aeon labs energy monitor

[brettow]

Thanks for the update, it does look promising.

I have one clamp around the NEUTRAL wire on the house side of my RCD breaker.....  This clamp monitors my total household consumption.

Is there a reason why you are using the Neutral? The Neutral has a link directly into earth to you will get some phantom power from any devices that are leaky to earth. (I'm a sparky by trade a long time back) As a suggestion I would clamp around the live active coming from the main house meter to the main switch as this is effectively what you are being charged for by the energy company.

I haven't managed to get the aeon clamps working at any type of level of accuracy to trust it at this point in time (see image). The clamp is reading 166 watts higher than the entire appliance which is slightly disturbing. Has anyone had this problem?

Im using my current cost device as a control as its close (however still not perfect) to what is being measured by a hand held clamp tong tester.

[brettow]

Finally got it working with some sensible readings after upgrading and settings from this thread.

There was also a problem with the USB plug on the board where it would not stay in so had to pull the HEM unit apart and hardwire from the transformer. It was a good idea at the time however going to have to undo the mess I have created to update firmware. 

Will see how it goes for the next few days before mucking around with any more settings.

Brett

[futzle]

Is there a reason why you are using the Neutral?

mrcashback explained why here.

[mrcashback]

Is there a reason why you are using the Neutral?

Yea, The Neutral from the RCD is the only wire I can physically get the clamp around that accounts for ALL my house usage that doesn't have the solar running through it... all other wires are too short and the clamps too big

As to the (in)accuracy.... it comes with the territory.... its assuming your voltage is fixed as you told it, and inferring the energy usage from that figure

[MrFusion]

Is there a reason why you are using the Neutral?

Yea, The Neutral from the RCD is the only wire I can physically get the clamp around that accounts for ALL my house usage that doesn't have the solar running through it... all other wires are too short and the clamps too big

As to the (in)accuracy.... it comes with the territory.... its assuming your voltage is fixed as you told it, and inferring the energy usage from that figure

Understand your physical constraints, and from your description I think you've got it right, but just be careful -- the ONLY time that the current going down the neutral wire is the same as the current going down the active is if you're measuring across a single phase.

If you have a three-phase system, and you're measuring past the point where the individual neutrals merge (ie, the "main" neutral), and there is current going down two or more phases, then you won't get an accurate read.  In fact, if you were to have three identical resistive loads, one on each phase, then you would have zero current flowing down the neutral!

The reason for this is that, in 3 phase systems, each phase is 120 degrees out from the other.  So, from the perspective of one phase, the other phases will be applying a negative voltage to the neutral bond point (with respect to neutral / "ground" voltage), and so some of the current goes 'back up' each of the neutrals of the other phases, rather than 'down' the main neutral.  The maximum current the main (or any) neutral will ever have to carry is the maximum that any single phase can supply whilst the other phases are not carrying any current.  The moment the other phases start carrying current they reduce the current that the main neutral has to carry.

This is why, in three-phase cabling, the neutral wire is the same cross section as the active wires.  It does not have to be three times the cross-section of the actives (ie the sum of the actives' cross sections), and this is why RCDs measure active & neutral where they do.

Maybe a picture would help - see attached...

[bucko]

I have been in contact with Aeom Labs about the HEM issues. Chris has sent me this info to help with setting parameters 101-103.

Please post your experiences after you guys use this info for us all to benefit. I am still trying to make use of it myself. I use the G2 2 clamp model.

I removed the section how to convert HEX,DEX, Binary so this file is small enough to DL here.

[AZEngineer]

I have been in contact with Aeom Labs about the HEM issues. Chris has sent me this info to help with setting parameters 101-103.

Please post your experiences after you guys use this info for us all to benefit. I am still trying to make use of it myself. I use the G2 2 clamp model.

I removed the section how to convert HEX,DEX, Binary so this file is small enough to DL here.

Bucko,

I was able to program my G2 using that document.  It is fairly simply 101,102,and 103 are all just data polling groups that are time based and controlled by 111,112, and 113 respectively.  I have a 2 clamp meter and set 101 to a 4 byte dec value to 770 which sends all of the wattage values for each clamp and the HEM wattage total all at the same time.  I then set 111 to a 4 byte dec value of 10 so it will send my 101 value every 10 seconds (10 seconds appears to be the lowest value possible, anything less and it locks up).  I then set the 102 variable to a 4 byte dec of 6145 to send all of the KWH signals at once.  I set 112 to 60 because I figure I don't need the KWH reporting nearly as fast as the actual power.  I then set 103 to 0 so the third group is not used, this eliminates any chance that the voltage is sent from the controller which can mistakenly replace the KWH value.  Someone now just needs to figure out how to accurately display all 4 input types since this meter is capable of reporting the voltage, current, power, and KWH but the default driver only uses KWH and Power.

