how do you measure gas and water consumption?

[dBeau]

On this topic I'm wondering what resolution is good enough. It looks pretty easy to get 1gal/pulse and a little extra for .5 gal/pulse. Is that good enough? Seems so to me. If you had the .5 you should see toilet flushes, showers, dishwasher no problem. Do people put in two of these things, one on the hot water and one on the cold?

That would depend on your goal. If all you are trying to do is track and predict your water bill, the cost of 1 gallon or even 10 is pretty small. If you, are trying to catch a leak before it does much damage, I'd think 1/100 gallon would be good but 1/10 might do it too.

 

[Scott12v]

This has been mentioned before:
http://www.jerman.com/dljsjmeters.html
1 pulse/gallon

This is what i use hooked to my Elk and reading the data through Homeseer....works great.

I am also interested in a solution for monitoring gas usage.

 

[drvnbysound]

For home power monitoring, have you seen this product:

http://www.bluelineinnovations.com/default...n=1.274.285.388

It basically monitors your meter and after you program in your Kwh price, it will actually display how much you are spending, etc. While its not appliance specific, you can generally figure out how much your A/C and other major appliances add to your monthly cost as they turn on and increase the draw and price.

I have a friend who has one, and it has certainly made him more conscious of how much energy different appliances use.

EDIT: Smarthome is an authorized dealer: http://www.smarthome.com/9041/BLUEline-Pow...BLI25100/p.aspx

 

[Mr Spock]

I called Hays in Dallas. They are out of the water meter business as of 2008. Guess they need to update their web site.

Next I called DLJ. There are no options for a hall effect sensor nor for anything other than 1 pulse per gallon. However someone has homebrewed a hall effect sensor to the DLJ SJ75C water meter. I need to look this over some more before placing an order.

http://pond1.gladstonefamily.net:8080/water-meter.html

Regarding AC and gas measurements. It turns out San Diego Gas and Electric is in the process of upgrading all power and gas meters to smart meters. I'm scheduled to get them in 6 to 12 months. Their web site is very general, but they do look nice. After some digging around it appears they might be using either Zigbee or HomePlug, but I'm not sure. Calls to their Smart Meter project manager have so far gone unreturned.

http://www.sdge.com/smartmeter/

 

[Mr Spock]

I've looked at the Blueline meter. The problem is it's totaly proprietary and you can't really get the info into HomeSeer. I even asked them what frequency and protocal their sensor uses and they won't share any information.

 

[drvnbysound]

I've looked at the Blueline meter. The problem is it's totaly proprietary and you can't really get the info into HomeSeer. I even asked them what frequency and protocal their sensor uses and they won't share any information.

Ahh, I follow. Wasnt really thinking about that much.

Proprietary < Open Source / API

 

[Mr Spock]

...I've considered installing a new meter but I cant seem to find one that will give the kind of resolution that Ed is talking about. I'm more interested in drip/leak detection than actual consumption information so the resolution is important.

One issue I'm starting to realize is that most of these water meters have a minimum flow rate for measurement. This is especially true of the pulse output models. Basically, if your flow rate is below the minimum specified by the manufacturer you get no measured output. This means you could have a meter with 100 pulses per gallon, but if the minimum flow rate is 1/4 GPM (like the DLJ SJ75C) and your consumption is less than this (such as a small leak), you get no pulses.

EDIT: content.

 

[sic0048]

For AC readings, I would look at the offerings by Brultech. The new ECM-1240 looks awsome, especially for the price.

 

[sda]

Hays water meter

Pop the top off (chuck it in a vise and use a BF screwdriver across the flanges). It was slightly more than hand tight. The magnet (gray with white stripe) and dial indicators (red arrows) are press fit. To reconfigure, just put the magnet on a different dial. This was originally configured for 1p/10g (magnet was on the x1 dial). Its now configured for 1p/0.1 gal (magnet is now on the x0.01 dial). The diagram shows 1p/1g (magnet on the x0.1 dial). The black thing in the upper right is the pickup sensor. It screws into the acrylic top. Reassemble with the pickup over the magnet. The instructions for this particular meter imply the max is 40p/gal. That would be using a 4 pole magnet on the x.01 dial.

Maybe I'll have time to hook it up this year. A DLJ 1" might be good to submeter the sprinklers.

On the subject of leak detection, once you detect a possible leak just what do you plan on doing? A huge leak, like a busted washing machine hose, isn't going to appear any different on the meter - flow is flow. A drip, drip, drip leak could come from underground pipes, faucet, toilet, sprinklers, etc. Now I can see where you could record the data minute by minute then analyze it. A low level leak should have a consistent pattern of very low usage. You can do the same thing by looking at the flow indicator (the star on this meter, triangle on others, etc) on the meter. I think leak detection would best be done manually under known conditions. Shut off everything in the house and note what the meter reads, then check it again some time later. If it registered anything you've got a leak, somewhere, now go find it.

 

[nojstevens]

i've just got my first months electric bill after installing the TED (The Energy Detective) and linking this to Homeseer. Using the data in Homeseer we have been more effective at switching off lights and keeping our projected monthly cost down. I have reprogrammed some of my scenes to be shorter or use less lighting.

Our bill for February was $72

Our bill for January (prior to TED) was $325

Our average bill for the last 2 years has been $300 a month

TED has paid for itself in one month - I can not recommend it enough

Jon

 

[Mr Spock]

Hey SDA your lucky you got one of those Hays water meters before they quit selling them. Like I mentioned earlier, they are now out of that business.

Your modification does give me some ideas for the DLJ meter. I'm wondering if I can add my own hall effect sensor to pickup the impeller magnet's rotating field. If so I think that would give me 100 pulses per gallon. I'm going to call DLJ again and get more information.

Jon, how does TED interface to HS? Serial port? How does it's sensor read your meter?

 

[3tones]

Well, here's an update on my hall effect sensors. They aren't quite sensitive enough... BOO... The most sensitive one I got was 5mv/G (Allegra A1321LUA-T) and that wouldn't quite do it. I might try a "compass" sensor from digikey but they run around $10. They also have more sensitive magnetic sensors but the price goes up quick. I figure I might as well just get the Vernier MG-BTA for ~$60 and be done with it. Sure I could put in my own meters, but I also want to use the same principle to pickup my gas meter.

 

[Mr Spock]

For AC readings, I would look at the offerings by Brultech. The new ECM-1240 looks awesome, especially for the price.

Yes it does look awesome. But my needs are modest for AC power consumption. Air conditioners are not really needed in San Diego. I don't even need to measure the 2 phases individually. A pulse counter on the LED of my yet to be installed smart meter should do the job for me.

 

[moridin1138]

these two DIY projects for water usage may help

http://www.hekkers.net/domotica/HowToMonitorWaterUsage.aspx

http://www.edcheung.com/automa/water.htm

The guy at the first link has gone to great lengths to basically monitor everything in his house. Quite impressive.