger a shut down if the battery goes too low or use it to send a message that the computer battery is just about empty. Lots of possibilities. Then you could use your solar panels to recharge the battery. I am thinking about this since this power supply is only listed at $79.

http://www.mini-box.com/M1-ATX-90w-I...C-Power-Supply

Let me know what you think. . .

Steve Q · #11 November 6th, 2009, 01:29 PM

The power supply looks interesting. Could it be hooked up in parallel with an existing power supply (powered by 120V) and somehow switched ON before the 120 supply is switched OFF? I would want to keep Homeseer UP at all times?

I got my Netbook computer yesterday and I am impressed! It looks like it could easily run Homeseer during peak power times. I have to give some serious thought to how I might use it along side my main Homeseer computer.

Steve Q