Thank you very much for posting that document.

[tyAudronis]

I apologize if this has already been answered.  I read through, but I'm also a bit lost because I'm new to the whole LU code thing.  I'm an expert Javascript and PHP guy, so I get the structure.  Is there an o'reily book on this?  lol.  Ok... to my point:

I got this monitor because my house keeps getting power surges (that of course the power company denies).  Used the default settings for the device, and it monitors wattage just fine (only thing I changed was I decreased the poll time).  Now, for the stupid question:  Can it monitor incoming voltage using those inductive clamps?  If so... how do I turn on reporting for that variable?  Again... apologize for the stupid question.

[RichardTSchaefer]

The inductive clamps are designed to measure the current of the wire it wraps. It determines wattage by multiplying the current by a nominal voltage.

If you are worried about voltage sag you will need a device that directly reads voltage.

If you had a constant pure resistive load than you could monitor the change in current and deduce the change in voltage. But that is an inefficient way to measure voltage. You should really get a device designed for what you want.

[tyAudronis]

Crud... was afraid of that.  I can't find a z-wave (nor insteon) voltometer anywhere... any ideas?

[Smocom]

I have been in contact with Aeom Labs about the HEM issues. Chris has sent me this info to help with setting parameters 101-103.

Please post your experiences after you guys use this info for us all to benefit. I am still trying to make use of it myself. I use the G2 2 clamp model.

I removed the section how to convert HEX,DEX, Binary so this file is small enough to DL here.

Thanks to Bucko and AZEngineer for this information and explanation.  I was inspired enough to write an Excel tool that calculates 101-103 codes based on this information.  Then I tried uploading it here only to discover that we can't upload .xlsx files. 
So...  I offer it to the masses but you will need to email me through this board if you want a copy. I have attached a photo.

Disclaimer:
I have only tested the values I ended up using on my 2 phase system (101=770, 103=6152, 111=10, 113=60). I have also made a number of assumptions about other configurations that may or may not be accurate.  I would love to hear about other's success in trying different combinations of reporting data.
Cheers!

[HarryGilbert]

Actually Neutral wire monitor will only measure the differential load abs(L1 - L2)
If you use exactly the same current in L1 and L2 the neutral will not carry any current.

You can validate this ... Put one on L1, L2, and neutral ...
You will see that the neutral does NOT equal L1 + L2,   but it equals abs(L1 - L2).

Are we talking 240V AC here (I'm in the land of Aus)? I was of the understanding that the only difference between neutral and live wires for AC applications is the live wire is normaly switched.... My "neutral" and "live" wires seemed to be reading exactly the same as eachother.... But.... I could be wrong, and if So, what is L1 + L2 (I figure live 1 live 2, but whats the difference)??

For your use you should put one on L1 and L2 and  one of the inverter lines.
Production should be balanced. So it would be twice the power of the measured value.

My solar panels are East facing on one inverter and West facing on the other, so thier outputs are very very different, one cranks in the morning, the other in the afternoon, so unfortunatley they cannot be treated as equal production entities.

With this in mind, if I do need to meve the first clamp from the neutral wire, it will need to go to the Main incoming live wire at the power meter, as there is no room to get it around just the house use live wire without it going around the solar feed wires at the same time (the breakers for each are right next to eachother and all connect in together - any other live wires only go seperate circuits).

But given the AC, is this actualy neccessary

I am thinking of adding inverter with solar arrays and hope to be able to generate enought output.. It is bit expensive system.

[AZEngineer]

I have had some issues with my HEM v2 reporting correctly to Vera.  I find that every month or 2 one of the clamps or the main meter sum will stop responding but then I just configure the node again and it works for another month or so.  Besides that so far so good.

Smocom, the excel file looks like a good idea!

[n0ir]

I have read this entire thread several times and tried to get my head around the different settings, but I can?t seem to get it to work! :S

The HEM (gen 1) is installed properly and added to my Vera (I think), but the Watt measurement do not match the "dumb" IR sensor I compare against.

Could anyone share their settings? I live in Sweden (230V, 50Hz) and have the three clamps version.

[AgileHumor]

@Smocom Can you upload your spreadsheet as a Zip?

I need to limit the readings to only the whole house, and not show the 2 clamps (unless I'm missing key data).  How can I exclude the power clamps from the rerports?

Thanks!